Abstract
This chapter showcases practices and processes that have research-based promise for making the active pursuit of teacher expertise an important and valued part of a teacher's career and school culture. Authors share habits and practices of teachers who pursue mastery and expertise as well as the professional learning methods of practitioner inquiry, lesson study, and professional learning communities. These approaches serve as potential vehicles to build ongoing professional learning and student-centered school improvement as a critical component of what it means to teach. Through collective processes, schools are able to address a multitude of issues related to student success, classroom innovations, and better working conditions for educators. When these processes are valued, supported, and sustained, they can lead to increased professional drive and joy of teachers as they grow in their sense of professionalism, self-efficacy, and purpose.
TopBackground: Significance Of Mastery Development Processes In Teaching
The United States is currently experiencing a teacher shortage. The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF) found a 33% attrition rate within the first three years of teaching and a 46% attrition rate within the first five years (Pearman & Davis, 2012). The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) revealed that less than 15% of total teachers who leave do so for retirement, and that teachers are most likely to leave the profession within the first five years (Kelly & Northrop, 2015; Lynch, 2012). As teachers leave classrooms full of students, their experience and expertise exit with them. This exodus is due to a number of issues as well as the complexities intertwined when those issues intersect with one another. The COVID-19 pandemic added to an already troubling and mounting trend (Steiner & Woo, 2021). Among the many factors contributing to teachers leaving the profession are a few related specifically to the lack of opportunities to develop mastery and feelings of professional prestige. Daniel Pink (2009) wrote a book about what drives professionals where he described three distinct components that lead to professional drive: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. When one looks closely at factors pulling teachers away from the profession, it is poignant to reflect on the direct contrast between factors driving teachers away from classrooms and the factors that contribute to professional drive in other fields.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Practitioner Inquiry: The systematic, intentional, and ongoing study of one’s professional practice for the purpose of self-directed professional improvements (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993 AU77: The in-text citation "Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. , 2009 as cited in Dana, 2013 ).
Reflective Practices: The thoughtful way of teaching, analyzing, evaluating, and modifying one’s teaching practice, both individually and as part of a community (Dewy, 1933 AU78: The in-text citation "Dewy, 1933" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ; Jay & Johnson, 2002 ; Schon, 1983 AU79: The in-text citation "Schon, 1983" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Teacher Research: A form of reflective practice that makes inquiry a critical component of teaching improvement and generates new knowledge that contributes to teacher professional learning and school redesign and improvements (Lieberman & Miller, 2004 AU80: The in-text citation "Lieberman & Miller, 2004" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Professional Learning Communities: A learning community of educators in the school who have the responsibility and accountability for delivering an effective learning program for students. The communities meet through job-embedded structures to increase their learning related to the learning needs of students ( Hall & Hord, 2020 ).
Lesson Study: Collaborative and reflective inquiry cycle wherein teachers (1) study curriculum and determine a research goal, (2) plan a lesson, (3) teach and collect data in a real classroom setting, and (4) reflect upon and revise a research lesson ( Lewis & Hurd, 2011 ).