If you want to learn how to make your teacher professional development more meaningful then keep reading. If you’ve found yourself wondering why you would rather stay home on professional development days then this blog post is a must read.
Your frustrations about teacher professional development is not felt by you alone. I will examine some of the pitfalls of teacher professional development for teachers today and suggest some practical solutions on how to make professional development more meaningful for teachers.
First, when teachers participate in and receive professional development they may not feel comfortable practicing new skills in their classrooms. The teacher needs to feel comfortable to take the risk of practicing a new skill in his or her classroom.
Often times, teachers are worried about administrators popping up unannounced in their classroom and being written up if they are not following the prescribed curriculum.
It takes courage to try something new and refine it but when the culture of the school does not support this; the teacher ends up not taking the risk of practicing the new skills to improve his or her craft.
A solution for this is that once the administration has determined that teacher or teachers need to implement a new strategy then there needs to be a specified time when the teacher should be practicing the strategy. The teacher needs to then be provided with non-evaluative feedback.
Second, the professional development is not differentiated based on the teacher’s subject area and or grade level. Based on my experience, subject areas such as Science, Social Studies do not receive relevant professional development. Teachers are then left to figure it out on their own, which can lead to undesirable results.
In order to combat this, the school should complete a needs assessment specifically for those subject areas to determine professional development needs for teachers and then invest in professional development that have proven results in those areas.
However, one must not neglect the value of interdisciplinary based professional development when planning for the school year.
Third, teachers are not aware of the school or district’s instructional goals. As a result of this, teachers receive professional development that are aligned with school goals but because they are not aware of the school’s goals, they are not invested in the professional development provided by the school.
I have seen this repeatedly, when teachers are asked what are the goals of the school, the response is to raise test scores. We cannot expect teachers to be successful when they are not aware of the instructional goals of the schools. Raising test scores is very vague and provides little motivation to the teacher.
When coaching teachers, it is more effective to collaborate with the teacher and set smart goals based on data that they are able to articulate and have an end in mind so they are able to work towards the goal. These goals are then aligned to the school or district’s instructional goals.
In other words, district or school wide instructional goals need to be clear to teachers. Remind teachers of goals on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. Teachers should also be aware of goal progress so they can be invested in the professional development, that is alignment with the school’s goals.
Third, professional development providers are not invested in the school’s achievement. Providers deliver professional development, teachers fill out a survey and that’s the end of the story. There is no connection to the professional development provider and to student achievement. There needs to be a valid and reliable measurement to measure the provider’s effectiveness.
Finally, initiative fatigue can rear its ugly head when it comes to professional development. Initiative fatigue happens when a school implements too many different initiatives in the school year. Teachers will less likely be engaged in professional development if they are suffering from initiative fatigue.
Therefore, one or two major initiatives implemented with integrity, comprehensive data collection and evaluation that is aligned with the school’s professional development will help teachers to connect the dots and make sense of the professional development. This will in turn, make it more meaningful.
You can check out episode 7 of the podcast where I discuss