Determining Content
Focus on Student Performance
Research on training suggests that most people are not very good at knowing what they need to know. The more expert, the better one is at assessing what more one could do. But for most of us, what we think we need to know more about with respect to our everyday responsibilities is guess work. So, on what criteria is the content of professional development programs determined? One obvious answer is that the introduction of new curricular or instructional programs define new needs for learning—at least for most. But in the context of continuing improvement, the other most instructive source of information about the content of professional development is analyses of student performance—the gap analysis discussed in Step 4 that identifies the priorities for improvement. Thus, the first design principle for designing professional development:
Professional development should be based on collaborative analyses of the differences between (a) actual student performance and (b) goals and standards for student learning.
This principle is one of ten research- based design principles to be discussed in this KEYS-CSI Step (7). To see a list of these CLICK HERE [link 6d]
Most states have already or are currently implementing standards for assessment and performance and these will drive the content of professional development. Indicator 4.3 (Teachers are prepared to use state or district standards) examines the extent that your school's professional development program prepares staff to implement state standards. Specifically this indicator measures how well the professional development program prepares teachers to use assessment, use new methods and implement standards.
Increasing attention is being paid to whether teachers “know their subjects”. To learn more about this, CLICK HERE. [link 6e]
Engage School Staff
While individual teachers, as is the case for most professionals, may be better at knowing what they want to learn than they are at knowing what they need to learn, it would be foolish to design processes for enhancing teacher expertise without involving those who are to learn new things in shaping their learning experiences. This yields a second principle for designing the content of professional development:
Professional development should involve teachers in the identification of what they need to learn and in the development of the learning experiences in which they will be involved.
Use Research on Promising Practices in Selecting Content
A third principle for designing professional development is:
The content of professional development should reflect the best research on the given topic (e.g., how to enhance the literacy of adolescents).
While this is rather obvious, it is not so easy to determine the reliability of “research-based” claims made for particular practices and programs. Almost every source of professional development content claims to be research-based. And, to be sure, one can probably find some research to support almost any proposition about how to improve student learning. As noted in Step 5, a careful evaluation of the evidence in support of the improvement initiative for which professional development is essential and how one might do this was discussed there. But this point bears repeating, in part because professional development is not always part of a new improvement initiative. Indeed, professional development is part of the ongoing process of continuous school improvement and it should happen, formally and informally, at every stage Step in the KEYS-CSI process. To learn more about how much faith one can place in particular programs and practices, CLICK HERE [Link 6f]
Target on Student Learning Challenges
Too often, professional development aimed at improving instruction is poorly targeted at what teachers need most to know. This, of course, varies in any given context. But it is not uncommon for the content of professional development to be too general and to fail to connect with specific instructional strategies that meet the needs of particular students. For example, refreshing teachers’ knowledge of subject matter or teaching about research on particular instructional strategies is usually insufficient. Hence a fourth professional development design principle:
The content of professional development should focus on what students are to learn and how to address the different problems students may have in learning that material.
When teachers are asked about the instructional challenges they feel they need to be better prepared to meet, many teachers say they want to know more about how better to teach students with “special needs”.
To learn more, CLICK HERE [Link 6g]
Research on training suggests that most people are not very good at knowing what they need to know. The more expert, the better one is at assessing what more one could do. But for most of us, what we think we need to know more about with respect to our everyday responsibilities is guess work. So, on what criteria is the content of professional development programs determined? One obvious answer is that the introduction of new curricular or instructional programs define new needs for learning—at least for most. But in the context of continuing improvement, the other most instructive source of information about the content of professional development is analyses of student performance—the gap analysis discussed in Step 4 that identifies the priorities for improvement. Thus, the first design principle for designing professional development:
Professional development should be based on collaborative analyses of the differences between (a) actual student performance and (b) goals and standards for student learning.
This principle is one of ten research- based design principles to be discussed in this KEYS-CSI Step (7). To see a list of these CLICK HERE [link 6d]
Most states have already or are currently implementing standards for assessment and performance and these will drive the content of professional development. Indicator 4.3 (Teachers are prepared to use state or district standards) examines the extent that your school's professional development program prepares staff to implement state standards. Specifically this indicator measures how well the professional development program prepares teachers to use assessment, use new methods and implement standards.
Increasing attention is being paid to whether teachers “know their subjects”. To learn more about this, CLICK HERE. [link 6e]
Engage School Staff
While individual teachers, as is the case for most professionals, may be better at knowing what they want to learn than they are at knowing what they need to learn, it would be foolish to design processes for enhancing teacher expertise without involving those who are to learn new things in shaping their learning experiences. This yields a second principle for designing the content of professional development:
Professional development should involve teachers in the identification of what they need to learn and in the development of the learning experiences in which they will be involved.
Use Research on Promising Practices in Selecting Content
A third principle for designing professional development is:
The content of professional development should reflect the best research on the given topic (e.g., how to enhance the literacy of adolescents).
While this is rather obvious, it is not so easy to determine the reliability of “research-based” claims made for particular practices and programs. Almost every source of professional development content claims to be research-based. And, to be sure, one can probably find some research to support almost any proposition about how to improve student learning. As noted in Step 5, a careful evaluation of the evidence in support of the improvement initiative for which professional development is essential and how one might do this was discussed there. But this point bears repeating, in part because professional development is not always part of a new improvement initiative. Indeed, professional development is part of the ongoing process of continuous school improvement and it should happen, formally and informally, at every stage Step in the KEYS-CSI process. To learn more about how much faith one can place in particular programs and practices, CLICK HERE [Link 6f]
Target on Student Learning Challenges
Too often, professional development aimed at improving instruction is poorly targeted at what teachers need most to know. This, of course, varies in any given context. But it is not uncommon for the content of professional development to be too general and to fail to connect with specific instructional strategies that meet the needs of particular students. For example, refreshing teachers’ knowledge of subject matter or teaching about research on particular instructional strategies is usually insufficient. Hence a fourth professional development design principle:
The content of professional development should focus on what students are to learn and how to address the different problems students may have in learning that material.
When teachers are asked about the instructional challenges they feel they need to be better prepared to meet, many teachers say they want to know more about how better to teach students with “special needs”.
To learn more, CLICK HERE [Link 6g]