Learning walks for building a culture of improvement

Emily Rankin, Deputy Head, Upper School and Teaching and Learning, The English College in Prague, Czechia ‘Learning walks’, also referred to as ‘walkthroughs’ in some countries, have long been held by school leaders as a way to gauge instructional practice and ensure that school initiatives are being implemented (Rouleau and Corner, 2020). Many school communities, however, have moved to include teachers in learning walks, as this helps to build ‘a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement’ (Finch, 2010). This case study explains how my school, a British-Czech secondary school in Prague, Czechia, has utilised learning walks as a means of empowering teachers in the development of whole-school teaching and learning and spurring a culture of collaborative continuous improvement.  Starting out Pre-2018, our school lacked meaningful teacher collaboration; there was a closed-door culture of instruction, and professional development was of a one-size-fits-all model.