This week we had a much energized #Edchat. #Edchat is an online discussion involving over 1,000 educators on a specific topic each week. This week’s Topic dealt with Professional Development being relevant for educators. This seems to be one subject that rivals in popularity the opposition to standardized, high-stakes testing. It seems that most educators have an opinion on PD. There are so many aspects of this subject that one post will not cover it all. It may however, be able to at least frame a discussion.
The best first change for Professional Development would be to rename it. PD has become a hot button issue amongst many educators. Since each district develops its own policy, there are some districts that do a fine job. Based on comments by many educators on social media sites however, these districts seem to be few, and far between. In addition to district mandates, there are also different PD requirements enforced by individual states. Before the movement to change the name takes hold, let’s talk about PD as we know it today.
The most recent statements supported by Secretary Duncan tell us that a teacher with Master’s degree has little effect on students’ learning. Following this line of reasoning through, it would seem that the government would want our teachers to begin and end with a bachelor’s degree. Of course that would be a less expensive way to go, but the burden on PD would be that much greater in the future.
Demanding that any labor force spend time beyond that which is established by the job description requires that the employer pay the employee additional compensation. Since PD requires a time commitment in addition to an educator’s work week, this is what is done in most districts. Of course, if the school district is paying for additional hours, it has a right to make requirements for what it expects. Those requirements often become a point of contention. This seems to create an “Us vs. Them” dynamic and the beginning of the PD problems.
Regardless of how far any educator travels in his or her academic career, information does not stop flowing when the degree is conferred. Although teachers are expected to be content experts, the content itself continues to develop and evolve. Of course that may not be as true for Math as other subjects, but most content for most academic areas continues to accumulate and evolve. Experts cannot be experts if they do not keep up with the evolving content. A writing teacher who knows nothing of blogging is a questionable expert. A social studies teacher without an understanding of social media can hardly explain the revolution taking place in the Middle East.
Aside from the continuing development in content areas, the methods used to teach and learn also continue to evolve. Methods are also affected by the culture of our society and that continues to change. The Huck Finn controversy certainly underscores this. The culture of the community, or the school itself, has an incredible effect on the school’s approach to learning. Sharing and reflecting on the ways we teach is the best way to change and evolve. The introduction of Social Media to PD gives it a new dimension. Ning sites creating collaborative learning communities; Twitter and Facebook connecting educators locally and globally; YouTube enabling creation of content to be shared and commented upon, are all influences of social media that affect culture.
With the rapid advancement of technology, the tools for learning are changing continually. Whatever tools teachers used in their methods classes in years past, would be hard pressed to be found today. Of course, Overheads and PowerPoint are still around. The concepts of Social networks, mobile learning devices, web 2.0, webinars, podcasts, blended learning, and cloud computing are new to all. They will have a huge impact on learning, but unless educators are up to speed, they will not have an effect in education. That is when education becomes irrelevant because our educators are technology illiterate.
Approaching PD as an extra item in a labor contract may not be the best approach. PD is something that should be part of the work week. It needs to be there in order to maintain relevance for all educators. It cannot be a one size fits all approach. Different educators have different needs. We insist on this for our students, why not for our educators.
The best hope we have for real reform may lie in reforming PD first. IT directors are tech content experts, and may not know what educators need to know in order to teach their respective subjects. Educators are content experts in their respective areas, and technology is not necessarily their strength. Educators need to learn what to ask, and IT managers need to learn how to answer to meet the needs of the educators. IT people seem to view many problems as insurmountable obstacles and are quick to deliver edicts and bans to stop the problems from occurring, rather than trying to solve the problem. IT staff are educators of educators. The same approach of guidance and patience to analyze and problem-solve should be employed by IT people when working with educators.
Administrators have a big role in PD as well. Too often when it comes to PD, administrators use the “do as I say, not as I do” method. They need to be a part of the PD as well. They are the leaders in education, and that requires that they must be out front. Being out front requires some idea of what is going on. Too often, too many administrators have no clue. If PD can lead education to reform our leaders must be there as well. Sitting in an office having IT directors develop PowerPoint presentations for board meetings does not make for cutting edge educational leadership. I know not all Administrators fall in this category, but what is an acceptable percentage of those who do?
If we want reform in education, we better start paying attention to how educators learn and teach to enable that learning. They are not yet teachers when they leave their college classrooms with a degree. Great teachers come from what they learn in their own classrooms as a teacher. They need guidance and support to maintain relevance in the ever-changing world for which they are preparing kids. To be better teachers and better leaders, we need to first be better learners. Without a thoughtful system in place to enable that, the results will be limited at best.
Instead of forcing a merit pay model in education, which will not work, let’s consider using that money differently. Why not use it to compensate teachers who are being successful with their methods and are willing to share their methods with colleagues. Teacher to teacher sharing is a great way to professionally develop teachers. It also supports innovation and excellence in learning. When asked how to reform education, we should consider reforming how we educate our educators, and our educational leaders. We need to reform Professional Development in order to reform education.
I don’t think your assertion ‘to reform PD’, would reform education. PD, important within its own context is a slice of cucumber in a salad. More to my point however is that your rhetoric, good-natured, is just more platitudinal bluster lacking a cogent action plan.
You should be commended for the time you took writing a nice blog post, however, I think a simple, emphatic plan that could be adopted tomorrow by a school district is what is much more in demand. It’s the classic knowing-doing gap.
Please don’t mistake my criticality for malevolence. It just seems like the more one reads the more amorphous the discussion gets. IMHO, there is a dearth of specificity from our government all the way down to our school districts.
Thank you for taking the time to write this post; it obviously provoked a response. 🙂
I have to disagree on this one — IMHO 🙂
I can’t think of anything more influential in a classroom or school than the teachers. To influence change in education, we need to design a pathway for those who work on the front lines.
Now, the hard work begins of figuring out “how to”…
Teachers are professionals and should be expected to be continuous learners. The idea that they should be paid by the hour to engage in improving their practice is inconsistent with their professional status. Modern technology allows then to learn with their students and from them at any time. Management should give them the tools and encourage them. They should work to create an environment and a culture where learning can happen in small doses on a daily basis rather than trying to cram a lot in on conference days. I hesitate to promote my blog here, but it is an example of a resource that teachers and administrators can use to engage in bite-sized professional development. DrDougGreen.Com – Keep up the good work Tom – Sorry I missed #Edchat but it was explaining social media to a group at Binghamton University.
Dan’s response hit very close to home with my own thoughts as I was reading your post. When looking at PD, I believe we really need to develop some action plans that are similar to what occurs outside of education; K-12 instructors need to be treated as the professionals that they are, and should have a similar structure in place for allowing that to occur.
What does the workplace look like, for the most part, outside of education?
8 am until 5 pm (or 7am until 4pm or whatever time schedule you want to place here as long as it approximates a regular working day of 9 hours).
One hour lunch.
Training occurring DURING the work day as well as, at times, on nights or weekends.
Compensation based on performance (I know, it is tough to wrap our collective minds around how this would look, but definitely should NOT be based on Standardized Tests!).
Vacation time (but definitely NOT a summer without being at the workplace).
Benefits (paid by business or person, depending on the career).
I am sure that I am missing some, but off the top of my head these seem to be the core.
Based on these, a big part of making the transition seems to be the necessity in adapting the work/school schedule. Changing to year-round schooling seems to be essential to this, as well as transitioning to a work day that is 9 hours scheduled with an hour off for lunch.
Daily prepare time is essential, as it is for most professional jobs. One hour prior to the students arriving should be enough time to prepare for the day as well as allow time to give to students who are arriving early to work with the instructor (so, a half-hour prep and a half-hour for students, approximately).
So, with the premise of a nine hour workday in mind, instructors would arrive at 8 am, students would arrive at 9 am. Teach three morning classes, lunch break, and three afternoon classes moves us to 3 pm. Students would dismiss at 3 pm.
Professional Development (i.e. training) and meetings could then occur sometime between 3 pm and 5 pm (say 3:30 to 5:00 in order for faculty to be available for students after school).
Professional Development (i.e. training) could also occur during the quarterly breaks (or however the breaks are determined for the district) of 2-3 weeks between class sessions. Can you imagine what could/would occur in educator growth with over eight weeks of specific training during a year? Expand this over the course of a decade and what would our teaching force look like?
There are a lot of holes in these changes that I have proposed that would need to be patched up, but I truly believe that if we begin to move towards matching the workplace expectations outside of education, we will begin to see positive dividends both for the students and for the profession.
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First, thank you for your edchat moderating. I’ve been involved in only two so far, and have found them to be inspiring and thought-provoking.
In all my experiences as teacher, coach, asst. principal and principal, I have found teachers to be eager for quality PD that that is relevant to their teaching needs. Fortunately, I’ve worked in settings where teachers are considered lifelong learners by administrators, encouraged to participate in study groups, grade level and curriculum meetings, attend and lead workshops with and for colleagues, and even write professional books.
Similar to how physicians need to study and continue to learn new ways for treating their patients, teachers need to continually learn and grow and consider new methods for teaching their students.
In terms of school-wide PD opportunities, I believe in balance–workshops and seminars, visitations to other schools, that require teachers to leave the building can be invigorating and effective. There also needs to be substantial in-school PD–study groups, grade level meetings, teachers leading workshops and meetings for colleagues, outside experts offering PD, etc.
When I entered the role of principal, I wanted to offer PD for teachers and staff members that was relevant to their needs and the needs of the school. I did this by conducting surveys, attending grade level meetings myself and discussing with teachers areas they needed support in, while always keeping my own goals and objectives for the school in alignment with what would work best for teachers and students.
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As Dan’s response hit close to home for Ryan, Ryan’s response hit close to home for me.
The schedule described – with the exception of having a summer break – is my schedule. We begin at 9:20 and end at 3:20. Teachers are expected to be in the building before 8:45 and are not permitted to leave until after 3:45. Every Tuesday and Wednesday (and usually other days as well) teachers are required to be at school by 8:00am.
The idea of having teachers at school by 8:00am is that we can fit in PD, staff meetings, etc. Our school also schedules blocks of time where teachers can plan together during the school day. (Students engage in extra-curricular activities.)
PD scheduled when students are about to arrive for school or when students are in the building is not effective. Teachers, I included, feel as though we should be with our students or preparing for our students. Our minds are in a thousand other places.
I agree with the post that reforming PD can push reforming education. Teachers, through well-planned and authentic PD, can take more ownership with their profession. One person in this week’s Edchat mentioned this: Admins need to realize that the experts are in the building. It’s a fabulous point. Find the teachers in your building that are masters. Have them share their knowledge and experiences. And, as the post states – compensate them.
Also in agreement in that whether a teacher has one degree or five -not sure it matters. I’ve been teaching for ten years. The best teachers are the ones connect with and prepare for their students. Every. Single. Day. Those are not always the teachers with advanced degrees.
I agree strongly with ts, The best teachers are the ones connect with and prepare for their students. Every. Single. Day.
But teachers also need to know their stuff. The students, especially in the early years and final years of schooling, don’t have the luxury of time for teachers to figure it the job out as they go over years. Excellence in teacher training and ongoing PD is essential.
HOW can this be delivered to inspire teachers, enrich their teaching skills and assist our educators on their ongoing learning? HOw can it be done efficiently to enhance our careers, not to further erode our working conditions or salaries in real terms.
There are models around the world which respect the time teachers already invest in their profession, enabling PD to be delivered in a variety of ways including
– scheduled in school time (here students are off school on a ‘Pupil free’ day while teachers work on PD 6 days a year – 3 in term times and 3 at start/end of year)
– scheduled into staff meeetings e.g. 3-4 timeslots a year devoted to PD
– support via emails, online access support and resources on the school network/website
– money to pay for some PD in teachers own time (6 hours min expected in our state in Australia)
Ryan’s suggestions above include some of grave concern. If you want a mass walk out of a very demanding and undervalued profession, you just have to mention changing the school year to an industrial model of ‘year round’ learning and a 9 hour day. What rubbish. This flies in the face of major research in education, child development and learning theories. It also shows ignorance of the hundreds of hours of work teachers are doing outside their ‘paid time’ to get the necessary planning, PD, marking, reporting, teacher interviews etc done. My day starts at 7:15 to 7:30 when we arrive at school one hour before children arrive to start school at 8:30 and extends 1- 2 hours past 3:00 when they leave (other schools start at 9:00 and end later). OH, and no paid lunches. The $ is withheld to pay for holiday pay. But during those unpaid lunches (45 mins) we do playground duties and run a myriad of clubs. 2 afternoons have staff/department meetings, each semester has parent teacher evenings lasting 3-8pm on 2 evenings, there is weekend sport, OPen day for 4 hours on a Sat, information evenings, A long ‘speech night’ and so on. And almost every evening, we bring home a bag of marking/prep or admin we have to do. Just ask the spouse or children of a teacher! A 20 page educational plan and report for an autisic child in my class, so he can get a tiny bit of governement funding is this weekend’s job.
Suggestions of a year long schooling model also ignores a major reason that educators choose the profession they do: so that we can raise our own families and spend valuable time with them as they grow up, without needing to put our own children into long day childcare facilities in the holidays. Our years of childhood and adolescence is so very short in the scheme of things, and time to play, persue outside interests and develop relationships with familiy and friends is vital. But Ryan, why try to fix something that you see as broken, by breaking the back of the very people working at the coal face.
We need to address solutions to PD without further eroding the conditions of our educators. We already have many countries suffering from a lack of talented young people choosing education as a career path. The holidays are a major attraction for the long hours during term.
Dedicated teachers who love their job, need PD to support and enrich their pedagogy, as well as giving balance to their workloads. Most weeks top 50 hours and many weeks during year hit 60 and 70 hours of work. The holidays are the only thing that make the busy and sometimes crazy term weeks bearable.
Let’s find a way to deliver great PD to benefit the students and staff in positive ways to support our educators, to inspire them, not make them disheartened by lack of understanding.
AC,
You really proved my point throughout your post. The rhetoric and personalization in your statements above are honestly, one of the major reasons why OUR profession is not treated as a profession by those outside of education. Do you know what it sounds like to those “professionals”? WHINING! We must evolve what we currently do in order to meet the needs of the society that we live in today and the students that we serve.
Somewhere, you must have misunderstood my post. The invitation I am attempting to deliver is one of creativity and flexibility. Maybe I am misunderstanding it, but your stance seems to be one of rigidity to the current schedule and system; basically defending the status quo then wanting PD delivered to you. Truly PD/training should be where all parties are engaged and have a voice in the entire process. (find an interest, dive into it, and then share your learning with others).
If I understand your model above (which ironically is very similar to ours right now – ugh) instructors would only receive six days of opportunity to do PD/training total over the course of the year (along with some throw in before and after school times during faculty meetings). This is fairly disappointing compared to the amount of time available with breaks in between each term and before and after school flexibility, wouldn’t you say?
If you are truly worried about breaking the backs of the instructors, ask them what they would rather have? A year-round system where they would receive a minimum of one week every nine weeks off for vacation with their families (so four weeks of vacation AND holidays off every year – sounds very similar to most career fields) or a rigid contract of 9 months where the only flexibility in time is over the holidays. A system where PD support is available continuously and time is contracted in throughout the school year, or one that interrupts the classroom time with their students (example: early out Wednesdays for PD). Again, flexibility is a key factor.
What is best for students is also a key element to this change, obviously. If you want research-backed, find a meta-analysis regarding the retention rate of knowledge learned during one school year and the loss that occurs over the course of a summer. I am sure this would be an interesting read.
I am also sure that you agree that each student is unique in their needs for education. To that extent, wouldn’t we then believe that each district is unique in their needs? BE CREATIVE! My posts are intended as a statement of desire for us to each be creative in the scheduling of the school year and PD/training and then share out so that we can learn and grow with each other.
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