PD friends,

I have been soaking in the discussions this week! Thank you so much for
such a rich exchange of reflections on how we learn and grow
professionally. I've captured sound-bytes from our discussions, and
sifted them into some general categories which I'm sure we'll continue
to refine. But here's a starting point of what I'm hearing so far. It's
important that you tell me what I've missed, as I don't want to miss a
thing! If I've left out points or you see ways to clarify or expand what
I'm capturing below, please post it to the PD List.

 

-- What PD experiences that lead to change have not yet been raised?

 

Yours, Jackie

 

Jackie Taylor, PD List Moderator, jataylor at utk.edu 

 

PS - to catch up on this discussion, the posts are now in one thread and
can be found at:

 

http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/PD_Experiences_that_Change_Practi
ce 

 

Question:

Thinking back on your own journey as an educator, tell us about what has
helped you make a shift in your thinking and acting-a PD experience or
combination of experiences that you felt has helped you to improve your
practice. (...versus something that you enjoyed attending but it didn't
make a difference in the long run.) 

If you are professional development staff, please also tell us about
what you've seen to be effective in leading to teacher change. 

Sound-bytes of responses:

 

[In-depth PD]

*	We especially benefit from new learning that is connected to
what we already know, that extends and challenges our understanding,
knowledge and skills. This is a constructivist or project-based approach
to learning

 

*	Participants need to have control of the learning activities, to
tailor them to their own needs, their own goals and levels of knowledge
and experience. They also need to be able to explore their own
questions, and to connect what they are learning with what they are
doing in their classrooms. This cannot be done in one workshop. It
requires opportunities to learn, try out, synthesize, and share with
colleagues. This in-depth professional development, the kind that
significantly improves practice, takes time.

 

*	Experiential and immersion learning experiences - having
students (and thus teachers in professional development) experience what
they are expected to learn

 

[Reflective Practice]

*	Teachers experience their own evaluation of their own ways of
learning and teaching and reflect on what THAT kind of learning is. 

 

*	Teach them how to become reflective learners

 

*	Make change then reflect on that change 

 

[Choice]

*         Task based learning and experiential learning I think work
together to promote reflective practice and transformative learning. But
neither of these will be as rich, if the educator doesn't choose what
he/she wants to work on and have a strong understanding of why. 

[Self-Directed Learning]

 

*	This is where REAL PD comes in-- people who work with learners
who have never been taught the power of self-directed learning--how to
do it effectively and authentically-- need to learn through good PD to
be able to communicate to such learners positive views of their being
able to learn how to be learners. I always tell my training groups that
learners, like children, always live up or down to the expectations of
their teachers--just as the learners at that center in Texas do--they
drop out because from the first, the expectation is that they will.

 

*	Getting out of the "cook book" mode

 

*	The whole approach to learning in adult education, it seems to
me, has been adopted wholesale from the teacher-centered, lesson-plan
culture of K-12--and it is the antithesis of what adult learners need to
thrive. When I try to get teachers to think about methods such as
learning centers or individual learning plans or folders, both methods
where learners make their own decisions about what they want to learn
and how, the first response is always, "You mean I will have to do 15
different lesson plans??" I had one teacher in a PD session rise up in
annoyance and tell me she could NEVER do this kind of teaching because
it would mean students might TALK. (This was an ESOL training, too.....)
As I say, the need to control the classroom to feel competent is pretty
deeply ingrained.

 

[On motivating teachers to consider change] 

 

*	It seems that helping people talk/think through what they do,
where they feel they're strong and then where they feel they might
learn, might be a good way to start.

 

*	Seeing what other adult education teachers were doing in their
classrooms, even the classroom next door

 

*	Trying to motivate practitioners to become more interested in PD
is to put them through simulations. Let them experience low literacy and
then relate the simulation to the technique you are trying to teach.

 

*	Interactive

 

*	Multiple context approach

[Curriculum]

*         Flexibility with curriculum - employing a 'living curriculum'
can take much pressure off the teacher and encourage student autonomy
and buy in. The most gratifying part of this is that I continue to learn
in tandem with the students which I feel is a great demonstration of
respect for who they are and what they offer to the community of
learning. 

[Time to Share With Other Educators]

 

*	Provide lots of opportunities for networking - one of the
biggest complaints we get regarding inservices is that there was not
enough time to share. 

 

*	The hard part about PD is that we all want something that we can
take and apply immediately- however, there are few techniques or
strategies that will work in 100% of our varied situations. I have found
that some of the most valuable time spent in PD workshops and meetings,
is the time I spend talking to other educators about their adaptations
of a technique or strategy. These conversations have helped me in 3
ways: 

	1.	I have the opportunity to think about how what we are
learning can apply to my situation. 
	2.	I have the chance to get other ideas from educators that
I might not have heard from- enabling me to think of still more creative
ways to use what we are learning in the PD seminar. 
	3.	If we are talking about a strategy or technique that I
am already familiar with (as frequently happens in PD seminars), I have
the time to think about it in a new or creative way, and bounce ideas
off other professionals. 

 

*	Sharing with other teachers - Other posts have mentioned this,
and I see it as important in two ways. The first is to help avoid the
perennial "reinvent the wheel." The second is that I feel it goes a long
way towards treating part-time teachers as professional, contributing
members of the department. So often, I feel like part-time professional
development takes an almost remedial tone. But I know that my colleagues
are doing creative, exciting things in their classrooms, and I would
love to learn about it.

 

[Follow-Up]

*	We don't expect our students to learn new skills without
feedback on their performance. Why do we expect it of our teachers? I
personally have only had one professional development experience that
included follow-up mechanisms. And that was the only professional
development workshop that has significantly changed my philosophy and my
teaching practice (it was about student voice and student leadership in
the classroom).

 

*	Follow up not only makes teachers accountable, but also allows
them to see success through change

 

 

[PD policies]

 

*	Mandated professional development - Isn't lifelong learning what
our profession is all about?

 

*	Pay - This may sound petty, but it's not. If I have to divide my
already low per hour wage by the mandatory unpaid admin work, the unpaid
prep time, and then mandatory unpaid professional development time, I'm
coming out around minimum wage. And professional development, even if it
has no registration fee, is still not free to a part-timer. Almost for
sure, I will have either child care or transportation costs associated
with my attendance.

 

[Treatment as Professionals]

 

*	Agendas & needs - Some people have asked how to get buy-in from
reluctant teachers. Have you asked them what they want to learn? I know
it is tempting as an administrator to "know" what your teachers need.
And you may have a very valid point. But so often as I sit in our
semester in-service, I feel like what is called "professional
development" is really more like an indoctrination. The state requires
X, the program requires Y, and good teachers do Z. Great, but what I
really wish is that the program, which needs to accomplish both X and Y,
would have a genuine conversation with the teachers about how we as a
group can best meet those requirements AND provide the best possible
learning experience to students. As a whole, part-timers may not have
the credentials of full-timers, but we have an awful lot of practical
experience and we are often the ones who have to buy in and carry out
the activities needed to really get the program to X and Y. This is,
again, a question of treating part-time teachers as professionals.

 

*	Shared opportunities for PD between both part-time and full-time
staff

 

[Individual responsibility]

 

*	With the changes and the increased demands of our profession, we
have a responsibility to learn how to do the best job we can for the
learners in our program. They are investing precious time and, in order
to respect this, we must make sure we are providing the highest quality
service available today. After all, change is inevitable and we must all
learn from each other to keep up with this change.

 

[Value]

*	Value learners' contributions - Let them know that their
contributions are invaluable and proceed to treat them that way.

 

[PD Planning]

 

*	Provides framework for PD that leads to teacher change

 

*	Based on what's needed to improve student outcomes

 

*	Program and individual plans that align with student and teacher
needs for learning

 

[Resources and Other Incentives]

 

*	Free resources

 

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