Professional learning

Professional learning about individual education planning was identified as being crucial for teachers. There was a range of understandings and issues that needed to be shared. The sessions were a forum for:

sharing departmental guidelines and requirements
building understanding of the IEP process and product
exploring broader issues of inclusive practice.

As a group, teachers had an opportunity to engage in professional reading and discussion, explore resources and receive immediate support by having specific questions answered.
Organising cluster workshops as a strategy for sharing information had many benefits:

Teachers received consistent messages and developed shared understandings about individual planning and inclusive practice.
Teachers were able to share skills and engage in shared problem solving.
Collegiality was encouraged between teachers with similar responsibilities.
It was a time-efficient strategy for the Teacher Learning Support Leader to provide support.

Collegial support

Collegial support for teachers of students with an IEP was identified by the cluster as being important; managing the IEP-based student learning of students can be complex. This was recognised by the provision of structured opportunities for teachers to get together and discuss what they do, demonstrate their practice to each other, problem solve and plan alongside each other and build collegiality as well as knowledge.

Some of the goals of this cluster’s IEP workshops were to encourage and support:

a sense of collegiality by building a professional network of teachers who could help each other
a professional dialogue about individual education planning with teachers sharing experience and learning from each other
a forum for shared problem solving.

In addition, these sessions served to publicly recognise and value the work of the teachers involved.

Time

An important element of this cluster’s IEP strategy was to recognise that time is required to learn about and craft an Individual Education Plan. The cluster opted to run a whole day professional learning program dedicated to this end early in the year and a half day session for review and reporting queries later in the year. Teachers’ attendance was supported by cluster-funded relief. The Teacher Learning Support Leader planned and facilitated the sessions.

During the workshops, time was allocated for teachers to explore resources and readings specific to students with disabilities, as well as time for teachers to begin developing an IEP in a safe, supportive environment. This opportunity allowed many teachers to get a significant head start on the documentation, with support from colleagues and the Teacher Learning Support Leader.

End-of-year reflection

Teacher Learning Support Leader:

‘I found this to be a powerful and effective professional learning model, which enabled teachers to generate an IEP with specific support from the initial stages. The process of writing and developing the IEP in its entirety supported teacher understanding.

There was a sense of satisfaction on the part of teachers who came away from the day with a completed IEP, as well as a deep understanding of the process and elements of the document.

More broadly, across the Cluster, there is a greater degree of networking between teachers, as together we build capacity and support each other; there is shared deeper understanding of the IEP process, particularly that it is a working document, and is by its very nature, never actually complete!’