Leading Powerful Professional Learning

Responding to Complexity With Adaptive Expertise
Deidre M. Le Fevre - The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Helen S. Timperley - University of Auckland, New Zealand
Kaye Twyford - The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Fiona R. Ell - The University of Auckland, New Zealand
Leading Powerful Professional Learning
September 2019 | 160 pages | Corwin
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ISBN: 9781544386812
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ISBN: 9781544361451
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Description

Effective facilitation is complex


What is central to leading powerful and effective facilitation in professional learning? You. Gone are the one-size-fits-all answers—instead, you’ll draw from your own knowledge and expertise to lead your PLC in actively solving complex problems that are unique to your context. 

For professional learning to have an improvement impact for both teachers and students, it needs to be more than a single event. Truly successful professional learning is sustained, collaborative, evidence-informed, and student-focused—generating multifaceted solutions to real-life, real-time issues rather than focusing on one piece of the practice puzzle at a time.

This book, based on the results of a five-year research study, provides:

An innovative approach to the design and delivery of professional learning grounded in principles of adaptive expertise
Easy-to-use one-page summaries of “Deliberate Acts of Facilitation”
Guidance that’s fully congruent with Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning

The current educational landscape demands a new kind of leadership. This book gives you the tools you need to apply the principles of adaptive expertise to your leadership and facilitation—enabling you to draw on your own deep knowledge to address the complex challenges you and your teachers face every day.

 

Contents

Foreword

Foreword

Preface

Preface

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

About the Authors

Introduction

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Roots

  • Root #1: Adopting an Evaluative Inquiry Stance
  • Root #2: Valuing and Using Deep Conceptual Knowledge
  • Root #3: Being Agentic
  • Root #4: Being Aware of Cultural Positioning
  • Root #5: Being Metacognitive
  • Root #6: Bringing a Systemic Focus

Chapter 2: The Trunk

  • Exercise #1: Trunk: Responsiveness through Relationships with a Generative Improvement Orientation

Chapter 3: Branches and Leaves

  • Branch 1: Purpose and Focus
  • DAF #1: Clarifying Purpose
  • DAF #2: Focusing on Valued Student Outcomes
  • DAF #3: Building Coherence
  • DAF #4: Creating Commitment and Taking Action
  • Branch 2: Knowledge and Inquiry
  • DAF #5: Deepening Knowledge
  • DAF #6: Using Evidence Critically
  • DAF #7: Using Focused and Deep Collaborative Inquiry
  • Branch 3: Effective Learning Processes
  • DAF #8: Surfacing and Engaging Theories and Beliefs
  • DAF #9: Navigating Perceptions of Risk
  • DAF #10: Developing Self-Regulation
  • DAF #11: Providing Appropriate Support and Challenge
  • DAF #12: Co-constructing Learning

Chapter 4: Facilitating Improvement

  • Facilitating Improvement and Adaptive Expertise
  • How Does Adaptive Expertise Fit With Other Forms of Expertise?
  • Developing Your Own Adaptive Expertise
  • Developing Adaptive Expertise in Others
  • Putting It All Together

Research Appendix

Research Appendix

References

References

Description

Effective facilitation is complex


What is central to leading powerful and effective facilitation in professional learning? You. Gone are the one-size-fits-all answers—instead, you’ll draw from your own knowledge and expertise to lead your PLC in actively solving complex problems that are unique to your context. 

For professional learning to have an improvement impact for both teachers and students, it needs to be more than a single event. Truly successful professional learning is sustained, collaborative, evidence-informed, and student-focused—generating multifaceted solutions to real-life, real-time issues rather than focusing on one piece of the practice puzzle at a time.

This book, based on the results of a five-year research study, provides:

An innovative approach to the design and delivery of professional learning grounded in principles of adaptive expertise
Easy-to-use one-page summaries of “Deliberate Acts of Facilitation”
Guidance that’s fully congruent with Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning

The current educational landscape demands a new kind of leadership. This book gives you the tools you need to apply the principles of adaptive expertise to your leadership and facilitation—enabling you to draw on your own deep knowledge to address the complex challenges you and your teachers face every day.

 

Contents

Foreword

Foreword

Preface

Preface

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

About the Authors

Introduction

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Roots

  • Root #1: Adopting an Evaluative Inquiry Stance
  • Root #2: Valuing and Using Deep Conceptual Knowledge
  • Root #3: Being Agentic
  • Root #4: Being Aware of Cultural Positioning
  • Root #5: Being Metacognitive
  • Root #6: Bringing a Systemic Focus

Chapter 2: The Trunk

  • Exercise #1: Trunk: Responsiveness through Relationships with a Generative Improvement Orientation

Chapter 3: Branches and Leaves

  • Branch 1: Purpose and Focus
  • DAF #1: Clarifying Purpose
  • DAF #2: Focusing on Valued Student Outcomes
  • DAF #3: Building Coherence
  • DAF #4: Creating Commitment and Taking Action
  • Branch 2: Knowledge and Inquiry
  • DAF #5: Deepening Knowledge
  • DAF #6: Using Evidence Critically
  • DAF #7: Using Focused and Deep Collaborative Inquiry
  • Branch 3: Effective Learning Processes
  • DAF #8: Surfacing and Engaging Theories and Beliefs
  • DAF #9: Navigating Perceptions of Risk
  • DAF #10: Developing Self-Regulation
  • DAF #11: Providing Appropriate Support and Challenge
  • DAF #12: Co-constructing Learning

Chapter 4: Facilitating Improvement

  • Facilitating Improvement and Adaptive Expertise
  • How Does Adaptive Expertise Fit With Other Forms of Expertise?
  • Developing Your Own Adaptive Expertise
  • Developing Adaptive Expertise in Others
  • Putting It All Together

Research Appendix

Research Appendix

References

References

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Leading Powerful Professional Learning

Responding to Complexity With Adaptive Expertise


September 2019 | 160 pages | Corwin

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Spiral 01/02/2026 9781544361451 $40.95
Lifetime 01/02/2026 9781544386812 $37.00

Effective facilitation is complex


What is central to leading powerful and effective facilitation in professional learning? You. Gone are the one-size-fits-all answers—instead, you’ll draw from your own knowledge and expertise to lead your PLC in actively solving complex problems that are unique to your context. 

For professional learning to have an improvement impact for both teachers and students, it needs to be more than a single event. Truly successful professional learning is sustained, collaborative, evidence-informed, and student-focused—generating multifaceted solutions to real-life, real-time issues rather than focusing on one piece of the practice puzzle at a time.

This book, based on the results of a five-year research study, provides:

An innovative approach to the design and delivery of professional learning grounded in principles of adaptive expertise
Easy-to-use one-page summaries of “Deliberate Acts of Facilitation”
Guidance that’s fully congruent with Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning

The current educational landscape demands a new kind of leadership. This book gives you the tools you need to apply the principles of adaptive expertise to your leadership and facilitation—enabling you to draw on your own deep knowledge to address the complex challenges you and your teachers face every day.

 


Table Of Contents:

  • Foreword
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Authors
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1: The Roots
  • Root #1: Adopting an Evaluative Inquiry Stance
  • Root #2: Valuing and Using Deep Conceptual Knowledge
  • Root #3: Being Agentic
  • Root #4: Being Aware of Cultural Positioning
  • Root #5: Being Metacognitive
  • Root #6: Bringing a Systemic Focus
  • Chapter 2: The Trunk
  • Exercise #1: Trunk: Responsiveness through Relationships with a Generative Improvement Orientation
  • Chapter 3: Branches and Leaves
  • Branch 1: Purpose and Focus
  • DAF #1: Clarifying Purpose
  • DAF #2: Focusing on Valued Student Outcomes
  • DAF #3: Building Coherence
  • DAF #4: Creating Commitment and Taking Action
  • Branch 2: Knowledge and Inquiry
  • DAF #5: Deepening Knowledge
  • DAF #6: Using Evidence Critically
  • DAF #7: Using Focused and Deep Collaborative Inquiry
  • Branch 3: Effective Learning Processes
  • DAF #8: Surfacing and Engaging Theories and Beliefs
  • DAF #9: Navigating Perceptions of Risk
  • DAF #10: Developing Self-Regulation
  • DAF #11: Providing Appropriate Support and Challenge
  • DAF #12: Co-constructing Learning
  • Chapter 4: Facilitating Improvement
  • Facilitating Improvement and Adaptive Expertise
  • How Does Adaptive Expertise Fit With Other Forms of Expertise?
  • Developing Your Own Adaptive Expertise
  • Developing Adaptive Expertise in Others
  • Putting It All Together
  • Research Appendix
  • References

Recent Product Reviews:

The text provided a very useful research-based framework for our graduate course. The mixture between theory and practical strategies was appropriate for the course and well received by the students. We are pleased with our decision to adopt this book and would use it again for a similar course.
Cathryn Smith, Educational Admin Dept, Brandon University
Still under review. the book is explicit about professional learning.
Dr Jonathan Chibuzo Okeke, Leadership Studies Dept, Beulah Heights University
"Leading Powerful Professional Learning is a valuable resource to those responsible for designing and facilitating professional learning."
Amy Colton. Executive Director , Learning Forward Michigan
“Leading adult learning is difficult and many educators do not have the skills needed, nor do they know where to start. Our mental model of professional learning is skewed by years of substandard learning provided by well meaning leaders. This book will help build capacity for learning leaders to identify shortcomings and improve their craft.”
Terri Iles, Executive Director, Learning Forward Texas
"Leaders often are unaware of the scope of their responsibilities when it comes to professional learning. Leading Powerful Professional Learning's diagrammatic and metaphoric way of presenting the content allows readers to access the book’s content in a variety of different ways."
Joellen Killion, Senior Advisor, Learning Forward

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