In a past Division Head e-Letter, we shared examples of faculty professional development that didn’t make the most of in-service days. (In fact, it was borderline offensive!) Today, we’d like to take a moment to highlight some qualities of excellent professional development that comprise an enlightening experience for your faculty—and ultimately, your students.
The presenters know what your school and classrooms are like.
One teacher in Waynesboro, Virginia, recounts her professional development experience with well-meaning but out-of-touch “experts”:
I would sit listening to these experts who were brought in. They were very knowledgeable about the topic, but didn’t really know anything about our schools or our students. So it wasn’t really relevant or useful. And I would walk out of the session wondering, "Did I really just sit through that?"
So what does that mean for private-independent teachers? Well, for starters, it means professional development speakers must know the difference between teaching in a private school classroom and in a public classroom. Missions, philosophies, and requirements all differ, and speakers can have trouble translating insights and topics from one setting to another. Just because one presenter has had a lot of success training public school faculty doesn’t (necessarily) mean his or her lessons will be relevant to your teachers.
The workshops allow time for discussion and planning.
Educator blog Mildly Melancholy offers a list of anecdotal requirements for good professional development. The fourth item is “Giving time for discussion and planning” because “teachers want that time to figure out how to use the information in their teaching … Remember, it needs to be RELEVANT.”
Ultimately, if all the presenter does is offer theory and good ideas but offers no concrete plans—or time to develop them—during the presentation, this session will be useless. Presenters should be willing to assist teachers with the first stages of implementation and overcome presented obstacles or problems to ensure maximum utility.
This assistance can take a variety of forms, depending on the workshop’s format. In a live webinar, for example, the presenter should plan to take questions and answer them either during the presentation or in a designated Q&A session afterward. During an in-person workshop, this assistance could be one-on-one planning sessions with the presenter or opportunities for a school’s team to brainstorm and develop a plan with feedback from the expert.
Professional Development Should Be Career-Long, Site-Based, and Collegial
Finally, ISM believes that quality professional development is “career-long, site-based, and collegial,” meaning:
“Career-long”—whatever professional development you choose to provide, it’s not a one-off, stand-alone program or class or concept. Professional development should be conducted with the understanding that faculty and staff alike work to improve their skills for their entire tenure with your school.
This term also implies that professional development isn’t consigned to a week or two at a conference every year. Teachers should observe, learn, and implement techniques and ideas every day of the year, not just when school’s in session. As educators, you understand that learning occurs everywhere; that philosophy should permeate your professional development program.
“Site-based”—emphasizes the locality of a teacher’s or administrator’s continuing education, in that there is no specific place where professional development occurs. It happens everywhere—in the classroom, in the hallways, on the playground, in staff meetings, even online.
A site-based professional development program also focuses on training and theory that is an intensely personal, mission-based process. Not every piece in a presentation or program will apply to your school, and that’s okay. Knowing what’s important and what’s not is a necessary part of your participation during a professional development session.
“Collegial”—implies that professional development contributes to a collective knowledge within the school that all can share. You don’t need an “expert” called in for every little situation or detail—other administrators or teachers might have solutions based on their experience.
Leaning on your educational teammates in this collegial learning environment requires a culture of passion for the school’s mission and openness between colleagues. What one learns, all should be able to ask and know. Formally, this could mean senior teachers paired as mentors with newcomers and presentations by those returning from intensive workshops. Informally, this could be what your teachers discuss in the breakroom.
More than anything, an effective professional development program relies on the support of administrators committed to providing the necessary resources and relationships for the faculty to achieve their personal development goals. Such an investment in time, money, and resources in your teachers’ professional development will prove your dedication to their improvement—and to your students, whom you all serve.
If you’d like to have an empowering professional development opportunity designed specifically for private-independent school administrators like you, attend ISM’s Comprehensive Faculty Development: From Recruitment to Evaluation to Retention workshop, featured at our Summer Institute in Stowe, Vermont. Learn from expert ISM Consultants about training your teachers year-round, and plan to make the 2014-15 school year the best ever!
Additional ISM resources:
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 11 No. 7 When Professional Development Is Useless for Your Teachers
ISM Monthly Update for Human Resources Vol. 9 No. 7 Remembering Your Own Renewal and Development
ISM Monthly Update for School Heads Vol. 9 No. 7 Does Your Teacher Evaluation System Include Professional Development?
ISM Monthly Update for School Heads Vol. 11 No. 4 Team Professional Development Adds Value to Lessons Learned
Private School News Vol. 12 No. 5 Summer of Professional Development
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 27 No. 12 Professional Development and Your Senior Administrative Staff
I&P Vol. 32 No. 8 The Changing Paradigm for Professional Development
I&P Vol. 33 No. 4 ISM’s Standards for Professional Development and Growth
I&P Vol. 33 No. 4 ISM's Standards for Professional Growth and Renewal
I&P Vol. 36 No. 10 Budgeting for Professional Development
