Professional development for government teaching professionals: can it be realised through the balanced scorecard approach?

ABSTRACT

Professionals make decisions, problem-solve through experience, skill and cognition, while providing a unique community service. For the government-employed professional teacher, professional associations, standards, identity and their employer contribute to professional development (PD). Meanwhile, continuous PD, or professional lifelong learning, enables PD beyond maintenance of currency – sufficiency – to provide impetus for forward movement of professions through innovation. The balanced scorecard (BSC) has international use in organisations and education to reduce the gap between vision and reality. Understandings of key PD aspects suggest that the BSC might align to provide a framework for PD. This article discusses the BSC for teacher PD applied in Victorian government schools, Australia, and rationalises why it was only implemented for a year.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher
• professional development
• professional learning
• balanced scorecard

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jacolyn Weller

Jacolyn Weller is a senior lecturer in STEM education in initial teacher education and the Director of Professional Experience at La Trobe University. She is a mid-career researcher with more than 20 years of secondary school teaching experience. Her discipline repertoire includes science, chemistry, mathematics and information technology teaching. A strong philosophy of a practical approach frames her advocacy of experiential teaching. Her research focus is based on the sustainability of teachers in the teaching profession and extends into innovative teaching and assessment, professional development and partnerships inclusive of partnerships that involve professional experience.