A Final Word

We hope this guide has challenged thinking, broadened perspectives and offered some meaningful and practical takeaways.

We have travelled together to address why professional learning matters, explored professional learning practices for implementation in busy schools, while offering ways that we can support staff in the process, and considered how we can measure the impact of professional learning pathways on student outcomes.

Building a contextualized, collaborative professional learning culture requires investment, commitment, and dedication by school leaders and staff members to continually think, act, and reflect. However, we can foster intrinsic motivation, inspire collaboration and teamwork, catalyze continuous professional learning, and take action to promote, value and celebrate professional learning to affect all our staff and students.

• Whether we are looking through a whole-school, team or individual professional learning lens, collaboration and peer support are at the heart of effective professional learning.

• Within a grassroots, multi-layered, dynamic and complex professional learning ecosystem, simple structures and approaches can be effectively implemented for impact.

• When we have the opportunity to work together through well-implemented learning experiences, the school professional learning ecosystem can become meaningful, with intentional and purposeful design.

We invite you to consider our theory of action once again:

If we, as leaders, can gain an understanding of the needs of all our teaching and non-teaching staff when it comes to student learning and wellbeing, then we can develop professional learning to help meet their needs, while simultaneously meeting the needs of teams and the whole school.

And so now over to you… So, now what? What might be your next move?