Welcome! The Northern Region Professional Development group is interested in discussing the various aspects of transferring training into student learning outcomes. This blog is designed to carry on discussions that were started during our meetings. Feel free to comment, share resources and add new insights!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Literacy in Learning Exchange
It seems to me that one of the emerging changes in the world of professional development are online learning communities. The whole notion of having the ability to expand our learning connections throughout the world is mind boggling but very enticing. Learning together while miles apart seems like a great way to find other like minded individuals but also to substantially increase the knowledge and the practice base. Linked In supports a number of "groups" from those groups other avenues emerge. I found this one, The Literacy in Learning Exchange to be of interest. Why not share your communities as well?
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Helpful Resources
I am listing a few resources below that include a positive example of professional development transferring to student learning. Please add others as you come across them.
DuFour, R. and Eaker, R. (1998). Professional learning communities at work: Best practices for enhancing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, pgs. 29-45.
Fielding, L, Kerr, N., Rosier, P. (2007). Annual growth for all students catch-up growth for those who are Behind, Kennewick, WA: The New Foundation Press.
Richardson, J. (2004). From the inside out: Learning from the positive deviance in your organization.
DuFour, R. and Eaker, R. (1998). Professional learning communities at work: Best practices for enhancing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, pgs. 29-45.
Fielding, L, Kerr, N., Rosier, P. (2007). Annual growth for all students catch-up growth for those who are Behind, Kennewick, WA: The New Foundation Press.
Richardson, J. (2004). From the inside out: Learning from the positive deviance in your organization.
What Works?
Let's start the discussion by reviewing a professional development experience that did work. In other words an experience where professional development did translate to student outcomes. Why was this a significant experience for you? What made it work?
I will go first...
Learning by Doing
My two teammates and I were dragging ourselves down the hall at the end of another long day. We remarked that there had to be a better way to teach and reach our middle school students with severe emotional and behavioral challenges. We decided to "dare" each other to find a better way. Our dare became a shared learning experience which encompassed the next three years.We created our own professional development based upon self-study, trial and error, information gathering (including attending conference presentations), and materials development. Our progress indicators were increased assignment completion with high quality (at least 80% correct) (eventually 99% of our students completed assignments and turned them in on time), decreased behavior challenges which took us away from instruction, increased attendance, and participation. Over the next few years, we developed "cooperative competition". One of us would come across a great idea. We would then expand on the idea and implement it. We created a curriculum on social skill development, developed a classroom behavior framework, explored the concept of active involvement and engagement. Almost all of our units were structured for problem based learning experiences. What were the results? Once our students accepted the structure, they were successful. Our success rate in general education rose from 20% to 80% of our students. We had very high standards and provided multiple ways for students to meet those standards. One visiting principal remarked that the gifted students in his school could not have done a better job on the project work that he observed.
The critical elements from our study were:
1. Agreement on a need
2. Hard work. Lots of study and work outside of the school day.
3. Administrative support and guidance
4. Experiencing success (both teachers and students). Success was energizing.
5. Sharing ideas from conferences and other resources.
6. Mutually identifying the next steps in the process and dividing up the responsibilities.
After about 20 years working in various forms of professional development and having involvement with coaching individual classroom teachers to working with large systems change projects, I have to say that I have not observed a large scale project that resulted in large increases in student learning. Perhaps this is because we never gave the initiative enough time for teachers to truly become skilled. I don't know. My most successful experiences have been with small groups of highly motivated teachers.
Please share your comments and your experiences.
I will go first...
Learning by Doing
My two teammates and I were dragging ourselves down the hall at the end of another long day. We remarked that there had to be a better way to teach and reach our middle school students with severe emotional and behavioral challenges. We decided to "dare" each other to find a better way. Our dare became a shared learning experience which encompassed the next three years.We created our own professional development based upon self-study, trial and error, information gathering (including attending conference presentations), and materials development. Our progress indicators were increased assignment completion with high quality (at least 80% correct) (eventually 99% of our students completed assignments and turned them in on time), decreased behavior challenges which took us away from instruction, increased attendance, and participation. Over the next few years, we developed "cooperative competition". One of us would come across a great idea. We would then expand on the idea and implement it. We created a curriculum on social skill development, developed a classroom behavior framework, explored the concept of active involvement and engagement. Almost all of our units were structured for problem based learning experiences. What were the results? Once our students accepted the structure, they were successful. Our success rate in general education rose from 20% to 80% of our students. We had very high standards and provided multiple ways for students to meet those standards. One visiting principal remarked that the gifted students in his school could not have done a better job on the project work that he observed.
The critical elements from our study were:
1. Agreement on a need
2. Hard work. Lots of study and work outside of the school day.
3. Administrative support and guidance
4. Experiencing success (both teachers and students). Success was energizing.
5. Sharing ideas from conferences and other resources.
6. Mutually identifying the next steps in the process and dividing up the responsibilities.
After about 20 years working in various forms of professional development and having involvement with coaching individual classroom teachers to working with large systems change projects, I have to say that I have not observed a large scale project that resulted in large increases in student learning. Perhaps this is because we never gave the initiative enough time for teachers to truly become skilled. I don't know. My most successful experiences have been with small groups of highly motivated teachers.
Please share your comments and your experiences.
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