Effective Professional Learning For Educators

How many times have you sat in a training and thought “ There’s no way that this person thinks this is a good use of my time”? Perhaps you’ve even had the thought “This could have been shared via email”. We’ve all been there and that is a frustrating place to be. In recent years there has been a push to personalize professional learning for educators. Let’s discuss.

With most things in our lives if we are interested, we tend to give whatever it is our attention and effort. The other side of this thought is that if we are not interested, we do not give full attention and put forth very little effort. This is just human nature. Knowing this to be true, why then has professional learning for educators been so hit or miss?

A part of the problem, in my opinion, has been school districts leadership not thinking outside of the box. Yes, there are district initiatives that are the focus of teacher learning, but delivery of that information could be handled in different ways. What can be done to make sure that the information is given and teachers retain the information and find practical ways to use it?

One thought is to survey teachers to find out what their learning needs are. Once you know the teacher’s interest, now you can begin to figure out how to best serve them. Are there members of your staff that are knowledgeable enough in the topics that interest your teachers? You could then send a survey to see who would be interested in presenting to their peers. Much like the process for presenting at a conference, you could ask potential presenters to submit a proposal for the learning sessions. There may also be people that work in different departments within your school district that could come and present to your staff.

Since 2020, education resources available through technology have exploded. There are many people with years of experience that are sharing what they know via social media. This could be another way to have information delivered to your teachers. Of course you would need the instructional leaders on your campus to help facilitate the learning.

We always say that part of differentiating learning for students is to offer choice, but when it comes to teacher learning, there are few opportunities for choice. What if we gave teachers the autonomy to choose their own learning? This could potentially make district and campus staff development days something for teachers to look forward to. Hopefully this type of thinking could be beneficial for campus leaders. What do you think?