Adams Elementary School Staff Development, 6/17/04
Dave Moursund
PTA member and Site Council member, Adams Elementary School
Professor, Teacher Education, University of Oregon
Abstract
This is a short “workshop” with about 6 to 8 teachers at Adams Elementary School. The goal
is to lay groundwork for Professional Development that will occur during the next school year
and on into the future. More specifically, the goals are:
1.
To develop and implement a School-Site-Centered Professional program that
will continue and continue to improve year after year. To the extent possible
this needs to be self-sustaining within the level of budget that is apt to be
available and other (non-budgeted) resources that are apt to be available.
2.
The School-Centered Professional program contributes to improved quality
of education for students attending Adams Elementary School.
3.
The School-Centered Professional program contributes to improved
professional quality of life for teachers at Adams Elementary School.
Introduction
Introduce myself, and state overall goals of this session. (Goals are stated in the Abstract.)
Find out what they have been doing earlier in the day that contributes to:
1.
Kids getting a better education.
2.
Teachers improving the quality and satisfaction of their professional lives.
In both cases, carry on conversations that aid at understanding their insights into these two
issues, and insights into evidence-based changes that lead to improvements.
Some General Observations
1. The totality of human knowledge is growing rapidly. For example, the US
Library of Congress adds about 4 million items to its collection each year.
The UO Library has been making major cuts in its budget for periodicals.
Even after major cuts, its budget this past year was about $3.5 million.
Teachers, students, and others are faced by an Information Explosion that
appears likely to continue throughout their lifetimes.
2.
The World Wide Web is a type of Global Library. It is huge—it rivals the US
Library of Congress in size—and continuing to grow rapidly. Part of the
answer to Information Explosion is to make information more readily
available and help people learn to make effective use of the accumulated
knowledge of the human race.
3.
There is substantial information about how to be a good teacher and how to
be a good learner. The Craft and Science of Teaching and Learning is
growing rapidly. It is being helped by progress in Brain Science and Mind
Science.
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4.
For about 50 years (via work of Benjamin Bloom) we have known that
individual tutoring by a well qualified tutor can bring a 50th percentile student
to the 98th percentile. Somewhat related to this, we know that kids growing
up in bilingual or trilingual home and community environments can become
fluent in two or three languages. This type of evidence tells us that kids have
tremendous potential for learning. We have sought less expensive ways to
accomplish all or part of this “gold standard” in education.
School-Site-Centered Professional Development
There is a lot known about effective staff development. As might be expected, the most
effective staff development is done in small groups or in one-on-one mode and is specifically
designed to meet the needs of the participants.
This can be accomplished by developing and implementing a School-Site-Centered
Professional Development plan. Very roughly speaking, such a plan involves:
1.
A commitment on the part of the entire school staff and its leadership. This is
a commitment to an on-going, continuous improvement model.
2.
Each staff member taking some individual responsibility for his or her
continued professional development—his or her ongoing growth in capacity;
his or her ongoing progress toward being a better teacher.
3.
Each staff member taking some individual responsibility to contribute to
professional staff development of his or her fellow teachers.
4.
Making effective use of free and/or inexpensive resources from outside the
school in a manner that brings the knowledge and skills—the learning,
training, and education—into the school in a manner that benefits the whole
school. As an example, a team of one or two teachers might attend districtsponsored staff development or a conference. They would then share their
new knowledge and skills with teachers within the building.
5.
Each staff member and the staff as a whole learn to make effective use of the
steadily increasing amount of staff development resources that are available
on the Web and through other forms of telecommunications.
6.
Staff development is a component of the regularly scheduled staff meetings.
Needs and Resources Assessment
1. What are individual and group needs for professional staff development at
Adams?
2.
What are individual teacher areas of strength (knowledge and skills) that are
available within the school and that can contribute to meeting the needs?
Final Questions, Comments, and Closure
References
Bransford, J.D.; A. L. Brown; & R.R. Cocking (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school.
Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. It is available (can be read for free) online at:
http://books.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/ch1.html.
Moursund, D. (2004). Personal Website. Accessed 6/9/04: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~moursund/dave/index.htm.
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