I begin this entry with the assumption that teachers can improve and enhance their practice over time — in other words, that a teacher on her first day of teaching should by no means be the same teacher who retires thirty or more years later. Certainly, we would expect that just as adults in any other career or profession should, teachers advance in their understanding of their own practice and how to foster better and richer outcomes as time goes on.
However, one major difference in teachers’ opportunities to learn versus such opportunities in most other professions is that teachers rarely see each other actually teach, particularly for any extended or ongoing period(s) of time. And this is not usually a choice on the part of teachers — it is simply a fact, given the typical structure of a school day and year.
Consider other disciplines, professions, or arts in which people learn from each other by actually “practicing” together: athletics, music, law, much modern medicine, and on and on. Even though individuals in these fields must surely practice on their own in order to truly develop their skills and knowledge, they frequently practice together so that they can learn from those who are more experienced or who have different perspectives.
So, the more that we can establish and maintain structures for co-teaching and for in-class embedded professional support (such as coaching or mentoring), the more that we can support teachers in a goal which benefits us all: fostering the learning and growth of our children.
