Negotiating the twin goals of student learning and teacher learning in a professional learning team

Abstract

Student learning often forms the key focus of teachers. In professional learning teams (PLTs), teachers engage in collaboration and inquiry with the aim of improving their students' learning. However, teachers who take on the role of facilitating their fellow teachers' learning in PLTs need to simultaneously manage the goals of student learning as well as of teacher learning. This paper discusses issues that teachers face in negotiating the twin goals of student learning and teacher learning in the process of meeting the challenges of technology integration. It argues for a reconceptualisation of professional learning that hinges upon the design of learning tasks offered to teachers in a PLT to help them address issues related to student learning without losing focus of their own professional learning.