Professional Development
Overview
The principal training provided by LAHC is for school reviewers, team leaders and review trainers. Training is very practical and hands-on, in line with the premise that doing something is more effective training than being told how to do it. Training courses are run regularly across the region and are considered to be excellent professional development, independently of whether or when the trainee is called onto a review team. See below for more details about this training.
If a school or group of schools requests specific training beyond that offered for the review, the association will seek to find the appropriate expertise within the association and help to set up the course. The association also develops links with external providers of training and helps to facilitate the organisation of courses on request.
With over 5,000 professional educators within the association there is expertiseon almost every aspect of education and school leadership and management. One of the key objectives of the association, through its Executive Officer, is to identify and deploy this expertise for the benefit of member schools. This normally consists of an “expert” member of staff from one school spending up to a week in another school, working with colleagues to help them improve their practice. Such consultancy carries no fee, with the only cost being the expenses of the visiting consultant.
The LAHC Review Training Workshop
The LAHC Review Training Workshop is a three-day intensive preparatory course focused on the objectives, structure, protocols, and procedures inherent to the LAHC Review Model. A maximum of 20 participants (selected educators and educational leaders from LAHC member schools and invited schools) actively engage over the duration of the workshop in experiential learning. The workshop takes place in a host LAHC school, providing an authentic context in which trainees are able to benefit from a practical component of their newly acquired learning.
Whilst the principal objective of the workshop is to prepare educators to form part of a future review team, the knowledge, skills and dispositions that are developed through the course extend far beyond preparation for a single purpose. Collecting, organizing and analyzing evidence, conducting thorough and objective lesson observations, synthesizing information, arriving at accurate and balanced conclusions, providing effective feedback, writing final reports, understanding how human and material resources, structures, policies and processes of a school work together, and gaining insight into the extent to which a school’s guiding statements and priorities permeate institutional operations are just some of the valuable skills addressed over the three days. The enrichment of professional capacity, in addition to an awareness of personal competencies that are incorporated into the training, make it an ideal professional development opportunity for educational leaders at all levels.
At its core, the Review Training Workshop is a simulation, from start to finish, of a real review set in a genuine school environment that allows the participants to experiment with all of the key activities and tasks that are required in a school review visit. The methodology used in the training models effective research-backed pedagogical practice and is comprised of equal parts theory, practical application and collaborative learning with colleagues. The learning platform is primarily digital and all materials are provided by the LAHC.
Feedback from previous workshop trainees has been overwhelmingly positive. At the end of the workshop, all of the participants have increased confidence and feel better prepared to be a member of a LAHC Review Team. Moreover, all of them gain valuable, practical knowledge and skills that they are able to immediately share and implement in their own schools.