Teachers in other nations have far more time than U.S. teachers for professional development, collaboration and their own learning, and the nation’s schools would benefit from implementing programs with sustained practices embedded in the working day.

That conclusion of a report by the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) finds that while the United States is making progress in providing support and mentoring for new teachers and focusing on bolstering content knowledge, the type of support and on the- job training most teachers receive is episodic, often fragmented, and disconnected from real problems of practice. Professional Learning in the Learning Professional: A Status Report on Teacher Professional Development in the U.S. and Abroad, compares U.S. teachers' experience with professional learning with that of teachers in other high-performing nations

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average for a teacher’s direct contact with students is 803 hours per year for primary schools and 664 hours per year for upper secondary schools. In the U.S., teachers average 1,080 hours per year, more than any other OECD nation. Per week, that comes down to 15 to 20 hours per week in other OECD countries compared to 3 to 5 hours in the U.S. The report recommends best practices of other countries, where teachers have vastly more collaborative time for planning.

“The United States is squandering a significant opportunity to leverage improvements in teacher knowledge to improve school and student performance,” writes Gov. Hunt in the Foreword to the report. “Other nations, our competitors, have made support for teachers and teacher learning a top priority with significant results. In these countries, students learn and achieve more. Teachers stay in the field longer and are more satisfied with their work. Educators take on even more responsibility for improving what happens in their buildings.”

Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and other sources indicate that other nations provide:
•    Extensive opportunities for formal and informal in-service development.
•    Time for professional learning and collaboration built into teachers’ work hours. Professional development activities that are ongoing and embedded in teachers’ contexts.
•    School governance structures that support the involvement of teachers in decisions regarding curriculum and instructional practice.
•    Teacher induction programs for new teachers that include release time for new teachers and mentors, and formal training of mentors.

The report’s profiles of foreign practices are likely to make American teachers envious.
•    In South Korea – much like Japan and Singapore – only about 35 percent of teachers’ working time is spent teaching pupils. Teachers work in a shared office space during out-of-class time, since the students stay in a fixed classroom while the teachers rotate to teach them different subjects. The shared office space facilitates sharing of instructional resources and ideas among teachers, which is especially helpful for new teachers. Teachers in many of these countries engage in intensive lesson study in which they develop and fine-tune lessons together and evaluate their results.
•    In Finland, teachers meet one afternoon each week to jointly plan and develop curriculum, and schools in the same municipality are encouraged to work together to share materials.
•    In Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland more than 85% of schools provide time for professional development in teachers’ work day or week.
•    In Singapore, the government pays for 100 hours of professional development each year for all teachers in addition to the 20 hours a week they have to work with other teachers and visit each others’ classrooms to study teaching. With the help of the National Institute of Education, teachers engage in collective action research projects to evaluate and improve their teaching strategies.
•    England has instituted a national training program in best-practice literacy methods, using videotapes of teaching, training materials, and coaches who are available to work in schools. This effort coincided with a subsequent rise in the percentage of students meeting the target literacy standards from 63 percent to 75 percent in just three years.
•    Australia’s Quality Teacher Programme provides funding for curriculum and professional development materials used in a trainer of trainers model to update and improve teachers’ skills and understandings in priority areas and enhance the status of teaching in both government and non-government schools.
This is the first of three studies that will examine professional learning within the U.S. Future studies will measure the effectiveness of professional learning at the state level and deepen understanding among educators and policymakers of what it takes to enact and implement policies that result in improved systems for teachers' professional learning. The multiyear research initiative is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MetLife Foundation, NSDC, and the Wallace Foundation.

Read a report summary or the in-depth research report for Professional Learning in the Learning Professional: A Status Report on Teacher Professional Development in the U.S. and Abroad.

An NSDC blog will also be highlighting report findings.
Source: NSCD press release, United States Is Substantially Behind Other Nations in Providing Teacher Professional Development That Improves Student Learning; Report Identifies Practices that Work.