Helen Timperley is Professor of Education at The University of Auckland in New Zealand. A particular research emphasis of her teaching and research has been on promoting leadership, organizational and professional learning in ways that improve the educational experience of students currently under-achieving in our education systems.
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| Helen Timperley |
Transformations of Knowledge through Professional Learning
Most teachers engage in professional learning for the purpose of developing new knowledge about how to improve the educational experiences of the learners for whom they have responsibility. Because teaching is a practice, making a difference for learners requires that the new ways of thinking are translated into new approaches to teaching and learning. With the kinds of challenges teachers currently face in most countries, these new ways of thinking and acting cannot simply involve tinkering around the edges of current thinking and practice, but rather require some fundamental changes that transform current knowledge, rather than simply add extra ideas to what teachers already know.
To change the tinkering to transforming, we need to look carefully at how people learn, and design professional learning experiences in ways that are consistent with these learning principles. My research shows that when this happens, teaching can be transformed in ways that result in major improvements in outcomes for learners. Most professional learning designs, however, fail in this most fundamental task and so are disappointing for the participating teachers and those who hope for more fundamental changes. Most importantly, they make little difference to the learners who most need things to be different at school for them.
