Quality teaching & professional learning: Uncritical reflections of a critical friend

Abstract

This paper discusses how the acquisition, development and exercise of knowledge and skills in relation to quality teaching (QT) practices have impacted upon professional learning within a number of QT inquiry projects. The emphasis is upon how the major challenges and limitations of professional learning have occurred within the social context of collaborative inquiry, and how these challenges and limitations helped shape the professional learning. The paper offers an interpretation of the methodologies and evaluative aspects of teacher professional learning as these have interacted with QT. From this perspective a metacognitive model of professional learning is proposed, aimed at linking QT evaluation to professional learning. This model incorporates qualitative and quantitative inquiry principles, for the purpose of framing a sustainable approach to professional learning that compliments individual differences in pedagogy as well as collaborative principles of action learning.