Thanks to Greg Whitby for writing about Andy Hargreaves and Michel Fullan’s latest work on Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School,
I particularly liked Hargreaves suggestion that it takes around eight years or 10,000 hours to develop expertise in the profession of teaching through practice and concerted effort. I do see a few teachers relax a little after the first 2 or so years in teaching having “mastered” classroom management. I wonder if they read Hargreaves list of what quality teachers need to learn whether they might rethink where they are in the learning pit :
- understand that teaching is technically difficult
- know cognitive science
- understand a range of special education abilities
- know about differentiated instruction
- be able to assess in a sophisticated, diagnostic way
- have massive emotional intelligence
- have high levels of education and long periods of rigorous training
- be able to use judgement, wisdom and discernment to know what’s in the spreadsheet of data to connect it to the students and to the knowledge they’re trying to acquire.
Perhaps that’s my leadership role in providing feedback to teachers to rediscover that discomfort and excitement of developing “expertise”. Some of these areas will challenge my descriptive observation skills to start the conversation.
