As I think on a lot of the professional development I have sat in, it has been a lot of sit and get.
Here is the information.
Here is a handout on the data.
Here are some ideas on how to fix that.
Here is another handout on the ideas.
And go!
In theory this sounds good. Identify the problem, find some solutions, share them and then set you free to work it out. But it doesn’t work. Often teachers attend the professional development days and are so overwhelmed by information that by the end of the day we don’t know what way is up, much less what new strategy to attempt or start in our classrooms. We leave more confused and overwhelmed than we did when we arrived. And like Kristin stated, the presenters think they are doing a good job because all the teachers give feedback like "great ideas" and "can't wait to try that in my classroom!" And we genuinely do think they are great ideas and we genuinely do want to try them in our classrooms. But we leave the training and get back to our own four wall classroom and refer back to those handouts and think "how am I going to do this in here?"
When considering the 5 principles for professional learning, I think that the two biggest factors are duration and modeling. Teachers need more than just a one-time sit and get, we need a deep dive into what you are asking of us or what we are trying to implement. We don't expect our students to attain mastery of a skill from one time instruction, so why do we expect that of our educators? Secondly, we need modeling. We need to see this in action. Yes, it's great to hear success stories and see student work samples. But we need to see how you got there. We need to see how you started, not where you ended.
If we want teachers to be more confident and successful in the classroom, then we need to give them what they NEED. When we design profession developments for teachers, we should keep in mind: they don't need more information, they need more support with implementation.
Resources
Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability. Center for Public Education. Retrieved October 16, 2023, from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/system/files/2013-176_ProfessionalDevelopment.pdf
TEDx Talks. (2013). Empowering the teacher technophobe: Kristin Daniels at TEDxBurnsvilleED. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puiNcIFJTCU&t=641s&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
photo: Meda from Wix: "bored in class"
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