Feedback is essential for learning and a key component of career-long growth. Tailoring feedback formats is important to meet educators' unique needs and stages of development. Drawing on the authors' professional practice, three categories of feedback are defined and illustrated: (1) rapid response formats; (2) moderate engagement formats; and…

Curriculum-based professional learning is situated within the broader professional learning ecosystem. It focuses on how to teach a specific subject for specific grades, using the specific materials that teachers will use with their students. Given the potential of curriculum-based professional learning to support teachers and strengthen…

Fishbowl coaching is where a coach and a teacher engage in a coaching session while other coaches observe the live interaction. While the conversation is happening, the other coaches take notes and prepare feedback to share after the conversation. Coaches learn from each other about how to structure and lead meaningful conversations that they can…

In many schools, teams come together primarily to plan events, build common assessments, or determine curriculum or grade-level planning. But teams often struggle to make teamwork an inquiry-driven process that focuses on problems of practice and student learning. The essential focus of teams should be on building collective responsibility…

Many evaluation systems feel like a series of hoops to jump through. Some require goal setting, some require elaborate data collection, and some are a little of both. Regardless of role, it often becomes a box-checking exercise and not a reflective, meaningful process that engenders growth for those engaged in it. In the small rural district of…

This article describes how, in the face of staff shortages and teacher turnover, Worcester (Massachusetts) Public Schools is supporting multiple avenues to recruit and retain quality educators in the district. High-quality professional learning is one of those avenues for ensuring a strong and stable workforce. The district's Office of Curriculum…

Students have powerful but underutilized perspectives on the impact of educators' professional learning. When students are directly engaged in providing feedback, they can offer unique insights into how professional learning translates into classroom practice and affects their learning experience. Incorporating student feedback also helps…

In Saskatchewan, teachers are guided by educational policy that envisions placing Indigenous knowledge systems, cultures, and languages at the foundation of their structures, policies, and curricula. However, Non-Indigenous teachers in Canada remain uncertain about how to integrate Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods into their classrooms…

Political discord, social tensions, and global conflicts compel teachers to guide students in exploring diverse perspectives and engaging in constructive, respectful dialogues. Furthermore, the rapid evolution of technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), necessitates teachers and school leaders to consider entirely new paradigms in…

In this article, the author describes learning principles that are grounded in Daniel Willingham's (2017) simple model of the mind and suggest professional learning strategies aligned with them. These strategies are consistent with the Learning Designs standard of the Standards for Professional Learning, which states, in part, "Educators use…

Educators everywhere are responding to the realities of student learning loss, unfinished learning, or disrupted learning as they continue to experience the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students of color and students attending high poverty schools experienced the largest achievement declines, increasing preexisting gaps for already…

With the ever-expanding role of technology in schools, many teachers have participated in one-time, stand-alone workshops to learn how to use a new program, app, or other tool. While that may provide a helpful introduction to the basics and highlight inspirational examples of what the tool can do, it doesn't often translate into teachers applying…

In 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that learning to read is a fundamental human right and failure to provide appropriate education for students with reading disabilities is discriminatory (Moore v. British Columbia, 2012). In Ontario, Canada's most populous province, the Human Rights Commission's inquiry in 2022 found the province's…

Why is formative assessment -- a proven powerful instructional practice -- so elusive in classrooms? As a regional professional learning provider for several years, Amy Burton rarely observed the use of formative assessment, even though, when asked, teachers could define it -- a quick check, during instruction, of what all students understand so…

A historically responsive literacy framework examines teaching strategies and structures that honor the histories, identities, and literary practices of all youth from diverse cultures, and especially those who have been traditionally underserved in schools. The framework builds on other work on culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies and…