Teachers' Professional Learning from Education Practices

Dear Colleagues, 

The importance of improving schools, raising teacher quality, and improving the quality of pupils' learning has led to an intense concern with the process of the professional learning and development of teachers as one important way of achieving these goals. Professional learning includes both the formation of teachers' professional identities as well as their professional empowerment.

The education system constantly seeks to promote the quality of its teaching staff. One of the main components expressing its renewal is teachers' professional learning, which is part of turning teaching into a real profession. This structured and methodical process is designed to reinforce the status of teachers throughout their career. Professional learning for those engaged in teaching positions them as experts in their field and as possessing up-to-date pedagogical and educational knowledge that can enhance their work and lead them to develop the profession and their accountability, as well as advance their pupils' achievements.

In the context of the recent research on teachers' professional learning and development, one must comprehend the complexity of the issue, including its three spheres: the micro-sphere, namely, the individual teacher; the meso-sphere namely, the institutional sphere; and the macro-sphere, which includes the education system. These spheres are mutually dependent and reciprocally influential. Professional learning permits a balance between the needs and aims of the individual teacher, the school, and of national and political needs.

The objectives of professional learning are diverse and are supposed to help teachers with their teaching practices. Some of these goals are:

• Shaping a professional identity to fully exploit the teachers' personal and professional abilities;
• Increasing personal and professional efficacy to promote teachers' required achievements while performing their job;
• Understanding the essence of professional commitment to ensure high-quality teaching–learning for the pupils;
• Ensuring teachers' optimal functioning as members of staff and as partners in the success of the organization employing them;
• Teachers' professional and personal development as people with an educational, social, and ethical worldview;
• Enhancing teachers' abilities to cater effectively to pupils, parents, and colleagues to realize the objectives and goals defined according to personal and systemic needs;
• Enabling upward mobility and advancement in professional rankings;
• Implementing Ministry of Education policies to achieve the required goals.

Acknowledging teachers' learning as a complex structure involving many mechanisms, actions, and elements confirms that this learning is indeed challenging. There are often contradictions in the goals of professional learning between the needs of the teacher as an individual and the needs of the system, of society, and of educational policies. We expect the articles in this Special Issue to discuss the contradictory logic and the challenges these contradictions pose in the context of teachers' professional learning and development.

Some of the questions addressed by this Special Issue discuss how professional learning and development can be maintained effectively and meaningfully throughout one's teaching career so that every teacher is supported in navigating their learning and professional growth according to their wishes, needs, character, and expertise.

Suggested Topics for the SI:

1. The challenges of planning professional development programs;
2. Comparative research of Teachers' Professional Learning around the world;
3. Professional Development Communities or Teachers' Professional Development Communities;
4. Teachers' Professional Learning through dialogic evaluation, portfolios, and peer instruction;
5. Case studies of effective Teachers' Professional Learning;
6. Characteristics of self-directed learning;
7. Empowerment of Teachers' Professional Learning among teachers;
8. Informal and formal professional learning;
9. Professional growth according to teachers' wishes, needs, character, and expertise;
10. Digital professional development of teachers;
11. Personalized continuing professional learning with a global systemic vision;
12. Other relevant suggestions.

Authors are kindly invited to submit their formatted full papers.

All paper submissions will be blind peer-reviewed and evaluated based on originality, research content, correctness, relevance to the conference, and readability. Please read the complete submission and formatting guidelines of Education Sciences before submitting your paper.

Prof. Dr. Orit Avidov-Ungar
Prof. Dr. Sara Zamir
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• professional learning
• professional development communities
• digital development
• informal and formal professional learning
• personalization of learning
• teachers' professional learning through dialogic evaluation