EDU 6235: Professional Development To Improve Student Achievement

Teaching Teachers: Professional Development To Improve Student Achievement

This article talks about what kind of professional development proves to be most successful for student learning. It starts by giving some brief information saying that PD used to focus on things that primarily focused on classroom management. This did not strongly correlate to student success though. Then we fast forward to today when PD is focused on problem solving skills and higher order thinking. One of the examples they give is when they take teachers in a month long PD session and those who did not attend. Those who attended were shown to ask more "why" questions and pushed them to explain and look at things differently. Those who did not attend did techniques such a fact recalling. The success for the first group of students was because the PD focused on how students learn and being able to gauge their learning. Unsurprisingly the article stated that PD was most effective when it is directly linked to curriculum and district beliefs. It was also stated that although more PD opportunities can have greater teacher success, more time does not necessarily mean it is more effective. If the sessions are not well focused, it is basically a waste of time. PD should also be evaluated as an ongoing process, not just an evaluation of the PD presentation itself. The evaluation should include teacher behavior, classroom practices, and effect on student learning. The most important goal of PD is for the teacher to have PD on their content area that will improve both their knowledge as well as the students' knowledge.

I thought this article made some really good points. Although this was not a very long article, I think it made the point well, just like when they talked about how more PD doesn't mean it is more successful. Although most PD deals with technology, the focus should still always be to strengthen the knowledge of teachers and students. Just because there is a new tech tool that the district is promoting, it is useless unless the correct PD is given for teachers. Just like in "traditional" classroom questioning of higher order thinking, that should also be translated to when students are using tech. It is also important to make this district/building/teacher specific so people can see the value of using the tool in daily lessons. The biggest point for me was the PD evaluation should be ongoing. As teachers we are all too familiar in filling out a rating scale at the end of a PD sessions to get clock hours. But in reality that's where evaluation ends for most people. Personally I have never had someone followup with me about PD and come help me in the classroom. I know this is something that districts with coaches do but I have never experienced that. I am hoping that with VVSD going 1:1 that we will have tech or instructional coaches for buildings so we are able to have this.

http://www.tolerance.org/article/teaching-teachers-professional-development-improve-student-a