Expert Knowledge Is Not Enough to Improve Education: A Holistic View of Professional Development

• In Event: Confluence in Education and Professional Development: Expert Knowledge, Autobiography, and Narrative to Develop Transformative Practice

Abstract

Many attempts to improve the quality of education fail. We describe an innovative approach for professional development that is essentially bottom-up and starts from the qualities teachers already have. It aims at an integration of cognitive, emotional and motivational aspects within the teacher. In a mixed-methods study we analyzed at six primary schools what the outcomes of the approach were for the teachers, the students, and for the school culture as a whole. Moreover, we analyzed which specific aspects of the approach stimulated or hindered these effects. We conclude that the holistic, confluent education approach created fundamental and enduring outcomes in the schools. This leads to significant implications for educational innovation in general.

Authors

• Saskia Attema-Noordewier, VU University Amsterdam

• Rosanne Cathelijne Zwart, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

• Fred A.J. Korthagen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam