Professional Learning

With all the complex challenges facing schools today, the need for teachers to build on their instructional knowledge and pedagogy is more important than ever.  Professional learning programs offer teachers many opportunities to obtain needed knowledge and skills that can then lead to highly effective teaching.  Learn about the different ways to support professional learning in your school below. 

Supporting School-Based Professional Learning

Professional learning happens when a highly engaged group of educators routinely come together to better their practice and, in the process, improve outcomes for students. Effective and high quality professional learning is:

  • Purposeful
  • Evaluated and tied to educator and student outcomes
  • Data-driven and research-based
  • Relevant to participants and the current educational landscape
  • Provided in a safe environment for learning and risk-taking
  • Collaborative
  • Experiential
  • Differentiated and addresses varying adult learning needs
  • Ongoing and sustainable with opportunities for reflection
  • Supported through dedicated time, resources and structure

In A Handbook for Professional Learning: Research, Resources, and Strategies for Implementation, the New York City Department of Education identifies three key stages to developing strong professional learning experiences:

  • Planning
  • Implementing & Sustaining
  • Evaluating 

Planning

The planning process should:
  • Start with the real needs of the teachers and students in a school as determined by data
  • Utilize a planning committee made up of diverse members of the school community to ensure buy-in from multiple stakeholders
  • Utilize an outcomes-based model that connects teacher learning and practice to  student  outcomes
  • Incorporate elements of evaluation by backwards-mapping from the desired outcomes that will be measured
  • Include the identification of multiple measures for checking progress towards the final goal

Implementing and Sustaining

The implementation and sustainability process should:
  • Allow for variability to attend to different needs
  • Create opportunities for smaller groups of teachers to engage in different learning cycles to reach the identified outcomes
  • Provide sufficient time and support to practice new learning in the classroom
  • Emphasize patience and responsiveness from all stakeholders as teachers try out new strategies and practices 
  • Use formative measures to hold the school community accountable to student outcomes
  • Consistently incorporate looking at data such as student work and student talk

Evaluating

The evaluation process should:
  • Return to the identified outcomes set during the planning process
  • Utilize formative assessments to make mid-course corrections
  • Include summative evaluations to identify, revise, and sustain the professional learning experiences with the greatest efficacy
  • Incorporate a mix of quantitative and qualitative data
  • Focus on levels 3-5 of Guskey’s Professional Development Evaluation Model, which measures the efficacy of professional learning as it relates to:
    • Organizational support and change
    • Participants’ effective application of new skills and knowledge
    • Effective application of skills and knowledge improves student learning outcomes