Ardith Shirley

Professional Learning
New Brunswick Teachers’ Association
New Brunswick

Ardith is one of six professional staff who work on behalf of teachers at the New Brunswick Teachers’ Assocation. Ardith’s current responsibilities include issues related to all aspects of professional learning programming for NBTA, including facilitation of workshops at the school, district, provincial and national level, as well as providing professional advice and assistance to individual teachers. Externally, Ardith is responsible for coordination of activities with the Department of Education, districts, and universities on such matters as teacher certification, professional learning, assessment, strategic school development, and leadership.

  The current assessment focus of my work is:

My recent focus has been working with NB principals, vice principals and teacher leaders to deepen understanding of the relationships between formative assessment, motivation, and learning. Through practice of providing descriptive feedback and co-construction of criteria, we explore their current practice in providing feedback to students, teachers and others in their school communities and then explore how to leverage that practice to build a cultures of confidence and competence within their own schools and learning communities.

  You can find out more about assessment in my jurisdiction here:

I write a monthy column for NB Teachers that appears in our NBTA News.