Professional Learning Conversations: Challenges in Using Evidence for Improvement

This, the first book in the series, ‘Professional Learning and Development in Schools and Higher Education’, is edited by two experienced, committed and skilled educationists from different parts of the world but with converging values and viewpoints. The result is a rich mélange of authors from the USA, Australia, South Africa, Canada and New Zealand all of whom focus on the use of evidence informed decision-making in schools and classrooms. This focus makes for an unusual collection which acts as an antidote to change agendas which are entirely results driven. The book provides evidence from a variety of countries of how s- tem leaders, teachers in schools and higher education must now manage as part of their endeavours to provide the best possible learning and achievement opportu- ties for all students. What makes this book unique is its engagement with the rea- ties of the challenge of evidence informed conversations which all too quickly become ‘activity traps’ as teachers are steered away from evidence towards ado- ing short term pragmatic or ideological solutions which suit the policy agendas of reformists from outside schools and, more often than not, fail to result in real changes in teaching and learning.

This volume provides informed arguments, theory and practical examples based on research about what it looks like when educators, policy makers, and even students, try to rethink and change their practices by engaging in evidence-based conversations to challenge and inform their work. It allows the reader to experience these conversations. Each story reveals the depth of thinking that change requires and gives important insights into the challenge associated with changing thinking and practice. Some of the stories are encouraging and others are frustrating. Taken together, they give tremendous insight into "what it takes" for conceptual change that will fundamentally shift educational practice.

"This book moves beyond just promoting the use of evidence to examining just what is known and how it occurs in a range of settings, especially in interaction with others. This type of book will be key in a desired move to where professional educators reestablish their knowledge and responsibility base in educational policy and practice." Bill Mullford, Professor of Education, University of Tasmania