http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/teachingtheteachers
This article discusses some of the necessary changes to professional development in an era where teachers are expected to teach critical thought, collaboration, and reflection to their students. While these are expected of teachers, they are not applied to professional development when training teachers to teach in this manner.
The author argues that professional development can no longer be one and done workshops because those types of professional development don't lead to the fundamental changes in teaching that are needed. A common misconception is that teacher's just need to be given the information and that they can and will then be able to take that information back and apply it to their classroom. While it is true that teachers generally can easily pick up the information, the author states that implementation is the hardest stage and is often an unsupported step in the process. Ninety percent of teachers participate in workshop style professional development.
As we have discussed in class, the author is in support of professional development that occurs over time and that is ongoing. She stresses the need for support during the implementation phase because change often doesn't go well on the first try. It takes practice. A statistic included here was that only 10% of teachers can take information provided to them and effectively turn it into classroom practice. She also noted that coaches/mentors can be effective and that professional development should occur in the context of the teacher's content area.
One final area discussed is funding for this change to professional development. There are several statistics and case studies cited in this part of the article, but the argument is that if you eliminate workshop style professional development, that the professional development style discussed above is feasible with some work.
I think this article makes some good points. Two that I thought were important are that while implementation is the most critical and difficult phase of professional development it is often the least supported and that professional development needs to be content specific. For me, when I go to a conference, I often have very good intentions of implementing the new things that I learned there, and some of them I do, but honestly, the percentage is probably low.
The other thing with conferences now that budgets are tight is that often only one person can attend and they are to bring back the information to share with other teachers. I understand that financially that is necessary, but then the information is presented second hand in an e-mail. If more time was available for collaboration that information could be discussed and implemented with multiple teachers working together.
I think a high percentage of the teachers at the high school would benefit from professional development as described above. Making it content specific would help to make it relevant to those that are hesitant to change and easier to see how to implement. I also think most teachers here would be receptive. If we were to use coaches/mentors, I think some training for those individuals would be key to making it successful.
Funding will always be an issue with any type of professional development and even if changes across the board can't happen, districts can find ways to use the money that is available in the most effective way possible.
I am always interested in reading research on this type of professional development. While I knew the percentage of teachers who take the information back to their classroom was low, I was surprised at how low it was. That statistic just reinforces how important it is to move from workshop style to professional development that is ongoing over time.
ReplyDeleteThe author stated that if workshop style is eliminated, then funding for the long-term professional development becomes available. Was he referring to all workshop style professional development, or just in-house?
I am currently working on trying to implement more of this style of PD in our building, but it has been a struggle, mostly because of time constraints. With so much emphasis on CCS, PARCC, and the Danielson model for evaluations, it is sometimes challenging to convince teachers that they need to add one more thing to their to do list; however, i still strongly believe that we cannot continue to teach they way we were taught. Teachers need the tools to teach with technology.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy curiosity was peaked when I saw that your article was on professional development. There are two points that really struck me. One was the one about how smaller budgets have decreased the amount of teachers able to go to conferences. Instead, now we often go alone and are required to share when we return. I agree that the way the information is then presented to the department or staff by the lone teacher is also just as important as the how it was presented at the conference.
ReplyDeleteAnother point that resonated with me is the suggestion that PD be content specific. I do feel that PD needs to be relevant in content and even grade level. Even at the high school, it would benefit to have PD that addresses teaching strategies and content for ninth graders versus twelvth graders.
We are all teachers and we all already know that there are better methods of professional development than workshops, but it always comes back to funding and time. Schools don't have to money to offer extra pay for the amount of time that mentors and mentees need to put in to the effective methods. It's a vicious cycle!
ReplyDelete