The Power of Collegiality in School-based Professional Development

The school has increasingly become the focus for teacher professional development and school leaders are maximizing teacher learning through restructuring time and meeting structures to create additional opportunities for collegial work within the school day. This research paper is the second part of a three stage research design investigating South Australian teachers’ experiences of school-based professional development and how this relates to emerging trends. This second stage of research focuses on professional development and professional growth, by interviewing fifteen staff in three case study schools to obtain greater detail about the implementation of quality teacher learning strategies. This paper reports some of the findings from the interviews concerning school-based professional development in relation to previous Professional Development research. Using case studies, key issues identified in this report include creating time, teams and the role of leadership, thereby highlighting the power of collegial teacher learning.