For the Principals’ Training Center (PTC), professional learning has never been about simply preparing educators to do the work they have always done. It is about asking whether the work itself needs to change.
That question feels particularly important now. International schools are navigating a rapidly changing landscape shaped by:
Some of these forces are beyond a school’s control. Others require educators and leaders to reconsider long-standing practices.
The PTC responds to that complexity by continually rethinking its own professional learning. Courses are redesigned each year in response to current contexts and the latest research on teaching, learning, and leadership. This summer, that commitment was evident across both online and in-person courses, where practicing and aspiring leaders came together to examine not only what they do, but why they do it and what impact it has on student learning.
For Bambi Betts, PTC’s Director, that question is at the heart of leadership.
“At the PTC we relentlessly pursue this guidance: whatever you are thinking about doing as a leader, stop first and ask: What learning for what kids is at stake if we do or don’t take this action?”
It is a deceptively simple question, but one that can fundamentally shift how leaders approach their work.
Rethinking What We Have Always Done
One example emerged through a pivotal PTC course on instructional supervision, evaluation and teacher growth facilitated by Stacy Stephens. Participants examined practices that have become familiar in schools, including traditional pre- and post-observation models, and questioned whether those systems are actually supporting better teaching and learning.
The conversations revealed a genuine appetite for change. Stacy reflected:
“There is a genuine need to learn more about different and more research-aligned approaches teacher growth and accountability in schools. Many people are working very hard for what essentially amounts to just documentation and not impact on student learning.”
Rather than treating the supervision and appraisal of teachers as a standardized process applied equally to everyone, participants explored ways to differentiate approaches according to teachers’ needs, experience and readiness. A Skill and Will matrix provided one way to think about that differentiation, while models more closely aligned with learning principles opened up possibilities beyond the traditional observation cycle.
The shift was not simply from one supervision and appraisal model to another. It was a shift in of the very design principles that the whole idea is based on: from administrator-driven systems toward teacher-centered growth, from compliance toward reflection, and from documentation toward impact on student learning.
Participants also considered how peers might become more meaningfully involved in the process and how standards can provide clarity around expectations for teaching and learning.
They examined the vulnerability inherent in being observed and the ways personal bias can influence the growth process. The work therefore became about more than improving a system. It became about building the trust and commitment educators say they need in their schools to fully robustly impact learning.
One participant captured the impact of that shift:
“This course has been one of the most impactful professional learning experiences I have participated in. It has shifted my thinking from seeing leadership as providing answers to viewing leadership as partnering with teachers to build collective efficacy and improve student learning.”
That movement toward partnership is significant. It reflects a broader understanding of leadership in which leaders do not simply deliver solutions to educators. They create the conditions for educators to learn, contribute, and improve together.
From Learning to Action
For the PTC, professional learning does not end when a course does. Each course identifies an essential set of skills, and participants consider their own starting points before working intentionally to develop those skills throughout the week. By the end of the course, participants also create an application task that synthesizes their learning into a proposed improvement they can take back to their school.
That emphasis on application reflects a larger philosophy: professional learning should have somewhere to go. The goal is not simply for participants to leave with new ideas, but with something they can try, adapt, and use in their own contexts. In international schools, where contexts vary dramatically from one community to another, that distinction matters. A useful idea is one that can be translated into practice.
Professional Learning for a Changing Profession
This summer's courses also reflected the reality that international school leadership cannot be separated from what is happening beyond the school walls. The PTC facilitators threaded these realities through their courses, helping participants consider what they can control, what they need to adapt to, and where leadership can make a meaningful difference. That work requires a willingness to move beyond familiar answers.
Bambi describes a growing sense of urgency in the PTC's approach.
“There has been so much about going slow to go fast. We take that point, but when that means keeping what we know about learning from our kids, then, no.”
In other words, reflection should not become an excuse for inaction.
Rethinking Where Professional Learning Happens
The shift is not only about what educators learn, but how they learn. The PTC offered courses both online and in person this year, with the same curricular content available across formats.
For Stacy, the online experience reinforced something that is sometimes overlooked in professional learning: meaningful connection does not depend entirely on physical proximity.
“The power of online learning is that we can accomplish the same outcomes online. That gives people more flexibility for learning over their summer, and you can and do build strong relationships and connections online.”
Participants appeared to agree. One wrote:
“I have been to a lot of other workshops and PD sessions, but the PTC sets the bar at the highest level.”
Another, initially skeptical about online professional development, offered an especially telling reflection:
“So happy I took this opportunity. I don't ever feel that PD is good online, but this was the exception! Thank you so much for creating an amazing learning space and inclusive environment for all of us.”
The point is not that one format is better than another. It is that professional learning can be designed to maintain rigor, relationships, and relevance regardless of where it takes place.
Looking Ahead
After 38 years of working with international school leaders, Bambi still finds something remarkable in the experience of bringing educators together.
“It is still thrilling to witness how instantly these practicing and aspiring leaders unite and genuinely help each other with open hearts and minds to approach the daunting task of having an impact on learning.”
That may be one of the most enduring lessons from the PTC's work this year.
The mission of the PTC does not stop with leaders. To shift systems requires a serious look at all the components that impact student learning. To address this, the PTC offers skill-based, job-embedded programs during the school year for teacher leaders, counselors, teachers, recruiters, and governance members; a system reset.
The international school profession is changing. The challenges facing schools are increasingly complex, and many of the practices that once seemed sufficient may no longer be enough. Professional learning, therefore, cannot simply preserve what has worked in the past. It has to help educators question, adapt, and imagine what comes next.
That is where the PTC's work becomes particularly relevant. Its role is not simply to provide courses for school leaders. It is to create spaces where educators can examine their assumptions, engage with research, practice new skills, learn from one another, and return to their schools ready to make meaningful changes.
For a profession facing so much change, perhaps leadership ultimately comes back to one question: What are we making possible for students and their learning?
Explore more about the PTC and upcoming courses here.
