Individual learning plans : a quality teacher initiative : what happens when teachers shape their own professional learning?

This symposium will report on a project that was developed in response to an invitation from the Parramatta Catholic Education Office (CEO) for the School of Education, University of Western Sydney to provide consultancy services to four schools in the diocese. The project was funded through the Australian Government Quality Teacher Programme (AGQTP) and administered by the Focus on Learning Grants Program of the Catholic Education Office, Parramatta. The purpose of the consultancy was to support teachers in the development of Individual Professional Learning Plans. Four schools were identified by the CEO to be involved in the AGQTP funded projects and the project began in June 2006 and is continuing in 2007. UWS is project managing all four projects and reporting to the CEO at agreed points in the project. Two of the projects are being facilitated by staff from Charles Sturt University. Academic partners across the two universities were selected because of their expertise in specific research areas and matched to the professional learning requirements of each of the schools. Each of the individual school projects had a specific focus. The project at Gilroy College, Castle Hill has involved working with a small group of staff developing Individual Learning Plans in a Quality Teaching context. The Patrician Brothers, Blacktown project involved working with a small group of staff developing Individual teacher Learning Plans to develop teacher competency and competence in the utilisation of ICT. The two academic partners from CSU are involved in working with two primary schools, specifically Holy Family, Luddenham and Holy Cross Glenwood. The focus of the Individual Learning Plans at Holy Family has been through authentic assessment while the focus at Holy Cross has taken a Quality Teaching focus.