Professional Development:

Why haven’t we got it right?Jan ColemanSeptember 2006

Considerations

• Adult learning principles• Transfer• Design of programme • Evidence of success• Sustainability• Ownership• Role of Leadership

Key Questions

• What is professional development?

• Who is responsible for it’s success?

• How will be measure how successful it is?

Adult learners…

• Are autonomous and self-directed• Have accumulated a foundation of life

experiences and knowledge• Are goal oriented• Are relevancy orientated• Are practical• Need to be shown respect

(as do all learners) Leib,S. (1991)

Sources of Motivation for adult learners

• social relationships• external expectations• social welfare- service to community• personal advancement• escape/ simulation• cognitive interest

Leib,S. (1991)

Adult learning principles…

• Make connections between familiar ideas and new ideas to be acquired.

• See how skills relate to an overall theme.

• Associate skills and strategies with real life contexts.

• Explore and discuss where they are in their learning, where they would like to be and what keeps them from getting there.

• Identify short term and long term goals; overarching and specific.

• Self-assess current knowledge and skills and evaluate progress.

Learners need the opportunity to:

• Be both challenged and supported as they try to upgrade their skills and acquire new strategies.

• Make connections between familiar ideas and new ideas to be acquired.

• See how skills relate to an overall theme.• Associate skills and strategies with real

life contexts.

Learners need the opportunity to:

Good PD looks a lot like good teaching.

• Diversity of activities to engage• Attention to learning styles• Opportunities for co-operative learning• Application to personal situations• Intellectual stimulation questioning,

challenge• Reflection on what has been learned,

what might be the next steps.

1. Participants reactions2. Participant Learning3. Organisational support and change4. Participant usage (Transfer)5. Results (Student Learning Outcomes)

(These are hierarchical)

Thomas Guskey's 5 stages:

Stages of Planning

Plan in reverse!

1. Results (Student Learning Outcomes)2. Teacher practice (participant)3. Support and change (Organisational)4. Learning (Participant)5. Reactions (Participant)

Ask….

• What do I want them to learn ?

• What evidence will I accept to prove they have done this?

• What knowledge, skills and support do they need to achieve this?

Stages of programme design1. Assess learners’ needs2. Define objectives based on these needs3. Identify learning experiences to meet those

objectives4. Organise those learning experiences– Evaluate the programme in terms of its

objectives.

Earliest model – Jerald Apps has indicated, most of the rational

planning models involve steps, usually these five

Needs analysis

• Does the needs analysis identify the problem or the symptom?

• Teachers often identify the symptoms.

• Skilled probing under the symptoms will identify the true problem/need.

The process

Initial data gathering:• Skills, attitudes, current, practice,

expectations, understandings of:• ｷ Staff • ｷ Students• ｷ Community

• Resources availableSetting up an environment for change:• Ownership/ relationships / challenge/ support

Variables

It is important to consider:• Size of group• Length of sessions• Time of day• The more complex the learning – the

longer the uptake/understanding takes

Planning the programme

• Programme planning needs to be a collaborative exercise

• Input of the participants helps to develop ownership

• Ownership assists learning and assist transfer

• Results-driven planning involves balancing interests and power through people-centred negotiation.

• This suggests that more people need to be involved from the beginning in thinking through what the professional development is aiming to do.

• How will the results will be supported in the workplace

• What impact will the changes have on staff, learners?

• How will we know?

Consider the Transfer factors

Factors that affect this link:• participant motivation, • relevance to job need, • workplace arrangements, • peer attitudes, • equipment or resources, • perceived effectiveness

Credibility

• Establish your credibility early

• Maintain this credibility

• The ideas presented must be credible

• Learning must also be credible

Begin with a clear focus on learning and learners

•Set clear objectives

•Describe the new learning

•Make meaning of the learning – contextualise the learning

•Application of the learning

Follow up

• Follow up is critical in re-enforcing the learning.

• Teachers must see results quickly(preferably 2 weeks)

• Failure to see results will result in the teacher reverting to previous methods.

• Teachers will be no different from students! Students are motivated when they are achieving success but will avoid learning when there is no success!

• Things can get worse before they get better and teachers need to be coached and encouraged through the bumps.

Recognise that change is an individual and organisational process.

Both must be addressed to be successful!

Celebrate success!

Within the school management shouldshare and celebrate the successes.

This is done through:Focus on the results

Focus on what people are doing, rather then the people themselves.

Focus on the students

Ask the tough questions regularly:• Who is not learning?• Why?• What can we do about it?• Avoiding deficit thinking - blaming the

students, school culture…

Gathering Evidence of student achievement

Evidence can be at 3 levels:

• Cognitive – student performance and achievement

• Affective (attitudes and dispositions)

• Skill and Behaviour

Traditional Models of Leadership

• Managerial / Transactional

• Transformational

• Interpretive

• Instructional / Pedagogical.

Trend towards ‘Distributed Leadership’

Also referred to as: • Learning-Centred leadership• Pedagogical leadership

• Distributed leadership is directed towards improved practice and is related to institutional change and improvement

Key Understandings of Distributed Leadership

• Distributed Leadership is not new

• There is an increasing advocacy for this concept in recent times

• Essentially, it is a sharing of leadership

• A movement from the power of one to the power of many

Timperley, H. (2005) Distributed leadership: developing theory from practice. Journal of Curriculum Studies, Vol 37, No 4, 2005

“Increasing distributed leadership is only desirable if the quality of leadership activities contributes to assisting teachers to provide more effective instruction to their students, and it is on these qualities we should focus.”

Related leadership issues:

• Senior leaders must ‘let go’• Need to hold individuals accountable• Multiple leaders requires co-

ordination• Leader- follower:

• Traditional relationship: saint, saviour, charismatic leaders

• Expectations under distributed leadership

Why use this to enhance Professional

Development?• Ownership increased

• Sustainability

• Relationships established

• Time

• Proximity of support

Development of Distributed Leadership

• Leadership teams• Leadership of teams• Teacher-leaders• Support networks• Mentoring• Coaching• Formal ‘change management’ training.

References

• Leib, S. (1991), Principles of adult learning. RetrievedFebruary 27, 2006, from http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/adults-2.htm

• Spillane, J. P. and Sherer, J. Z. (2004) A distributed perspective on school leadership: leadership practice stretched over people and place. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Institute of Policy Research, North-western University, Evanston, IL, USA).

• Timperley, H. (2005) Distributed leadership: developing theory from practice. Journal of Curriculum Studies, Vol 37, No 4, 2005

• Guskey, T. (2002) Professional Development, address to L&M advisers, MOE Hui, Rotorua, May 2006

Levels of Professional Development

At each level we must consider:

a. What questions will be addressed?b. How will the information be gathered?c. How will the information be recorded?d. How will the information be used?