Rethinking Professional Development

Understanding how teachers view professional development (PD) can help school leaders implement more relevant and engaging trainings, increasing teacher engagement.

Relevant PD

Mandated trainings and initiatives typically dominate the beginning-of-the-year PD agenda. Many teachers see these as tedious, one-sided lectures that don’t have much connection to their classroom practices, though most school leaders try to incorporate a variety of creative strategies to spice up the sessions (e.g., themes, online modules, follow-up sessions).

Providing relevant PD has a significant impact on teacher retention and engagement. It equips teachers with essential skills to expand their knowledge and improve their work, and it can motivate them to invest in learning opportunities.

Now is the perfect time to rethink this school year’s PD plan to ensure it is relevant, engaging, and worthwhile to teachers.

Gather Information

Surveying teachers is one way to gather information on how they feel and what they want from PD. Many surveys, including TASB’s employee surveys, show about half of teachers view their PD as irrelevant, while only a small percentage of school leaders share that same view.

A challenge for school leaders is to be confident and willing to provide anonymous surveys, read them, reflect on the responses, and share the results with their teachers. Discussing survey results with staff is a great opportunity to show teachers they have a voice and their concerns are being addressed.

Another way to gather information is through “design teams,” a mix of veteran and new teachers across grade levels and subjects who can partner with school leaders to make decisions on relevant topics. Teachers typically respond more positively to PD if they or their peers are involved in the process.  

Balancing Goals

Designing PD that meets teachers’ needs while also fulfilling instructional goals can be challenging. Using the school’s data (e.g., test scores, parent surveys, student behavior data), school leaders and teachers, in partnership, can determine areas for improvement. Additionally, teachers should be allowed to explore instructional practices they want to learn more about as well as practices they can immediately apply in the classroom.

Having a balance in the PD offered allows for teacher choice while addressing the school’s overall instructional goals.

Collaborative Groupings

Teachers learn best from each other. Their effectiveness is enhanced when they’re able to be work in collegial teams that allow for ongoing supports while also providing opportunities to plan and organize together. This can be achieved by designing and scheduling different types of collaborative groupings (e.g., professional learning communities, teaming, subject area groups) that work together on a regular basis.

Other collaborative ways for teachers to share experiences and learn from each other are through peer observations, teachers modeling lessons, and teachers team-teaching together.  These types of PD require planning and scheduling but are low in cost.

Resources

By including teachers in the planning process, school leaders can align the school and teachers’ goals to provide meaningful professional development that will result in positive learning outcomes.

For additional information on professional development ideas, see the following HRX articles:

• Maximizing Teacher Professional Development
• Motivating Employees to Stay Engaged