The Collective Wisdom of Practice: Leading Our Professional Learning from Success

Leverage Professional Wisdom with Asset-Based Professional Learning 

Many professional learning designs are built on the assumption that we learn best by studying our failures. However, learning from failure often evokes responses of denial, avoidance and the same defensive dynamics that contributed to the failure in the first place. Schechter’s resource, presents the Collective Learning-from-Success approach. This fresh, new, assets-based framework will shift educators’ minds from focusing in isolation on failure to continuously deliberating together, sharing past experiences and best practices, and solving problems related to teaching and learning. Whether you serve as a teacher, school or district leader, or a policy maker, your professional growth will benefit by reflecting on actionable knowledge through collective inquiry. 

This book offers educators an opportunity to come together in forming a productive alternative to the learning from failure paradigm. The Collective Wisdom of Practice provides a model for how to learn from successes by providing
• An assets-based approach to designing and implementing professional learning
• Strategies to focus on learning from educators’ past successes
• Multinational case studies, sample learning materials, templates, and tools
• A framework that can be applied to multiple levels, such as grade and subject areas, building level, system level, and
 policy level

Grounded in more than 20 years of extensive research in the US and internationally, this approach will have a powerful influence on professional learning. Learn to nurture your wisdom of practice to meet the challenge of preparing students to be co-creators of society. 

Chen Schechter is a Professor of Leadership, Organizational Development, and Policy in Education. He believes that educators need to be encouraged to embark on the exciting journey of nurturing the remarkable wisdom of practice that characterizes their magical learning moments with our children. Prof. Schechter aims to build bridges and integrate theory with empirical evidence and practice by supporting teachers, principals, superintendents, and policymakers in their professional growth. His research areas include reform implementation, educational change, professional learning communities, organizational learning, collaborative learning from success, educational leadership, leadership development, and systems thinking for school leaders. Prof. Schechter teaches, conducts research, and serves as a professional advisor in numerous international, national, district, and school development projects, with deep commitment to developing bottom-up school leadership and transformative learning and innovation.

Prof. Schechter earned his Ph.D. in K-12 Educational Administration from The Ohio State University and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Educational Administration (JEA), the oldest and most respected leading international journal in the field of educational leadership and management. Prof. Schechter has published his research extensively in a wide range of highly ranked journals and has authored five recent books: The Wisdom of Practice: Leading Learning from Success (2019); Leading Holistically: How Schools, Districts, and States Improve Systemically (2018); The NSSE Yearbook (National Society for the Study of Education) of Columbia University’s Teachers College on Developing Models for Teaching and Learning Self-Regulated Learning (2017); Systems-Thinking for School Leaders: Holistic Leadership for Excellence in Schools (2017); and also Let Us Lead! School Principals at the Forefront of Reforms (2015).