Jeffrey Carpenter, assistant professor of education and director of the Teaching Fellows program, published the article in the journal Educational Leadership.
Carpenter’s article, titled “Teachers at the Wheel,” appears in the journal’s May 2016 issue. The article describes new modes of professional learning that allow educators to have more control over the content and process of their professional learning. Educational Leadership is the flagship publication of the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), and has a print circulation of 135,000.
From the journal website:
The professional development pendulum is swinging away from traditional methods (in which teachers passively receive information from outside experts) to teacher-centered models (in which educators take charge of their own learning). In this article, Jeffrey P. Carpenter describes new modes of teacher-powered professional learning, notably Edcamps and social media. Drawing on his research, Carpenter details the potential benefits of these experience, such as personalized, on-demand availability; motivational factors; the ability to connect teachers around the world; and increased leadership opportunities. He also examines the challenges, including start-up hurdles, the lack of gatekeepers, tendencies to create “silos,” avoidance of difficult conversations, and misalignment with district goals. The author offers takeaways for both teachers and school administrators on how to harness the potential power of teacher-directed professional development.
The full article can be found here.
Carpenter, J.P. (2016). Teachers at the wheel: New modes of professional learning put educators in the driver’s seat. Educational Leadership, 73(8), 30-35.