Professional Learning

Everyone is a learner at YIS. As such, our Professional Learning (PL) program is designed to support the learning of our faculty and staff, but, first and foremost, it aims to impact student learning. Professional learning takes many forms here and is well supported through a generous PL budget. There are formal events and activities, such as IB workshops, visiting outside consultants, scheduled PL days and strategic meetings and committees. Outside-sourced PL is aligned to focus areas shared across the school as well as development projects linked to the school’s strategic plans. The school also supports attendance for PL workshops that are hosted by other schools within Japan and the wider region where appropriate. The learning can also be informal and inquiry based, responsive to the needs of the learners and the strengths of our teaching community. Most importantly, we seek to empower teachers in their learning journeys.

What is professional learning at YIS?

Professional learning refers to the ongoing commitment to continuous and deliberate growth in the knowledge, skills, concepts and dispositions that are strongly correlated with improving student learning. Our fundamental beliefs include the following:

• The primary goal of an effective professional learning program is to contribute to student learning through continual improvement of teaching and assessment strategies and practices.
• All teachers should seek professional learning opportunities, regardless of their experience or skill level.
• Professional learning is a career-long process.
• Professional learning encourages collaboration between colleagues.
• Professional learning is effective when driven by a teacher’s personal goals and interests and linked to student needs and school priorities.
• It is every teacher’s responsibility to keep abreast of current research to ensure that students are benefitting from best practice.

Administrative and support staff also benefit from PL opportunities aimed at supporting their professional practice, as well as enhancing their awareness of and engagement in the school’s ultimate goal of improving student learning. 

 

The Professional Growth Plan: Learning from Each Other

At YIS, we believe in the power of inquiry. Our Professional Growth Plan (PGP) is one way that teachers are encouraged to develop their practice through inquiry-based learning. The purpose of the PGP is to pursue a professional interest to enrich teaching and learning. This is achieved by creating shared-interest groups to engage in professional conversations. Every year, teachers self-identify an area of professional interest, with the only requirement being that their area of focus must have impact on improving student learning. In small groups of people with similar interests, teachers work for a year studying a topic, taking action, and reflecting on the impact of the PGP in their classroom. The areas of interest demonstrate the huge variety of interests and expertise of our teaching community. For instance, PGP groups in the past have focused on Making Thinking Visible, Blogging in the Classroom, Outdoor Education, Service, Design Thinking, Gaming, and Creativity, to name but a few.