Autumn 2015

2 Choose your professional support provider carefully 2
How can you make sure that the provider you are booking is
able to deliver the professional learning that you need? A little
bit of research goes a long way. The following list of questions
will help you pick a reputable provider that can best meet your
learning goals.
• What professional learning work has the provider done in
recent times?
• Has anyone on your staff team or in your professional
networks had experience working with them?
• Have they delivered professional learning for one of the
Professional Support Coordinators or any other reputable
early and middle childhood organisations?
• Can they provide you with a referee who has experienced
working with them?
• What qualifications does the person delivering the
professional learning hold? Do they have appropriate
early or middle childhood qualifications and experience
or qualifications and experience relevant to the topic? Do
they also have a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment?
• Have they worked with education and care services
before?
• Are they trying to use the professional development
opportunity to sell you products or a subscription for
ongoing online resources or support? If so, proceed with
caution and carefully evaluate the appropriateness of these
products.
• Do they have a working knowledge of the Early Years
Learning Framework and Framework for School Aged
Care and the National Quality Standards?
• Are they willing to customise their delivery to match your
learning needs?
• Do they want to know about your context? Are they asking
you lots of questions about how they can tailor their
session to the participants from your service?
• Can they offer ongoing learning opportunities?
Involve the team in decision making and follow-up
Learning only happens when the learner is engaged and
open. Make sure that any decisions about individual or whole
of service professional learning options are made with the
staff who will be participating. Providing staff with time and
resources to share and implement any new ideas is also an
important element of planning professional learning. Consider
factoring non-contact time for staff to put their professional
learning into practice into professional development budgets.
Although educators are often required to report back to a
staff meeting about the professional development they have
attended, if this is just a thumbnail sketch of the day, it can be
of limited value. Consider a more targeted approach; ask staff
to identify and share the following:
• A current practice they feel inspired to continue with
• A new practice they would like the team to consider
implementing
• A current practice they feel needs to stop or change
• A new resource (article, website, community organisation)
for the service to utilise.
Depending on the topic, these ideas can form the basis of
a professional conversation between the participant and
the Educational Leader or Coordinator of the service, or a
professional conversation with a small group of educators,
families or children or the whole staff team.
DIG DEEPLY
Don’t rely only on workshop window shopping approaches to
spending professional learning funds. Explore opportunities
for professional learning that involve ongoing cycles of
researching, reflecting, planning, and acting. Learners take
time to absorb and contextualise new ideas and information.
While there is a need and place for one-off professional
learning sessions, investing in some ongoing professional
learning experiences that include a process of follow-up and
reflection is money well spent!
HOW TO MAKE SURE THE SERVICE GETS THE MOST
FROM PROFESSIONAL LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
No matter how great professional learning opportunities
are, they can easily be a waste of money if educators are
not engaged or do not have opportunities to reflect on and
apply their new knowledge. Use the following principles to
help maximise the benefits of the time and money your service
invests in professional learning.
1
Two is more than company and three is not a crowd
Workforce Council can help you work through how
any of these approaches can be best used in your
setting. Please call 1800 112 585 to find out more
about this or email ECEC@workforce.org.au
Whenever possible, organise for educators to participate
in professional learning together. Even when they are
participating in external professional learning opportunities
find a way for as many interested educators to attend as
possible. The conversations between educators about the
ideas they heard together and how they can be applied at
their own services will support deeper understanding and will
increase the likelihood of the learning triggering changes in
practice.
REFERENCES:
PSC Alliance (2014?) Self-assessment Tool - Professional Learning Plan
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IN THE LOOP