Professional "Development" at a Crossroads

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Permalink Reply by Todd Bowen on November 10, 2010 at 9:25am

Interesting article. I'm troubled by the thought that professional development should focus on raising test scores or meeting contractual obligations when education of the individual or life long learner is the philosophical approach that we use in our mission statements. Following our state conference where attendance was down by one third or half depending on your reference year and the discussion in our building's professional development committee of reducing the amount of money spent by not paying for mileage or meals, I'm wondering what model of life long learning and growth stimulation we can sustain in education during tough budget times.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Sauer on November 10, 2010 at 9:49am

That's the beauty I think of new type of learning that can happen through the development of a digital Professional/Personal Learning Network (PLN). I've learned so much more from reading articles, blogs, tweets, forums then from attending a conference. Sure this is a bad (financially) for professional organizations, but perhaps those organizations, including NADSFL, need to figure out how to facilitate this new type of learning. Professional learning does not have to cost money and for once we have all the tools available to make it happen at no (or extremely little cost). It will however involve some paradigm shifting in the thinking of traditional PD providers.

I agree with you on the "raising test scores" part. Professional Learning needs to be about allowing teachers to be lifelong learners and experience, participate, create professional learning scenarios that allow them to apply that learning to their classrooms.

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Permalink Reply by Greta Lundgaard on November 10, 2010 at 11:00am

I just saved the digital copy of the entire series Thomas referenced above and have attached it below.
I am really getting convicted about changing my approach to professional development. I believe we have to have an intent--an firm handle on what we want the teacher/learner outcome to be, not just after 1 event but over time. I think one way we can help teachers become more comfortable with the tools we are asking them to use is to make that usage an embedded part of professional learning opportunities, those under my control and those we want them to do on their own. Lots of room for growth on my part in this area.
The whole raising test scores, contractual requirements, etc. that Todd references--I tend to tune it out. I see the analogy to students in level 1 and 2 because it is required for graduation. Yes, that may be why they are in the course to start with, but that doesn't mean I can't work to make the experience personally meaningful and rich. I think maybe the traditional conference experiences & traditional professional development/training experiences are examples of what was 20th century, and the 21st century iterations will end up looking very different.

Attachments:

• education_week_professional_development_special_report.pdf, 3.4 MB

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