- 1. Promising Practices in Professional Development Ghaida Al Habib
2. Question: What is the fundamental purpose of schools? The very essence of a learning community is a focus on and a commitment to the learning of each student. 3. ISLLC Standard 2 An education leader promotes the success of every student by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conductive to student learning and staff professional growth. 4. Professional development refers to ongoing learning opportunities available to teachers and other education personnel through their schools and districts. Effective professional development is often seen as vital to school success and teacher satisfaction. It creates opportunities to enhance skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement. 5. Some common practices of PD Observation and Mentoring Workshops Lesson Study Peer Coaching Action Research Professional Learning Communities 6. What are PLCs? Richard Dufour-National expert in PLCs- Learning by Doing, Second Edition: "An ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. Professional learning communities operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous job-embedded learning for educators." To create a professional learning community, focus on learning rather than on teaching, work collaboratively, and hold yourself accountable for results. 7. An ongoing process through which teachers and administrators work collaboratively to seek and share learning and to act on their learning, their goal being to enhance their effectiveness as professionals for students benefit (Hord, 1997) A school culture that recognizes and capitalizes on the collective strengths and talents of the staff (Protheroe, 2008). An inclusive group of people, motivated by a shared learning vision, who support and work with each other to inquire on their practice and together learn new and better approaches to enhance student learning (Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Thomas, Wallace, Greenwood et al., 2005). 8. The collaboration and interdependence of horizontal and vertical teams to: - Clarify essential learnings for each subject, grade level, unit of instruction. - establish consistent pacing - Discuss and exchange ideas. - create frequent common assessments to monitor student learning - agree on the criteria used to judge the quality of student work. - Finally, use evidence of student learning to identify: - individual students who need additional time and support - to discover problematic areas of the curriculum that require the attention of the team - To respond to data and change or improve classroom practices. - To allow each member to reflect and become aware of his or her instructional strengths and weaknesses. 9. Statistics 5 Key Principal Practices to impact Student Learning (0.8-1 high effect size): - Leading teachers learning and development (0.84) - Ensuring quality learning ( 0.42) - Establishing goals and expectations (0.42) - Resourcing strategically (0.31) - Ensuring an orderly and safe environment (0.27) - Vivian Robinson Findings 10. Beverly Showers and Bruce Joyce Findings- What teachers need to be effective: - Knowledge 5% - Demonstration 5% - Practice 5% - Peer Consultant Study Teams (PLCs) 85% We have people in house to do this. You dont need lots of money Training, training, and more training - Beverly Showers 11. The 3 Essential Tasks of Authentic PLCs: Looking at student and teacher work Designing quality Common Formative Assessments (CFAs) Reviewing and responding to data - Beverly Showers and Bruce Joyce, The Context of Authentic PLCs Big Ideas: Focus on Learning-What is it we want our students to learn? Build a collaborative culture- How will we know when each student has learned it? Focus on results- How can we improve on current levels of student achievement? Rick DuFour 12. Main Characteristics of PLC Shared values and vision-focus on learning Collaborative culture- opportunities for teachers to engage in where they talk about teaching, receive frequent feedback on teaching, design classes together, teach each other, etc. has been found in successful schools and is missing in unsuccessful schools (Little, 1989, 2003). Result oriented thinking-Preparing assessments to test practices, focus on examining outcomes to improve student learning, teachers respond to data that require mutual accountability and changing classroom practices Supportive and shared leadership-An effective leader is more interested in distributing power by grooming new leaders. Bussey, Measuring the Instructional Leadership Values and Beliefs of School Leaders. Shared personal practice-Shared practice and collective inquiry help sustain improvement by strengthening connections among teachers, stimulating discussion about professional practice, and helping teachers build on one anothers expertise (McREL, 2003). Through continuous inquiry and reflective dialogue teachers 13. Leadership Implications On-going improvement Plannning time for collaboration Encouraging personal growth and commitment to learning. Coordinating and facilitating DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, and Many (2006) remind us of the need for frequent recognition. Your role in a PLC is to find peoples talents, aspirations, and skills, and showcase them. The goal is to leave a legacy of leaders, not to create a legacy for yourself. 14. Research: -http://www.infodev.org/articles/best-practices-and- models-teacher-professional-development - http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/pd/pbs_plc_lit_re view.pdf -http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/professional- development/ - http://files.solution- tree.com/pdfs/reproducibles_lbd2nd/lbd2ndeditionacti onguide.pdf - http://www.centerforcsri.org/plc/elements.html - http://allthingsplc
