Are You Listening To Midcareer Teachers' Needs?

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Are you listening to midcareer teachers' needs?

By Jennifer Reichel

Categories: Career pathways, Data, Leadership, Teacher leadership

Midcareer teachers want something new from professional learning. That’s one of the takeaways from dissertation research I conducted on the professional learning needs of experienced educators. Nearly all of the midcareer teachers I interviewed described a need for content that is fresh or invites a meaningful extension of their existing skills and understandings. Take Jeanine, a second-career educator with 14 years of teaching experience who shared an example of how frustrating it can be when professional learning repeats the same information year after year. “As an English learner teacher, I have seen the cultural iceberg way too many times,” she said, referring to a diagram noting visible and underlying beliefs, attitudes, and values of a culture that is commonly used in workshops. As a result,

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References

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Carstensen, L.L. (2006). The influence of a sense of time on human development. Science, 312(5782), 1913-1915.

Fessler, R. & Christensen, J. (1992). The teacher career cycle: Understanding and guiding the professional development of teachers. Allyn & Bacon.

Huberman, M. (1989) The professional life cycle of teachers. Teachers College Record, 91(1), 31-57.

Knowles, M.S., Holton, E.F., Swanson, R.A., & Robinson, P.A. (2020). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development. Routledge.

Lynn, S. (2002). The winding path: Understanding the career cycle of teachers. The Clearing House, 75(4), 179-182.

Reichel, J. (2023). Don’t waste my time: Characteristics of professional development that mid-career teachers say they need. [Doctoral dissertation, University of St. Thomas]. ir.stthomas.edu/caps_ed_lead_docdiss/183

Shavit, Y., Chi, K., & Carstensen, L. (2022). Age and time horizons are associated with preferences for helping colleagues. Work, Aging and Retirement, 9(3), 280-290.

Jennifer Reichel

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Jennifer Reichel (jennreichel@gmail.com) is director of teaching and learning for Mahtomedi Public Schools in Minnesota and an adjunct professor in the educational leadership and learning department at the University of St. Thomas.