Dear colleague,
As I approach the 20-year mark of my career in education, I've probably spent thousands of hours thinking about, experiencing, or leading professional development experiences. Lots of them have been…not so great. But some of them? Career-changing.
Here, in my view, are 10 elements that make for way-above-average PD:
1. It's simple. By simple, I mean focused on one thing, hopefully something fundamental, something timeless, something that has a chance of helping me not just this school year but for many to come. How to improve student motivation. How to apply cognitive science to the classroom. How to focus or refine my teacher workload.
2. It treats the fundamentals. Meaning, it doesn't just tell me what to do. It helps me understand why I'm doing that thing and how that thing works. Now I know, I've said fundamentals two times. That's repetitive, isn't it?
3. It's repetitive. The most impactful PD book I've read has probably been Mike Schmoker's book Focus. The man is relentlessly repetitive on his three things schools can do to get better. The repetition works. It signals importance. It signals there's more to learn in the seemingly simple and fundamental things that are being repeated. It allows for drafts of learning. And so when one year I decided to just read one professional development book over and over, Mike Schmoker's was it. I repeatedly read the repetitive book.
It stills shapes my thinking today.
4. It's rooted in experience. There's got to be a demonstrable connection between the thing I'm learning about and the actual work and concerns of a classroom teacher. Super helpful if you're sharing with me something that you've actually done and the results you've actually seen.
5. It's humble. I'll always remember when Doug Stark, the genius behind the Mechanics Instruction that Sticks series, stood up in front of our faculty and began his PD by saying, “Listen, I'm not saying I'm the expert or that I've got all the answers, but here's my thinking on this issue.” Doug wasn't just saying this; he genuinely believed it. Dude was humble.
6. The presenter deeply understands the material. The second part of the Doug Stark story above is that he proceeded to blow our minds with the depth and clarity of what he brought to us that day. It was clear that Doug approached his topic with a rigorous honesty and criticality so he could be confident in the value and effectiveness of what he was bringing. While he didn't believe he was the expert…he actually was.
7. It involves discussion and/or, even better, writing. Writing is the most efficient means for transforming the human mind. This is why my students write so much, mostly in the provisional mode of writing. It's also why I write so much. It's impossible to multi-task while writing, so it forces concentration. Writing is exploratory. It is generative. I could go on and on (and I do in this video), but suffice it to say that writing (and to a lesser degree, discussion) is an integral part of good PD.
8. It's manageable. Congrats on your comprehensive framework for teaching; I love that for you. The problem is that when I come to a PD, I don't tend to have the bandwidth for a paradigm shift. I need something that I can fit into my current (LARGE) workload, so you're probably going to need to A) reduce your session down to one action step and B) tell me what I can stop doing so I can start doing the thing you're proposing I do.
9. It passes the “More Learning, Less Stress” test. I often start my own PDs with a slide that looks like this:
I tell teachers, “Listen, colleague: my work is all about these four words. If something I share with you today doesn't seem likely to both produce more learning and reduce stress, don't do it. You don't need one more thing to do unless it can meet both those criteria. I don't either.”
Now of course, I'm pretty confident in giving this direction to colleagues because my work is literally all about meeting those two criteria. But I think it's a good criteria for any PD situation.
10. It translates to action. I'm not talking about world-changing action, I'm talking about human-shaping action. Give me a thing to mindlessly check off a list, and you won't change me. Give me a tool to use that I understand and teach me to treat this tool like a learning experience, and now you might end up changing me. The most efficient means to change the world is by changing human beings; human beings change very reliably when you shape the mind and put ideas into practice.
In Sum
If you're in charge of PD in any way, I encourage you to think on these things. They are not fancy or novel, but, boy, do they make a difference for the thoughtful and earnest teachers you're helping.
Teaching right beside you,
DSJR
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