Occasionally, a book comes along that a field desperately needs. Transformational Professional Learning is such a book. It is clear, accessible and profoundly practical. Cutting through the vast literature on professional learning, it reminds us that the ultimate end game is making a difference to learners. Put simply, this book is a must read.
Professor Alma Harris, University of Bath
Deborah Netolicky's Transformational Professional Learning: Making a Difference in Schools is a must-read for anyone with an interest in developing authentic and impactful professional learning for themselves and for teachers and school leaders. As a pracademic, Netolicky expertly weaves together thoughtful and thorough analyses of existing international research literatures, her own original research findings, and her in-depth expertise from an extensive career as a teacher and school leader. Few books accomplish the complex and sophisticated task of genuinely bringing together new research insights and new practical applications; this book achieves this and more to create new possibilities for understanding and action. Transformation professional learning avoids one size fits all solutions, magic bullets, and artificial polarisations that characterise much educational debate to produce a book that places the complexity, identity, work, voices, and humanity of educators at the centre of professional learning to benefit their own development and the learning of the students they serve.
Associate Professor Carol Campbell, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
If we want to produce ambitious changes in student learning goals, we will need to reimagine and invigorate new forms for learning for the adults who are striving to produce these outcomes. In this compact and timely book, Deborah Netolicky deftly balances research summaries of effective professional learning with vivid stories from the field that illustrate these ideas at work.
Bruce Wellman, Co-Director, MiraVia LLC
In this comprehensive guidebook for getting the most from the many different kinds of professional development initiatives, Dr Deborah Netolicky begins by showing how to identify and engage better with customary professional learning that is mostly informational in nature. Netolicky then leads readers into transformational professional learning-that is, learning that both challenges and also supports professionals in examining and sometimes changing their beliefs, attitudes and values that govern behaviours and drive improvement to professional practice. Netolicky's own rich and deep experiences, as a researching educational leader and as professional developer, make this wonderful compendium extraordinarily helpful, practical, and meaningful. Transformational Professional Learning is a treasure chest of ideas, practices, and strategies that are vitally important to helping schools to become better places of learning, growth, and development for adults as well as for children.
Professor Ellie Drago-Severson, Teachers College, Columbia University
Deborah Netolicky's comprehensive, research-informed book on teacher professional learning effectively bridges the research-practice divide to provide an essential resource for teachers and school leaders. Written in an accessible, conversational style, the book locates current thinking about teacher professional learning in Australian schools within broader national and international contexts, and highlights the complexity of this field in which there are no 'silver bullets'. Scholarly and practical, Netolicky's book argues for an expansive and generative understanding of teacher professional learning, shaped and tailored differently for teachers with many and varied learning needs working in radically different contexts.
Associate Professor Nicole Mockler, University of Sydney
This is a valuable book because it is written from a new perspective. Deborah Netolicky's position as a 'pracademic' allows her to address many of the tensions and recognise the opportunities inherent in teachers' professional learning. The book extends an invitation to engage with dimensions of practice alongside the author's analysis of her own and others' research. The insights offered are essential for those working in complex spaces where children and young peoples' learning is at the forefront, but in which professional learning is critical.
Professor Rachel Lofthouse, Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University
Improving what people do in schools is a key to better student learning. In this book Deborah Netolicky shares her experiences as teacher, leader and researcher and shows, using concrete examples, how to make the most out of professional learning for the benefit of all children.
Pasi Sahlberg, Gonski Institute for Education, UNSW
