As the world continues to evolve at a more rapid pace, so is education. 

To keep up with students need to learn to be successful in the future, teachers need to continuously be developing new skills and knowledge that will allow them to serve their students' changing needs.

At WAB, teachers and administrators are committed to constant professional growth to serve students. One key element of this mission has been to partner with leading organizations and consultants who are experts in preparing schools for the future of learning.

"Growth is driven by goals, so you have to have a vision of something you want to accomplish," said Steve Barkley, an educational consultant and author who is working with WAB to develop the school's professional growth model. "It’s critical that we put a vision in front of teachers that is similar to the one we want to put in front of kids. The more the teacher learns, the greater the opportunity for on-going student learning becomes. It’s important in my mind that we’re modeling that for students, because it’s the same piece we want them to develop."

The work Steve is doing for WAB is focused mainly around working with leadership and teachers, but the model is designed to create a system and a culture that will reach every member of the WAB community. The main strategy, he says, is to get people to ask driving questions.

"As a teacher, the question is: What would I want to help my students to accomplish that, to this point, I’m not able to? As a leader: What do I want my staff to achieve that they haven’t yet? And as a community: To what extent do we have a picture of the world being a better place? I’m going to have to learn something to make that happen."

Tune in to the latest episode of The WAB Podcast to hear our entire conversation with Steve Barkley, as well as more stories about innovative learning from Western Academy of Beijing.