How Career Stage Impacts Teacher Professional Learning

Dr. Jennifer Reichel: 

And the reason that I like to share this, the stages of development is really when we think about professional learning experiences, teachers in different stages of their career value, different things from the learning experiences. And one of the common pieces that comes out for folks who are in the middle I will talk about in just a bit right now. So Carstensen shared a theory called the socioemotional selectivity theory, and it talks about what employees need based on their role longevity. So a person who, if you look at that top arrow, it goes from the left expansive, which means there is much time left in their role. The time is expansive remaining in what they’re intending to do. And on the right limited people see an end coming to this particular role. The time that they have that they perceive is left in their particular role or career really shifts the way that they orient their goals when it comes to that professional experience.

So those who are new, this is the application, those who are new to the profession really want to explore and build that tool bag if you will, take in as much new information as they can. And those folks who are in the middle or the end of their career really value experiences where they can offer their mentorship or expertise and support the system or their colleagues. And so the more we can orient learning experiences that help folks really dig into and align their work with that goal orientation, the better. The bottom of the chart, we talk about the kinds of experiences that are preferred. So if we look on that right-hand side for a mid-career and later we want activities or experiences that have gains, what can I apply tomorrow? I want to think about my whole self in the work that I do, which came out in the chat earlier, I want to deepen existing relationships, which is both that role like, but where we find grade level teams and content teams who want to spend time together to deepen that existing relationship, they want to enhance that expertise, connect to the emotional meeting, not only the practicality and just increasing life satisfaction.