Professional Learning for a Virtual World

Learning Forward. 504 South Locust Street, Oxford, OH 45056. Tel: 800-727-7288; Fax: 513-523-0638; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: https://learningforward.org/the-learning-professional/

Y

5

Faculty Development; Electronic Learning; Communities of Practice; Instructional Leadership; School Districts; Administrators; Program Effectiveness

Alaska; Florida; Texas; Indiana (Fort Wayne); Virginia; Florida (Miami); Oklahoma (Tulsa); Georgia; Tennessee; Washington; Missouri

0276-928X

In March 2020, emergency school closings as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic initiated a sudden widespread use of virtual learning and brought new challenges that affected teaching and learning across multiple contexts. The complex change caused school district leaders to make plans to reinvent and reimagine schools and created a need for teacher professional learning on effective techniques for teaching remotely. As education leaders around the world faced the same problem, Learning Forward responded with a deliberately designed community of practice to facilitate community learning and shared problem-solving. The community of practice, called Design Professional Learning for a Virtual World, enables members to share expertise, resources, and knowledge, pursue a common purpose, and learn from one another. In this article, Michelle Bowman describes a study she conducted on the community of practice model which showed that when school district leaders engaged and collaborated in the community of practice specifically focused on designing and implementing a comprehensive professional learning system, their professional learning knowledge, skills, and leadership behaviors changed significantly. They learned more, collaborated more effectively, and became more proficient in leading professional learning. This article describes the study's design and findings.

ERIC

2022

EJ1320292