In my current role I am no longer in the classroom directly, but still work with both students and faculty on a daily basis. While reading the assigned reading “Teaching Effective Professional Development,” I began to think more about the PD sessions that I have been apart of over the years, and can say without a doubt that many great ideas and resources have been poorly presented to the individuals who are meant to take those ideas and revolutionize the learning environment. As the reading points out, students are unable to learn effectively from teachers who have not been taught effectively. This goes to show that learning and teaching are a cycle.
With each article and video watched, I reflect on past professional development experiences, not just as a teacher, but clinics and conferences I sat through as an Athletic Program Coordinator. Sadly most were underwhelming, redundant, or just flat out not applicable to me, yet I was REQUIRED to participate in them. Ironically, most are lecture based, with more of a “check the box” style of collaboration, coupled with tasks that do not enhance the content being learned. They are styled to offer little to no diversity in how learners learn, and are usually stretched out to longer than needed time frames to justify credits being received for attending the class, or course. What’s ironic about this delivery is how much it goes against nearly everything we are asked to do in the classroom today. On a more hopeful note, the changes that have been made to the standards for professional learning, really drive home the importance of allowing educators to take active roles in the developmental process, by allowing us the autonomy to determine content, how learning occurs, and how we evaluate its effectiveness (Standards for Professional Learning, 2011). This is just one step in the right direction for best practices in professional learning. As Gulamhussein (2013) points out, to allow teachers to thrive as intellectuals we must "provide a support system for teachers as they implement innovations, so that the awkward implementation stage does not merely result in frustration, but instead in continued practice and refinement of the teaching method". If organizations are not willing to do this we will continue to see much of the same in regards to professional development, and a lack of valuable or usable knowledge to contribute to our learners.
References
Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability. Center for Public Education. Retrieved from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/system/files/2013-176_ProfessionalDevelopment.pdf
Standards for Professional Learning. (2011). Retrieved from https://learningforward.org/standards
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