“There is a strong link between teacher’s professional skills and competences and the quality of children’s learning experiences. Ensuring the highest professional standards for all teachers in Scotland will help to ensure the highest standards and expectations for all children.”
National Improvement Framework: Teacher professionalism
Professional enquiry is a ‘finding out’ (Menter et al 2011) or an investigation with an approach that can be explained or defended. The findings can then be shared so it becomes more than reflection or personal enquiry. It is usually undertaken within the practitioner’s own practice/ context or in collaboration with others.
Enquiry As Stance
Teachers are encouraged to adopt a more focused, critically informed questioning approach to their professional practice and pupil learning.
An enquiring mindset and culture is fundamental to a teacher’s professionalism in Scotland.
An ‘enquiring stance’ (Cochran Smyth & Lyttle, 2009) is a critical aspect in developing teacher agency (Priestley 2016).
Teacher agency is about empowerment, professional judgement, evaluating practices and impact and being agents of changes (Hattie, 2012, Sachs, 2016). It enables teachers to ask critical questions of themselves and their practices and the wider educational agenda.
Teacher Professionalism
‘Knowing deeply, knowing what, knowing why, and knowing how…’
Teachers play a crucial role in children’s learning to help them achieve positive outcomes, thrive and flourish in life.
The quality of teachers and school leadership are the most important in-school factors on children’s outcomes (NIF, 2016).
Teacher professionalism is a key driver (NIF, 2016) to an excellent and equitable education system for all.
For more information, visit the GTCS website:
http://www.gtcs.org.uk/professional-update/practitioner-enquiry.aspx
