stop adding & start improving

Professional learning shouldn't end just because teachers are already doing something.

This week I’m taking a short break from The “I already do that” Series (although, don’t worry, there are two more sitting in the wings at present if that’s why you’re here) to write about techniques that teachers already do… wait a moment.

Instead of my current deep dive into the nuance of effective practice, I wanted to talk about professional learning on a wider level and what happens when teachers actually are already doing that. Namely because it’s been something I’ve had several conversations with schools about recently, and there seems to be a view that the thicker the binder of instructional techniques, the better the learning experience. Essentially, it’s this myth that if teachers already do something well enough, there’s no point doing any further professional learning on this topic. But what if we’re missing the point of professional learning as a whole?

---

deja-vu with cfu

I moved to Victoria to teach at the beginning of 2019 and the very first in-school professional learning session I attended was on “checking for understanding”. When I finished at the same school at the end of 2024, we were still running sessions on “checking for understanding”. In between, there were multiple professional learning moments that returned to the same idea.

It’s a topic I know reasonably well outside of this too. I took a genuine interest in the research behind it, which led me to publicly present on checks for understanding in early 2023, and it is woven through my current research studies. Even this year, at researchED Ballarat, I presented on responsive maths teaching (essentially checks for understanding in a mathematics context) and sat in Bron Ryrie-Jones’ brilliant session on the very same topic on the same day.

From the outside, that might look a little obsessive. It might seem unusual to sit in on a session about something you teach and research yourself. But that is precisely the point. I walked away from Bron’s session with pages of notes, fresh ways of thinking and ideas I had not considered.

Expertise does not exempt us from learning. If anything, it increases our responsibility to keep refining.

So why return to something I could comfortably say I understand? To be better.

---

professional learning is iterative not seasonal

For whatever reason, the education field loves a good fad. What could be better than trying out the new flavour of the instructional month? Probably refining techniques and preventing the disillusionment of experienced educators who have seen the same trend return 4 times round in the last decade, but what do I know?

Schools often treat professional learning just like a menu though. We choose the topic of the term, taste it briefly and then move onto a new topic with good marketing. The problem is, even for topics that do yield greater progress for students or are effective in achieving their aims, expertise doesn’t sufficiently development from tasting. Instead, it develops from returning to the same practice time and time again, applying it consistently and seeking feedback.

Our conversations in the professional learning space need to centre on how we can improve on the techniques we already using. To be blunt, it would be disrespectful to the expertise of teachers to tell them that they aren’t using at least elements of effective practice in their day-to-day teaching, because I honestly think you would be hard-pressed to find teachers who aren’t doing this at all. At the same time though, we need to shift our conversations from learning new ideas to improving on the existing ones.

If 100% of your classes aren’t getting 100% in every task, there’s something for you improve on. And even if they are, do it quicker.

You might call me facetious for that, and fair enough, but you can be a good teacher and still be better. Teachers inherently care about their practice, which is why the conversation needs to be around improvement and not just new learning. How that look can differ between taking a new angle on existing research, sharing knowledge with peers or looking into what other research exists.

In fact, the best way to improve is to regularly iterate over the same techniques or concepts in regular cycle to ensure we’re staying up to date with new research, refining techniques or keeping ourselves accountable in ensuring we’re implementing as many elements that make up effective practice as possible.

---

professional learning falters when leaders chase novelty

Often teacher resistance is seen as being one of the biggest barriers to school change, but I’d posit that leadership impatience is a far bigger barrier. Schools are often so eager to demonstrate momentum with new initiatives, complete with flashy social media marketing, that they equate exposure with progress. Being able to reference a new strategy, framework or acronym certainly looks like proof that something is happening, and it’s even better if it makes for some pretty graphics to post online.

Unfortunately, the research around implementation paints a different picture. Implementation needs to be staged, and moving from initial exploration to implementation with fidelity on a particular technique can take years. Despite this, it isn’t uncommon for schools to abandon an initiative after a term to either move onto the next popular thing or because somehow 2 months wasn’t enough time to totally transform results. The only result of this is initiative fatigue for staff. Teachers aren’t given the opportunity to become experts because they are rarely given the time or support to refine their work to the point of mastery.

This drives a cycle of what is really novelty addiction and a prioritisation of visibility over depth. In doing so, leaders, albeit unintentionally, undermine the expertise of their teachers and the entire professional learning process. It’s no wonder teachers nod politely, attend professional learning sessions and often avoid investing too much in them, because history has taught us that the ideas rarely stay long enough to matter.

We all know from our teaching that improvement requires repetition, coaching and feedback, so it shouldn’t surprise us that switching between educational fads only sets us up for surface level adoption. The issue isn’t that teachers don’t want to improve. It is that the conditions for improvement are rarely created.

---

do less better

School improvement can certainly be a knowledge problem, but it’s also a conditions problem. Rather than exposure to more ideas, staff need time to move a little deeper than surface level on the existing ideas that evidence tells us works. This means time, feedback, repetition and accountability to refine the techniques that matter. And once all of that is done, continuous cycles where this knowledge is revisited or refined so that practice is always improving. What shifts practice is staying with a technique long enough to understand its nuance, test its impact and tighten execution.

This means that if schools do want to see genuine change in their classrooms, their professional learning structures need to support depth. This means returning to the same practices over time (it’s giving retrieval), coaching staff instead of just running a lecture or two, and making good practice visible to broader staff. It’s about giving staff permission to return to the same concept until it’s good, and then again until it’s better.

---

be great, then be better

Now I’ve spoken to this a bit from a leadership perspective, but teachers play a role here too. Teachers aren’t afraid of improvement. We’re exhausted by shiny popular instructional techniques that continually reappear with a new name like a trend that just won’t die. The truth of it is though that you can be a brilliant teacher and be brilliant at implementing a technique, but still have room to sharpen it. In fact, I’d say the most expert teachers are those who know they still have more to learn.

Teachers generally care about their craft, so that means accepting that there is always something to tighten, rethink or be better at. Improvement is a significant proportion of our work, and the most effective teachers know this. They remain uncomfortable enough to keep learning and confident enough to admit it. Their language shifts from being “we’ve already done this” to “how are we improving it”.

This means there’s a responsibility as teaching staff to know that getting better means exploring things you might already do in part or in full, and that from that exploration, you might get better or help your colleagues to get better. It’s as much about learning as an individual as it is about sharing team learning.

---

insist on improvement

You can be a good teacher, who builds rapport and gets results, but greatness comes from willingness to admit that that isn’t the finish line. You can be better. Schools improve when they demand better from what already exists and iterate on techniques to continually increase the fidelity with which they are implemented. If teachers know the work and leaders introduce the work, the gap is then simply execution. Not more frameworks or acronyms or seasons of focus. It’s about follow through and consistency.

I’ve been lucky enough to work in some really amazing teams of teachers and leaders across Australia and the most effective of those are the cultures where staff are both confident and unfinished in their practice. Where being called to sharpen your practice is not an insult, but an expectation. And of course, where it’s okay to review checks for understanding for the tenth time because you know that team improvement drives school improvement.

Schools that make real impact aren’t about chasing novelty. They double down on what works and refuse to move until it has teeth. Their staff review the same principles time and time again with a focus on doing them better. They choose fewer ideas, but chase them faster.

As someone working directly in the professional learning space, my biggest learning here is that professional learning isn’t so much about ticking off exposure to new ideas as it is about insisting on improvement. It’s not about doing more. It’s about doing better.