Effective professional development is relevant, meaningful and can be integrated into any academic discipline. What has been lacking from many professional development programs is the ability to "make the connection." Granted, not all material covered will relate to one academic area, however, teachers need to be able to "pull" something from the information shared and apply to instructional practices, procedures or even for teacher-student relations.
Before any of the above can take place, teachers must understand its purpose. There has been somewhat of a misconception when it comes to the purpose of professional development. Comments made have noted that it (professional development) is something in which teachers must "go through the motions" to appease administration or to "justify someone's job." However, in the wake of NCLB and its stringent guidelines, we have found that the aforementioned issues are irrelevant - federal mandates are here to stay. Therefore, it is important that teachers are given the opportunity to see "the big picture" and how what they do as educators does affect the whole.
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3 comments:
I know exactly what you mean. The training has to be applicable to the teacher's needs or it's simply wasted time.
I can remember when I came to my old site as a sub. during the heady days of "total quality education," (a variant of the total quality management model for those of you not familiar). Our superintendent thought it was the best thing since sliced bread and even paid for every manager, administrator, and teacher in the district (probably over 900 people) to go through three days of TQE training.
It was great as a sub, since I was booked for months in advance and got to pick and choose my classrooms. But look at the cost! Subs cost $80 a day back then, so three days equaled $240. Multiply that by 900 and the grand total is... $216,000! All that money for a program that the district only paid lip service to within two years. Further, most teachers had a very hard time seeing how it directly related to what they did in the classroom.
So a complete waste of time, expensive, and worthless to the average teacher. Sound familiar? Unfortunately, it probably does to a lot of us.
Professional development seems to be a way out for administrators. What I mean by this is that they are using professional development just for show. Many times I have seen useless professional development. Often times it is a repetition of something that has already been drilled into teachers heads and something that is unrealistic. Every classroom is filled with an array of different students. Teachers are the ones that should spearhead professional development because they are able to experience first hand what students need and what they need to do to help them. More often than not, teachers are not able to walk away and implement what they have learned because of unrealistic time and academic restraints.
In order for professional development to be meaningful, teachers need a chance to practice it in their classroom before something else is dumped into their laps.
Professional Development- Its Purpose
I had heard a saying, “In all of ones getting, get an understanding”. This point: the purpose of professional development is incredibly important for all educators to know... if professional development is to serve its true purpose~, which is to (my version):
• Bring/provide staff with useful information
• Share and train/teach educationally innovative techniques and practices
• Allow for a time of dialog and discourse
• Etc.
The purpose of this is to ensure/promote student learning so that “No Child is Left Behind”. When all educators (any and everyone dealing with children) understand why the professional development sessions are being provided in the first place, then (hopefully) these sessions will become truly effective.
To truly benefit from staff development, open-mindedness is paramount, flexibility is essential, and willingness to do “what ever it takes”, is absolutely necessary. If we are to see the type of changes in our educational system that we need to see for the good of our “future…our children”, there must be a paradigm shift. Professional development days are here to guide the process.
Great blog post!
Elect Lady!
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