Education Sector Best Practices - Essay Example

Reflective Overview of the Education Sector Best Practices Introduction The current best practices in the education sector globally involves; continuing personal or professional development, widening professional practices, continuous curriculum development, inclusive practices, practitioner research, and the impact of learning on professional roles. Curriculum Development and Inclusive Practice Curriculum development involves a process of continuous improvement in the syllabus. Various approaches are used in developing curricula; analysis, for example cost or need analysis; design for example objectives design; selecting for example choosing the appropriate teaching method; formation for example coming up with curriculum committee; and review which monitors the progress of the development process (Fullan, 2001 74). Curriculum entails more than an ordinary definition; it is a key issue in the process of education. The scope of career development is so large that it affects every person involved in learning and teaching. Inclusive education practices entails making the students feel welcomed and valued in the school; and therefore the students are effectively able to undertake all school activities or programs. Diversity is accepted and respected; students’ different cultures, backgrounds, skills interests and needs; are taken into consideration in school practices and programs. To achieve thi9s end, there exists inclusive practices tools like; student survey, community survey, staff survey, school review profile, inclusive practices and survey reports. Inclusive practices tools are applied in supporting primary, intermediate or schools in engaging in the review process. The main purpose of the review process entails supporting schools in the journey towards developing and implementing inclusive processes for learners, including learners requiring special attention and consideration. Continuing Personal and Professional Development Continuous personal development entails; learning by participating in the continuing professional development process; and from the experience and even the feedback. Competent professionals; look for opportunities and challenges in personal learning and development; identify mistakes and use them for learning opportunities; continuously participate in professional development programs; change behavior towards the positive through feedback and reflection. (Booth, 2011 15).Opportunities for learning and development include, pursuing management development training program. Indicators for personal development include; being accountable for one’s developing by ensuring learning is practiced; performing challenging assignments which ensures career strengths, facilitating organizational learning culture and adopting best practices at the workplace. Continuing professional development entails the approaches through which professionals maintain and improve their skills and knowledge in relation to their careers or professions. Continuing processional development programs are applicable across almost all professions or careers. Many professions identify continuing professional development as the structured approach in learning which ensures that competence is translated into practice; this ensures effective utilization of skills, knowledge and practical experience. Continuing professional also entails appropriate learning practices; which can be formal or structured, or even self directed and informal. In the education field; continuous professional development should be; continuous in improving performance, the individual learner’s own responsibility, driven by learning needs, evaluative on performance, and essential component in professional life. Widening Professional Practice Widening professional practice entails developing new professional practices and identities. In the education sector; widening professional practitioners usually work in separate and autonomous centers, outside the academic faculties or departments (Kara, 2012 4). This research paper explains the unique responsibilities for the widening professional work, and the effect of practices and identities of the widening professional practices in the education sector. Widening participation employees frequently work with many or multiple stakeholders, like schools, students, parents, employers, regional agencies, and national agencies. Their roles include broad projects like community partnership, sector wide research and student life. Therefore, the widening professional staffs appreciate the broad agendas in terms of learning support, employability and social welfare. Widening participation encourages human resource planning and the development of staffs. Widening professional practice entails three major dimensions; widening the participation rate and level in learning, increasing the diversity and representativeness of professional staffs, and involving workers in learning through implementing learning cultures. The framework for supporting widening professional activities explains the strategic direction of increasing professional participation in organizational activities. Practitioner Research Practitioner research involves workplace research and / or academic research; conducted by professional staff members; as opposed to academic researchers on full time basis. Practitioner research developed as a research type towards the end of the 20th century. A practitioner means a worker who gives public services; for example social worker, nurse, police officer or teacher. Practitioner research started in disciplinary silos; however, currently it is noticed that all disciplines or areas of study can undertake practitioner research in majorly the same manner. Doing research while professionally practicing assists with several issues: for example influencing government policy in areas like social welfare; improving the learning of certain disciplines like medicine or education; solving certain problems like insecurity; and finally in improving the practicality quality of the research. Practitioner research involves two areas; workplace research, for example service evaluation; and academic research in line with the practitioner’s role, like masters or undergraduate degree in relevant subject area. Two important factors should be considered in the practitioner research process: ethics and also quality must be taken into consideration. The major issues facing practitioner researchers currently include; finding proper procedures when researching with children, especially vulnerable children; managing of the research ethics committees in organizations; developing inquiry culture; and confronting the dilemmas in research or professional values. Effect of Learning on Professional Roles Professional learning community involves an extended learning chance which fosters collaborative learning between colleagues in a given work environment. It is mostly applicable in the education sector, where teachers are organized into working teams. Professional learning communities have a major meaning; integrating classroom practice in the community through bringing community staff in the school so as to improve the curriculum and learning activities for the students; and maybe even involve the school administrators, teachers and students concurrently in the learning processes. Professional learning community brings together or integrates two ideas that were previously separate; the professional and the community. Professionalism focuses on specialized knowledge in serving clients; while community refers to support and mutual respect in the work teams. Professional learning community is viewed as an effective development team effort and a good strategy for performance chance and consequently school improvements. This is a learning process which focuses on achieving both individual growth and community development. (James, 2006 367-368).The learning community ensures empowerment of staff members; this is because there is commitment and shared vision in achieving common team goals. The importance of the professional learning community involves; minimal isolation of teachers, more informed and motivated teacher, improved academic performance for the students. Conclusion These best practices has ensured improved practices in many organization; especially institutions of higher learning. This is because they ensure staff motivation, community participation in the learning process, and the student satisfaction with the learning outcomes. Bibliography Booth, T., & Ainscow, M. (2011), Index for Inclusion: Developing learning and participation in schools (Revised 2011), Bristol: CSIE, pp. 12-16. Fullan, M. (2001), the New Meaning of Educational Change, New York: Teachers College Press, pp. 74. James, M. (2006) Balancing Rigor and responsiveness in a shifting context: meeting the challenges of educational research, Research Papers in Education, 21 (4) pp.365-380. Kara H (2012) Research and evaluation for busy practitioners: a time-saving guide, Bristol: The Policy Press, pp. 3-5 Read More