A Shared Vision of Exemplary Teaching

In Alberta, the Teaching Quality Standard (TQS) is laid out by the provincial government as the knowledge, skills and attributes that all teachers are expected to meet in their practice throughout their careers. The intent of this is to ensure that students throughout the province can expect quality teaching regardless of what school they are enrolled in. I would agree that for the most part, this is true. Most teachers that hold a permanent teaching certificate in Alberta are meeting this standard and those that are not, are typically being given support to get them to this standard or are being addressed from an evaluation perspective.

What is lacking in the TQS is something that this majority of teacher can strive for. The TQS is a minimum standard that teachers must meet. The development of a document that expands on the TQS gives educators guidelines for areas that they can improve their craft in. A great way to develop these guidelines is the creation of a Shared Vision of Exemplary Teaching, which is developed collaboratively by a number of stakeholders. This is a process that we started in Wild Rose Public Schools two years ago and continue to use. Volunteers were gathered into a committee which included teachers, school administrators, central office administrators, trustees and a representative for the Alberta Teachers’ Association. The TQS was used as a starting point for the vision, with six non-negotiable core beliefs identified by the committee. Affirmations were developed that were consistent with the identified beliefs. These affirmations are not intended to be an expectation of where all teachers are at, but rather, they are goals that teachers should be striving for. When developing their professional growth plans (PGP), teachers are encouraged to examine this document and their own teaching and determine one or two areas that they feel that they should focus their improvement on. This shared vision gives us a non-threatening focal point for our growth plans that should improve the learning of our students.

Wild Rose Public Schools' Shared Vision of Exemplary Teaching is available here.

Based on the presentation "Developing a Sustainable Culture of Outstanding Leadership, Exemplary Teaching and Excellence in Learning" by Lyle Lorenz at Leading for Learning, July 6, 2011 (Olds, Alberta)