Professional Learning Space

To ensure that professional learning outcomes are robust and sustainable, the school schedules a weekly Professional Learning Space (PLS) in the curriculum. During this time, the entire teaching faculty, including the Senior Management, is involved in professional discourse. This promotes a sense of collective responsibility for quality teaching and learning.

We use the Create-Implement-Review cycle to guide the discourse. Central to this cycle is the focus on evidence of student learning. Using protocols to guide unit design, lesson delivery and review, we examine whether our practices are based on established standards and how these practices have contributed to student achievement. This process of reflective inquiry engenders a ‘reframing’ (Schon, 1983) mindset in which we make sense of situations with perspectives other than our own.

The following diagram shows the Create-Implement-Review Cycle that guides PLS  discourse at RGS.

PLS Discourse

RGS’ Curriculum Maps are concept-based. To maintain relevance and robustness, we are currently reviewing our Curriculum Maps, improving our Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions while checking for the alignment of these intended outcomes to classroom practice. A key focus for the year, therefore, is the use of high-yielding strategies in the classroom that facilitate content mastery and conceptual understanding. We are reviving the use of enduring pedagogical tools like graphic organizers and concept development model.