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If you’re planning a comprehensive professional development program for your school or district, here are some important things to keep in mind.
Effective professional development is...
Directly focused on helping to achieve student learning goals and supporting student learning needs. A good question to ask frequently while planning staff development is “How will this improve student learning?" Just as students need to see connections in what they’re learning, teachers in an effective program clearly see the connection of professional development to classroom practice.
A collaborative endeavor - teachers and administrators work together in planning and implementation. Involving teachers in identifying specific needs for professional development and how they might best be met, and in designing professional development activities, enhances teachers’ sense of ownership and professionalism. For example, teacher-leaders can volunteer to facilitate mini-workshops for colleagues on specific instructional strategies they have researched and implemented in their classrooms.
School-based and job-embedded. Professional development takes place in many situations: during teacher planning, in grade-level or department meetings where teachers reflect together on their work and problem solve together; in the classroom, where teachers observe colleagues' lessons to see a strategy in action, and support and coach each other; and in small study or reading groups, or action research activities that teachers choose to participate in.
A long-term commitment. Developing the knowledge and deep understanding of an educational practice, as well as the skill to use it effectively in the classroom, does not occur overnight. Commitment to sustained professional development is demonstrated by administrators who create supportive structures such as teams, devise schedules that provide staff members with development time, and place a priority on funding for professional development activities.
Differentiated. Effective programs acknowledge that teachers, like their students, are at different levels of readiness and have varied interests and preferred ways of learning. To meet these varied needs, professional development is flexible and approached in several ways, such as whole-staff workshops, small study groups, reading groups, action research, mini-workshops, and independent or paired study. While a whole-staff workshop is often used as a starting point to establish a common base of knowledge, it can also be viewed as a way to help each of the teachers to identify specific instructional strategies or areas of interest that they would like to pursue in more depth. Teachers may then elect to engage in independent work or form small groups to pursue their interests. Small groups are flexible as well, in terms of when and how frequently they meet, what ways they decide to pursue their learning, what products they create as a result of their learning, how they share that learning with other members of the staff, and how long different groups exist.
Tied to the district goals. To have significant impact, the professional development plan must be integrated with whatever is driving change in the district — a strategic plan, a school improvement plan, a set of district goals, the performance evaluation system. The ultimate goal of all professional development is to build local capacity and improve student achievement, but it can't live in a vacuum, separate from the other work of the district. Look to the goals of the strategic plan or school improvement model to begin creating a comprehensive professional development plan for your school or district.
Not sure where to begin your professional development plan?
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