Critical Thinking Skills Fire up Teacher Learning

With increased teacher accountability and decreased funding, effective professional learning is more critical than ever. Teachers and educational leaders need to be fully and continuously supported in their professional growth around the changes they face, such as implementing Common Core, learning to interpret and use student data, and supporting teachers as they adjust to revised teacher evaluation models. The challenge is to design and implement successful professional learning that allows for continuous and sustained growth by giving the learner some measure of control and the opportunity to embrace that growth. So what lies at the core of professional learning? To be most effective, professional learning needs to focus on what matters most: thinking and learning. Herein, the authors provide examples of how planning for critical thinking and learning that promotes metacognition can create change in teacher practice. Further, they recommend the implementation of the Gradual Release of Responsibility model, where teachers implement new learning in an authentic setting. The authors conclude that in order to make the belief that to be a teacher is to be a learner a reality, professional learning must support educators in becoming metacognitive decision-makers who can meet today's increased demands.