Abstract: Design-based professional learning: A promising approach to continuous professional learning

Friesen, S. & Brown, B. (2022). Design-based professional learning: A promising approach to continuous professional learning. International Journal for Leadership in Learning, 22(1), 218-251. https://doi.org/10.29173/ijll10

Abstract: Collaborative professionalism engages teachers and other educators in the processes of documenting and presenting evidence arising from their practice, engaging in deep and demanding dialogue with colleagues, seeking and receiving constructive and productive feedback, and engaging in continuous collaborative inquiry. A design orientation that engages educators in such a process is design-based professional learning. While the overall design of the professional learning is consistent across contexts, three key features are unique to each design—situativity, the cyclical nature of learning and change, and agency. These three features are used to describe two cases of design-based professional learning in two different contexts. Based on 715 teachers, and school and district leaders’ learning engaged in design-based professional learning, we conclude that design-based professional learning provides a promising approach to professional learning.

Follow the link to read the full article – https://doi.org/10.29173/ijll10

High School Redesign

Abstract: Researchers examined seven schools in Alberta undergoing high school redesign and removing the Carnegie Unit, a time-based metric for awarding course credits. A mixed methods convergent parallel design was used to gather data from leadership teams in the schools and to examine evidence of impact on student learning. Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed concurrently and then merged for the analysis. Findings illustrate that removing the Carnegie Unit was a catalyst for redesign and learning improvements.  Five constitutive factors enable high school redesign, including a collective disposition as a learning community, a focus on relationship building, obtaining student input, collaboration, and making changes to learning tasks and assessment practices.  The findings provide insight into the ways in which leadership teams formed complex adaptive systems to enable change and may serve to inform practitioners and school leaders, schools and systems, and those who study policy changes in schools.

Brown, B., Alonso-Yanez, G., Friesen, S., & Jacobsen, M. (2020). High school redesign: Carnegie unit as a catalyst for change. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy (CJEAP), 193, 97-114. https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjeap/article/view/68066