Blog Post #5: Professional Development (PD)

Many teachers have experienced a situation where they sat through a professional development session thinking:

• This session is boring, and the person is lecturing too much.
• How is this going to help me with [insert specific classroom concern]?
• I don’t have time to pore over all this theory-talk. I want to learn what I need to do to be more effective and how to do it right.

In some ways, adult learners are just like children learners.

• They don’t want to be lectured.
• They want to be motivated and engaged, not bored.
• They want to learn about things they find worthwhile and relevant to their own personal life.
• They want to be able to apply their learning in real life situations.
• They are reluctant to admit they don’t know something, and they can be self-conscious and sensitive to criticism from their peers.

In some ways, adult learners are quite different from children learners.

• They have greater life experience and multiple (larger and more complex) frames of reference that affect how they filter, acquire, and process new learning.
• They have high expectations in terms of content and the person delivering it.
• They have busy lives and multiple obligations that prioritize immediate action and don’t always leave enough time for prolonged study and reflection.

Lyons and Pinnell (2001) mention that adults are “flexible learners” and “generally motivated to learn” (p. 3). In my opinion, this is debatable and not always true.

• Some adults are not as flexible, and can be rather set in their ways. As teachers of children, we know what it’s like to work with reluctant learners. As literacy leaders working with adults, we should be prepared to work with less flexible people by providing solid rationales for the approaches and techniques we use, and by being encouraging and non-judgmental when easing them into using new methods and technologies.
• Some adults are not as motivated to learn and can view professional development as a chore, rather than as an opportunity and, indeed, a necessity. We need to work on influencing and changing the mindset of such adults by showing them the value of lifelong learning for their students and for their personal and professional growth. For many adults, “to change or to try something new means to risk failure” (Guskey, 2002, p. 386). Teachers are afraid of failing when trying new approaches or methods, because it is so intricately connected to their own students’ failure. However, if we show them connections between the effectiveness of new learning and their students’ improvement, they will be more likely to try.

Basic considerations for High Quality Professional Development

Just like high quality classroom teachers, those charged with the task of organizing professional development have to take into consideration the adult participants’ learner identities, characteristics, and needs, as well as the learning context. Because the adult participants are teachers, we also have to consider their teacher identities, characteristics, and needs, as well as the teaching context.

• their professional self-concept (how they view their own effectiveness as a teacher)
• their teaching qualifications and experiences
• their classroom and student context and needs

Goals of High Quality Professional Development

High quality PD in the area of literacy should be effective and yield positive results, which means, it should meet its goals. According to Lyons and Pinnell (2001), the goals of effective PD for both staff developers and teachers are

to acquire deep conceptual understanding about the reading and writing processes, about how students and adults learn, and about how to create opportunities for them to learn effectively” (p. 4)

These goals give us a hint about the content of PD as well, since it should address the theory and practice of learning and teaching reading and writing. Moreover, the topics and activities in effective PD should be “related to real school-classroom situations” and existing teacher and school needs (Bayar, 2014, p. 323).

Elements of High Quality Professional Development

In accordance with the principles of constructivist-based teaching (Lyons & Pinnell, 2001, p. 4-5) and research in the field, successful PD should incorporate:

Safe environment for sharing successes and failures, concerns, questions, and ideas. Teachers are more likely to voice their needs and concerns if they know that they will not be judged or receive negative evaluation for their performance. Although there is always an existing pressure to improve, it is “necessary to initiate change” and it should be manifested positively as “encouragement, motivation, and occasional pressure that many practitioners require to persist in the challenging tasks” (Guskey, 2002, p. 388).

Active participation. Teachers want to shorten their learning progression and move on to being active participants in learning, and rightfully so. They already have rich acquired knowledge and experiences they can activate to navigate and propel their own learning. There is evidence that teachers would appreciate greater involvement in planning and design of PD opportunities (Bayar, 2014, p. 323), which would allow them to exercise their leadership skills and acquire a greater sense of ownership in their learning.

Small group discussions. Sharing of knowledge and experience is best realized in small groups of individuals who have similar concerns or goals. Talking through issues, brainstorming solutions, and collaborating on problem-solving helps make connections to teachers’ own practice and classroom situations.

Demonstration, observation, application, collaboration. Demonstrating new methods or approaches does not have to be reserved for literacy specialists only. Every teacher has areas of expertise and areas where they need improvement. Staff should be encouraged to share their teaching capital with others and to learn from each other. Observing each other is one way to learn and give feedback. Likewise, teachers need to be able to see how their colleagues are applying new learning, and to compare notes on their experiences. It is not enough to present a new method, provisions should be made for teachers to observe their colleagues in action. Teachers should not be expected to learn and practice in isolation, but through constant interaction with their professional peers.

Long-term goals and follow-through with feedback and results evaluation. Many times, PD is presented and perceived as a one-and-done experience that adds CEU hours to our teacher licences. However, research shows that short term goals “tend to lack the depth necessary to have a lasting impact on teaching skills” (Bayar, 2014, p. 324). PD should be viewed as a continuous process that results in improved students outcomes. Staff developers should encourage teachers to apply new learning, make note of student outcomes, and share and analyze samples of student work and results with their colleagues. Time and space should be allotted for such sharing and for providing feedback to colleagues. Student data, empirical evidence, and feedback should be used to make adjustments to further learning opportunities and PD sessions.

References:

Bayar, A. (2014). The components of effective professional development activities in terms of teachers’ perspective. International Online Journal of Educational Sciences, 6 (2), 319-327. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15345/iojes.2014.02.006

Guskey, T. R. (2002). Professional development and teacher change. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 8 (3), 381-391. doi: 10.1080/13540600210000051 2

Lyons, C. A. & Pinnell, G. S. (2001). Systems of change in literacy education. A guide to professional development. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.