PD: Just One Piece of the Puzzle
There is no point in having teachers sit through one more professional development session!
For the last nine years, I have been providing professional development in schools and school districts related to inclusive practices, secondary transition, youth empowerment, and family engagement.
At first I was excited by the challenge of using adult learning theory to support inservice teachers. Wanting to expand teachers’ effectiveness in teaching diverse students, I avidly digested brain research so that I could embed engagement strategies in my workshops. It was my new work of passion after directing the graduate teacher preparation program at Towson University. My mission was clear – I could help teachers implement more effective approaches where they were already working – in their classrooms.
Over time, I started realizing that my professional development workshops – no matter how terrific I made them – just weren’t enough.
They are only one piece of the school improvement puzzle.
I sorted my own experiences to identify workshops that had made a difference versus those that hadn’t. I reviewed publications on professional development and systems change. Most of all, I reflected on what overwhelmed teachers had told me.
Here are the other pieces of the puzzle. Without all the pieces, workshops are just a waste of time and precious resources:
Administrative endorsement – the building principal explicitly states that he/she values the topic and reinforces that statement by a) participating in the workshop, b) clarifying his/her expectations for implementation, c) providing time for teachers to learn and collaborate to gain mastery, and d) checking with teachers afterwards about their practice of the new initiative.
Prioritization – the topic has been identified as a priority by the building leadership team and the teachers participating in the workshop. Often that means that other competing initiatives may be put on hold or removed from the priority list.
Stakeholder engagement – building leadership has recruited buy-in from all those impacted by the initiative (teachers, staff, families, community) and has given them voice in the initiative. Sometimes, for an initiative imposed from outside their building because of district, state, or national priorities, stakeholders accept the rationale.
Learning culture – participating staff embrace a growth mindset, believing that challenges are welcome opportunities to learn that will stretch their capacities. Time is reserved to celebrate courageous experiments and results, whether they are new learnings or positive outcomes.
Implementation support – teachers have support for implementation, including collaborative structures such as professional learning communities and instructional or peer coaches. These supports will be accessible to teachers when they take the risk of experimenting with the new practice and things do not go smoothly. Otherwise, they abandon second attempts.
Data based decisions – implementation of the initiative will be evaluated by strategic data collection and analysis with the teachers having ownership of the data decision process.
