PD days are magical, but like, not often a good sort of magical.
I can't tell you how many times I see teachers complain about bad PD on social media, and almost all of it is warranted. It runs the gamut from complaints about no substantive learning to a string of initiatives being overwhelmingly crammed down throats, from days filled with mandatory presentations slides to icebreakers that get way too personal.
It's interesting, though, that if you look at the pitfalls of PD, you will see the pitfalls of the classroom. We are required to do way too much with our curriculum, and if we aren't careful, we end up just force-feeding content in one ear and out the other. On the other hand, it's possible to fall on the other end of the spectrum where we get caught up in the engagement trap with all flash and no substance.
PD is tricky because helping a group of people to grow in ways that are meaningful to each individual learner is difficult. That doesn't change no matter the group of people.
However, that also doesn't excuse bad PD. While it's a complicated process to get right, there are pretty clear guidelines at this point that identify what we know works and what we know doesn't work.
Here's some of what we know works:
1. It involves intentional collaboration. This isn't just the "meet with your team and talk about stuff" type of collaboration, but specific times for collaboration focused on new instructional and pedagogical learning.
2. It must focus on sustained effort in a common thread. It has to focus on a goal that the person gets to pursue for an extended period of time.
3. It should emphasize teacher autonomy. While a leadership teams sets the vision and direction of the school, teachers know best what areas they need to work on, and we are most motivated to grow when we get to pursue those.
4. It creates time for feedback and reflection. At least in my career, nothing new ever goes perfectly. If we want professional learning to impact student learning positively, we need time to reflect and adjust.
Here's some of what we know doesn't work:
1. One-time professional development. No one's surprised by this. It may spark an idea, but it rarely (if ever) results in meaningful change on its own.
2. Sit-and-get. Again, while there is a time and place for direct instruction (especially when done properly), if that's all it is, no growth will happen.
3. Focused on directives and initiatives. I get it, there are times where things just need to happen and be said, but don't expect people to be excited enough about it to really change their practice.
4. Not job-embedded. If it is not directly applicable to my work in the classroom, I'm not going to be invested. Plus, it's inefficient.
What would it look like to build a cohesive and meaningful professional learning plan?
I've spent a lot of time researching, testing, and implementing an approach to professional learning that really seems to make a difference, both in terms of the culture of excitement around learning among educators, but also in terms of the impact it has on classroom instruction across the building. It's not complicated, but it does need to be incredibly intentional. Here's how it goes.
1. Create a clear vision of powerful teaching and learning in the classroom.
Now, I'm not talking about a wishy-washy platitude that is essentially identical to every other school district. I'm talking about a description of what we want classrooms to look like, sound like, act like. Something more along the lines of, "In our classrooms, students will learn to problem-solve by asking questions both of themselves, their peers, and other resources. They will be confident in their learning through reflecting on their evidence of learning and growth over time. They will pursue things that matter to them personally and engage in work that has the potential to better the lives of their peers, their community, and the world..." and so on.
It is this vision that is often missing in the puzzle of initiatives that we try to weave together. Powerful learning starts with a powerful vision – not just one that inspires the head, but one that always reaches the heart.
2. Identify key strands of professional learning that connect to the vision.
This is key, as it sets the stage for an ongoing focus on a strand of learning for each teacher. If possible, this is done best with a team of teachers involved in the process, as they see what's really going on in our classrooms and with our students and have an important perspective in identifying what strands would best benefit the classroom. These strands can be a variety of things like assessment and grading practices (yes, I know I'm biased), student problem-solving, content delivery, etc. The number doesn't really matter, though the goal here is to provide enough options with enough breadth to them that every teacher can connect to one that matters to them.
Ideally, teachers will have the opportunity to select one of these strands and stick with it for the year (though, I always recommend providing the option to switch as needed).
3. Center formal PD time around these strands.
I can't emphasize this enough. If the majority of your PD days are focused on checking boxes and meeting requirements, we might as well just light taxpayer money on fire. I get that there are important aspects that sometimes every needs to be required to do, but there is no reason to spend the majority of the day on something teachers aren't interested in.
Besides, there are better ways to get the required information to teachers. Need to explain the new behavioral referral system and the new digital hall pass? Record two five-minute videos (that teachers will then always have access to) and give us twenty minutes to go watch them and take care of ourselves. These don't need to be 30-minute whole-group talks, not only because of the lack of engagement, but also because most people will absorb the information better with their own space and their own pace.
I say all that to highlight that when we say, "We don't have enough time!" we're often lying. We just aren't making the time to pursue the meaningful work that allows teachers time to focus on their strands. For PD days, here's a really simple method. (1) Provide time for teachers to learn independently. (2) Provide time for teachers to meet in strands and talk. (3) Provide time for teachers to create something that can be used to be an artifact of their learning that can be shared (with ideas for things to do in the classroom).
If someone kicked off the afternoon of a PD session with that agenda, I would be PUMPED. Time to pursue my own goals and talk with teachers who are excited about those, too? Count me in.
4. Create informal spaces for reflection and discussion.
PD days will never be enough for meaningful growth. Like, there's really no way around that, especially as those days seem to be more and more limited. When we focus on PD days, we miss out on some more important opportunities for learning and growth.
In "The Mirage," a study on teacher professional development, one of the most important things teachers reported as having an impact on their learning was informal collaboration. What does this look like? It's the conversation over lunch in a colleagues classroom. It's the after-school meetup at the local brewery with your team on a Friday. It's the Google Chat that you have with your teaching bestie.
If you notice, in all those examples, none of them are intentionally built into the day, and almost all of them require additional labor outside of contracted, paid time. We can't expect this of teachers and then wonder why they're either not growing or burned out.
As such, build spaces into your day where teachers can come together to talk. For example, I've had success buying pizza and hosting a lunch-and-learn where teachers get free food and then sit at a table that's talking about a topic they're focused on. It could be part of a staff meeting where, instead of just talking through bullet points, teachers get to meet with other people in their strand and reflect together.
I've also seen varying levels of success with asynchronous spaces like chat groups. I know that I get a lot of ideas and resources from my ELA team through our team Google Chat space.
The goal is to be intentional about providing time and space on a regular basis and in a non or semi-structured way for teachers to come together and talk about the elements they are working on with other teachers who are focused on the same thing.
5. Provide opportunities for cross-pollination of ideas.
Schools almost always have issues with pockets of innovation that simply stay there. This is usually due to a lack of intentional planning around how teachers will share their ideas with others. There are all kinds of ways that this can happen. For an easy one that is typically already built into a schedule for teachers is to have a routine at the beginning of content-area PLCs where teachers start off by sharing what they are learning in their strand. For another version, during a PD day, get something like a Padlet board set up and provide teachers a few moments to share what they're learning and maybe even add a resource.
If you want something more structured, at the end of a term or the end of the year, what if every strand had the opportunity to put together some PD around the things they've studied, practiced, and grown in? That way we can honor (and dear goodness, pay those people who present) the expertise and knowledge within our own buildings.
While that is really the entire foundation of building a cohesive and effective professional learning program, I've also found a few things to be helpful (though I wouldn't necessarily deem them as essential components).
Instructional PLC time. While we typically just meet in content-area PLCs, I've seen some great changes happen in pedagogy when once a month (or something along those lines), teachers meet with their strand instead of their content PLC. This provides a bigger amount of time to dig into the work and discuss ideas with colleagues focused on growing in the same areas.
Instructional coaches. If you have instructional coaches, sometimes the position feels unfocused or like an afterthought. However, with an intentional professional learning program, coaches can be much more involved in supporting the work intentionally through finding resources, facilitating reflection, and supporting walkthroughs with other teachers in the same strands.
Colleague shout-outs. Now, this may seem periphery to the work of professional learning, but I think we often forget that learning something new is exhausting and sometimes discouraging when it isn't going how we hoped. Developing some sort of system for people to be informally recognized for their work can pay off hugely in developing a positive experience around learning and growth in a professional context (and it also helps to be mindful of who's being recognized and who isn't).
A metric to document growth. Now, this gets tricky. On one hand, this can be weaponized, and that must be avoided at all costs. However, something like this assessment practices learning progression can be a helpful tool when teachers are reflecting on their practice.
Final Thoughts:
This seems silly to say, but I also feel like it has to be said: PD doesn't have to be bad. I've watched people announce that it was the last PD of the year, only to have the whole room erupt in cheering. I'm not joking about that.
The difference between good professional learning and bad professional learning is intentionality. There's no way around that. Much of the bad PD I've seen, been a part of, and (frankly) delivered was done without the intentionality in thinking about how this fits into a larger system of learning that can be sustained.
When all is said and done, the most important thing we can do is provide time, space, and a structure to allow teachers to be the professionals they are with the best resources we can provide.
If you are interested in partnering with me to help revamp your professional learning system, click here.
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