Designing Professional Development That Works
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Why does professional development work in some schools and not others?
What does high quality professional development look like?
High quality professional development programs move schools forward; teachers and students are strategically
positioned as active learners who work together to raise academic achievement. The truth is, however, most
professional development programs do not work because of problematic design efforts that fail to
incorporate research-based approaches to teacher and student learning.
Agiri Learning Consultants (ALC) are committed to helping school leaders create high quality professional
development experiences within their schools. In reviewing the research on best practices, we were able to
identify 6 essential features of high quality professional development. Use the following checklist as a
guide for designing and implementing professional development that works:
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Active Learning: Are teachers told what to do and not shown how to do it? Teachers need to be seen as
learners too. In other words, ALC knows the importance of creating opportunities for teachers to engage
in meaningful hands-on learning opportunities that not only tells them about effective instructional
strategies, but shows them as well. We use multimodal resources that make adult learning fun and
personalizes professional development for individual teachers.
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Coherence: Is there a coherent alignment between teacher, principal, state and district goals? Your
professional development goals should comprise of a concise vision statement articulated by everyone in
your instructional community. Teachers who are pulled in too many directions are not given
opportunities to grow. We work with instructional leaders in developing a cohesive professional
development learning plan with a clear vision and goals.
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Content Specific: Are teachers only learning general instructional strategies and not those that pertain to
their subject area? Like the students they teach, teachers need to be exposed to subject-specific strategies
and tools. ALC work with teachers to not only build their general pedagogical knowledge, but also their
understanding of how a particular strategy should be modified and used within their discipline.
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Collaboration: Are teachers working together towards a common school goal? School wide academic
achievement occurs in schools that create structures where teachers work together. However, like group
work in a classroom, collaboration amongst teachers must be explicitly taught. ALC offer a series of group
exercises that promote and cultivate collaborative work in schools.
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Student Thinking: Does your professional development help teachers understand how students learn and
think? ALC research-based approach works with teachers on deepening their understanding of how
students actually learn and think within their respective disciplines. Teachers are consequently better
able to design instruction and assessments that effectively engage students.
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Assessments: Are teachers frequently assessing student understanding? Assessments provide teachers
with valuable information on what and how they should teach their students. ALC helps teachers create
structures that enable frequent assessment and data collection that drives instruction.
Interested in learning more about how to design and implement High Quality Professional
Development in your school? Contact us at [email protected] or 646-229-0360