Policies That Support Professional Development

Policies That Support Professional Development in an Era of Reform
Darling-Hammond, L., & McLaughlin, M. W. (1995). Phi Delta Kappan, 76(8), 642-645

The vision of practice that underlies the nation's reform agenda requires most teachers to rethink their own practice, to construct new classroom roles and expectations about student outcomes, and to teach in ways they have never taught before - and probably never experienced as students (Nelson & Hammerman, 1995).

Reformers of all stripes press for an agenda of fundamental change in the ways teachers teach and students learn. They envision schools in which students learn to think creatively and deeply, in which teachers' ongoing learning forms the core of professional activities, and in which students and teachers alike value knowing why and how to learn.(FN34)

These visions and expectations for practice assume fundamental changes in education policies in order to enable teachers to make the challenging and sometimes painful changes required of them. Yet these necessary shifts in policy have only begun.

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Nelson, B.S. & Hammerman, J.M. (1996). Reconceptualizing teaching : moving toward the creation of intellectual communities of students, teachers, and teacher educators. In Milbrey W. McLaughlin and Ida Oberman (eds.), Teacher learning: new policies, new practices. New York: Teachers College Press

FN34: Nelson and Hammerman, op. cit.; Beverly Falk, "Teaching the Way Children Learn," in McLaughlin and Oberman, op. cit.; and Martin G. Brooks and Jacqueline Grennon Brooks, "Constructivism and School Reform," in McLaughlin and Oberman, op. cit.