Most educators dread seeing the words “Professional Development” or “Professional Learning Communities” on the district calendar. No matter what you teach, we’ve all sat through a professional learning session where we felt nothing pertained to us, our students, or our teaching. However, professional learning, of all types, is vital to our success as educators. 

When we engage in professional learning of any kind, whether it be a professional development conference or session or a weekly professional learning community (PLC) within our school, teachers want to walk away with professional learning strategies that they can use in their everyday practice.  As educational leaders, it is our job to make professional learning opportunities meaningful and engaging. Many times we can work with our teachers and co-teach a lesson to collaborate on ideas, or sometimes you can let their passion shine through and allow them to take over the PD while providing them resources. Check out these 5 ways you can ensure your professional developments are effective:

1. Establish a supportive relationship: Teachers need to know they are heard and supported. Take time to get to know the teachers you are teaching and who they teach. This information is vital to ensure that the training is inclusive, differentiated, and effective for all that are a part of it  (Quick, Holtzman, & Chaney, 2009).

2. Encourage active collaboration: Collaborative professional development has proven to be the most effective learning strategy for teachers and students. Studies have shown that collaborative professional development leads to increased educational outcomes for both teachers and students. (Holmqvist & Lelinge, 2021). Active collaborations allow for veteran teachers to share strategies with new teachers and new teachers to share strategies with tenured teachers.

3. Create ongoing learning opportunities: The philosophy behind professional learning is that, as educators, we are constantly learning and changing our practice to be the best it can be for the benefit of our students. Book clubs, short webinar series, and guided professional learning communities are all great ways to structure ongoing learning. 

4. Facilitate job-embedded learning: Now, it’s easy to collaborate with colleagues, listen to a webinar, or read a book but it’s another thing to put what you have learned into practice. Part of ongoing learning opportunities is to facilitate job-embedded professional development training. Create times and spaces where educators try newly learned strategies without fear of failure and with constructive feedback (open dialogues, rubrics, etc.).

5. Instruction focused: Professional learning communities, professional development, book clubs, webinar series, and any other form of professional learning, should all be focused on the instruction educators should be providing. 

Professional learning is vital to strengthening our learning strategies for students and ensuring we are effectively engaging students on a daily basis. Professional learning can happen in so many ways but these 5 examples of professional learning create strategies that help students and teachers. 

References:

Quick, H., Holtzman, D. & Chaney, K. (2009). Professional development and instructional practice: Conceptions and evidence of effectiveness. Journal of Education forStudents Placed at Risk (JESPAR), 14(1), 45-71.

M. Holmqvist & B. Lelinge (2021) Teachers’ collaborative professional development for inclusive education, European Journal of Special Needs Education, 36:5, 819-833, DOI: 10.1080/08856257.2020.1842974