Tag: Professional Development

Posted on by Imagine Learning Corporate

July 18, 2024 2:32 am

Is Professional Learning the Antidote to Teacher Burnout?

Discover the hidden power of professional learning in addressing teacher burnout. This blog post explores how shifting from traditional professional development to a more collaborative, teacher-driven approach can rekindle educators’ passion and resilience, ultimately benefiting both teachers and students.

Before we dive into what makes professional learning effective, we need to address the elephant in the room: the difference between professional development and professional learning. Bradley et al describe them as two mindsets, with the professional learning mindset being one “in which professional learning and growth are centered around accelerating personal and collective learning.”  

The shift from a PD to PL mindset means “moving from delivering information to intentionally co-designing, with educators, learning and growth opportunities that are grounded in the evidence about what is most needed and most effective.” 

So, while at first it seems like a small difference in semantics, it’s really the key to this whole conversation — especially during a time when teacher burnout is high. 

Addressing teacher burnout… with professional learning?

At this point, we know many of the causes of teacher burnout: heavy workloads, lack of funding, and classroom behavior issues, to name a few. But if these stressors don’t have an immediate fix, how do we help address the problem? 

You might roll your eyes when I say professional learning. But keeping in mind the shift in mindset, more one-off PD days are not what we’re talking about — not even if the focus is on teacher wellness. We’ve looked before at how administrators can care for teachers, including offering mental health and wellness support. But frankly, teachers are tired of being told to prioritize self-care when they don’t have the time or bandwidth.  

Educators go above and beyond for their students, ignoring their own well-being (inspiring the well-intentioned push to promote self-care) because teaching is a mission-driven craft. And because of that, we are seeing teachers burn out at rates that align with other service- and mission-oriented roles (e.g. nursing, social work, etc.).  

At the beginning of their careers, teachers feel deeply rooted in their “why,” but as the daily stresses of the profession take over, they can start to feel distanced from that purpose. This is what psychologists call misalignment burnout, when “we constantly engage with environments and in activities that go against our innermost values and beliefs, leading to a disconnect between our true selves and professional identity.”  

So how can we help teachers with this misalignment? That’s where professional learning comes in. 

The key to effective PL: reconnecting teachers with their “why”

A critical aspect of effective professional learning is that it helps educators to reconnect with their “why” and refills the proverbial tank needed to keep giving and giving and giving in an increasingly skilled way.  It also helps teachers to build a toolkit for how to respect their own barriers, keep their own well-being in check, and systematize the individualized support that they want to offer each student.   

Effective professional learning is teacher-driven, and therefore tailored by grade level, content area, career stage, and specific interests or passions. Teachers are professionals and should be treated as such, with autonomy and choice over how they hone their skills and stay informed about current research.  

We know that professional learning should be enduring, ongoing, job-embedded, and relevant, but if the main goal isn’t to get teachers back to that “why,” it’s missing a critical element. The goal is of course to build and strengthen skills, but the other, equally important outcome is to help teachers rekindle motivation and strengthen resilience.  

PL ideas that bring focus back to the “why”: 

Provide ample time to connect with colleagues 

Spend time digging into (and rethinking) content and how it’s delivered

Focus on new ways to build connections with students 

New challenges arise and best practices evolve, “but one thing that has never altered is educators’ desire to affect positive change in the classroom.” So, if professional learning can tap into that in a meaningful way, it can make huge strides toward reinvigorating teachers. 

About the Author — Krysia Lazarewicz

Krysia Lazarewicz is Vice President of Professional Learning and Development at Imagine Learning, where she leads the vision, strategy, and execution of our professional learning. Before joining the Imagine Learning team, Krysia was Vice President of Business Development at Wiley University Services, where she partnered with over 100 institutions to develop and launch new online programs, focusing on helping educators and learners achieve their goals. Krysia’s background includes teaching middle school math and science and working in content development for Pearson. She has a strong passion for improving lives through education. 

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June 14, 2022 8:00 am

How to Create Meaningful Professional Development for Adult Learners

Give teachers what they really want: the opportunity to be active participants in their own learning.

It’s Thursday afternoon, and my students are having trouble concentrating. Their excitement for a 3-day weekend is palpable, but I’m… not off the hook just yet. Tomorrow is one of those dotted-line days on the academic calendar — a student-free, professional development Friday. Now, while a day of no classroom management is nice, I can’t quite share in my students’ excitement for a true day off. 

That is because I know what’s coming: a full day of prescribed professional development. I’m already planning the snacks I will eat and the grading I will sneakily get done.

Does this scenario sound familiar?

It isn’t that teachers don’t want professional development, in fact I’d venture to say most educators would describe themselves as lifelong learners. This isn’t what administrators seek out, either, when they carefully plan PD days. Their intentions are good. For any career, continued education should be involved — especially for something as dynamic and important as education.  

So what DOES get teachers excited for professional development? 

In my attempt to answer this question, I had an ah-ha moment. I learned that ped, the root meaning “child,” combined with gogy, the root meaning “to lead” (or teach), is where we get the word pedagogy, or “teaching children.” 

Andra is the root meaning adult, so (I’m sure you’ve arrived here already), andragogy is the concept of teaching adults. So, if administrators are trying to apply good “pedagogy” in professional development, that in itself is the misstep. American educator, Malcolm Knowles, coined the term “andragogy” in 1968. His four principles of adult learning give us some insight into how to tailor professional development to educators. 

a group of educators sitting around a table

1. Adults want to be part of the planning process — and the evaluation.  

Administrators were teachers once (and some still are actively involved in the classroom), so it is likely that they know what professional development would be beneficial to their teachers — especially because they have a bigger picture of their entire faculty. However, giving them exactly what they need does not always result in teacher buy-in. This is because, as adults, we value and expect independence. Telling an adult what they need to learn is a surefire way to close them off to any new information. 

Pre-training surveys are one way to solicit teacher input, but depending on school size, it might be too difficult to try to please everyone. A more realistic strategy might be to enlist department chairs or team leaders to meet with their teams and agree upon one training opportunity they would like. This takes care of the planning piece, but what about evaluation? For that agreed-upon training idea, administrators might also ask for departments to decide how they expect to implement or “show” the knowledge from their professional development day. Though this will still result in a number of different ideas (read on for thoughts about whole-staff vs. grouped PD), getting the teachers involved with the planning process will ensure that they know you have their interest at heart.  

2. Tapping into learner experience is essential. 

For our students, activating prior knowledge is usually part of the introduction to a lesson. For adults, it’s often overlooked in the interest of getting rid of the fluff and jumping right into the topic. But where our students may only have a handful of years of experience to look back on, adult learners have a lifetime’s worth of valuable, experiential knowledge.  

Utilizing this doesn’t mean asking a question and calling on everyone who raises their hand — we all know you may never get to the content. But something as simple as asking tables to discuss topical experiences for 10 minutes, or even just thinking about it individually, can help increase investment. Not to mention when you want their participation later, they will have already activated their knowledge on the topic.  

3. Adults are drawn to learning things directly relevant to them, both personally and professionally. 

In this day and age, if you’re looking for insight into what you are interested in learning about, take a look at your Google searches. Here’s my last search: “can a baby eat too many bananas?” This is directly relevant to my personal life as a mom of a voracious 10-month-old. (For those curious, Google wasn’t helpful here, but my pediatrician friend was — let them eat bananas!)  

Now, this isn’t to say that PD should be on “Pinterest classroom library ideas.” What I’m here to tell you is that if you already incorporated the previous tips by involving teachers in the planning process and tapping into their experience, you can feel safe that the topic is relevant to at least a subset of teachers. That is where the tip for this principle comes in — no PD day is going to be relevant to all teachers. For that reason, consider forgoing the full day of togetherness and utilizing breakout groups instead. These can change throughout the day or stay the same, but meaningful groupings could be by department, grade level, or whatever unique way your teachers work together. That way, rather than knowing the kindergarten teachers are tuning out while discussing upper elementary student engagement strategies, you can ensure that everyone is getting what they need. 

4. Problems, rather than subjects, take center stage.  

Continuing with the idea that Google searches reveal what we want to learn, I didn’t search my banana question in the hopes that I would learn registered-dietician-level information about the nutritional makeup of bananas and how they interact with an infant’s digestive system. I had a problem that I wanted to solve — did I need to tone down my son’s banana intake?  

The same applies to professional development. Lead with the problem you are seeking to solve, and ensure teachers leave with something they can use to solve it. So rather than starting the day speaking generally about student engagement in the upper elementary classroom, start with the challenge teachers are facing — they are struggling to maintain student attention during direct instruction. While you may not promise a solution, you can promise that teachers will leave with strategies they can implement the next day.  

———

As educators and administrators in the K–12 world, we are experts in teaching students, but that doesn’t necessarily transfer to teaching teachers. By including them in the process, drawing on their expertise, and giving them the information they want and need, administrators can feel more confident that their idea of the mentally stimulating day of PD matches up with teacher expectations.  

About the Author — Ally Jones

Ally Jones is a California credentialed educator who specialized in teaching English language learners at the secondary level. Outside of education, she is passionate about fitness, literature, and taking care of the planet for her son’s generation.  

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July 17, 2019 8:00 am

Six Keys to Effective Professional Development

Engage your teachers and staff in effective professional development with these simple and research-backed tips.

As the library begins to fill up with your colleagues, you wonder, “Will we get out early today? What is this professional development about anyway? I’ve got too much to do in my classroom to focus on this.”

This may sound all too familiar to educators taking part in professional development. Naturally, one wonders how to make professional development effective for teachers, and the simple answer is by making sure to both engage teachers and allow time for reflection. But how we get there is a bit more detailed.

In a 2009 study, over 90% of teachers reported having participated in professional development that was not useful. Professional development, of course, is intended to benefit all the educators who participate in it, so what are the keys to effective professional development sessions for teachers?

Students in a classroom all raising their hands to answer a question

1. Administrative Support

Before any PD sessions occur, it is imperative that the district’s primary point of contact be available for a meeting or phone call with the PD specialist. This call may be the only opportunity for the parties to touch base about topics related to the agenda, the level of experience of the teachers participating, and logistics.

During the session, it is important for the overseeing administrator to be present and active. Often, questions or topics arise that are unique to a school district’s policy. While PD specialists can offer suggestions, ultimately the school’s or district’s administration must be present to make decisions or establish guidelines for their staff. A delay in decision-making can impact a teacher’s ability to deploy what they have learned right away.

Beyond the initial session, sustained administrative support is essential to a teacher’s success since implementation of some new practice, policy, or technology is a big challenge. Therefore, support from administration, other teachers, and PD specialists during PLC or instructional time can provide this important layer. 

2. Teacher Buy-in

Teachers deserve PD that is relevant for them and their students. One way to achieve this is to have them play the role of and see the content through the lens of a student. As they learn new content and skills during the day, reflection can help guide them in understanding how their students can apply the new skill.

Another way to create buy-in is to elicit input about their learning objectives for the session. Having a greater stake in the desired outcomes can be very rewarding for a teacher who struggles to see the result.

3. Say–Show–Do

Central to any classroom is the concept of modeling. We first tell students what they will do, then carefully model the skill, and finally expect them to replicate the skill independently. This same concept should apply to PD sessions. Participants are more willing to apply a specific tool or skill once they have been presented with clear instructions and modeling on how to do that.

4. Collaboration Among Peers

Teaching is a collaborative profession, so isolating teachers during a PD session is counterintuitive to that. Finding opportunities for collaborative activities can keep participants engaged and tap into different ideas and perspectives around an idea or philosophy. Broadening teachers’ perspectives can, in turn, lead to increased engagement with their students.

5. Differentiation

Educators are expected to do this for their students in the classroom, so why wouldn’t we do the same thing for teacher professional development? There are a few ways to make this happen:

  • Having participants complete a survey ahead of time that gauges their level of expertise/experience is the first step to effective differentiation. Interpreting these results should guide the day’s agenda, and will hopefully enable the session leader to activate teacher interest by including topics that they would like to learn more about.
  • Teachers who have advanced skills or experience can guide a breakout session using their expertise to build their colleagues’ knowledge base. Additionally, teachers may be more willing to listen and engage with someone they already know.

6. Bringing Content to Life

Humor and fun are not just for the playground and classroom! Sharing humorous, real-world examples can be an effective way to engage participants and promote a safe and comfortable environment where meaningful professional development can take place. Bringing in humor and real life can also help keep teachers engaged and create memorable experiences.

When you’re planning out your PD sessions, keep these things in mind. PD should be beneficial for all educators, and students, too, so consider which way and when is best for your teachers to participate in PD. Incorporating these keys to effective professional development sessions is important to teachers’ personal growth and should be approached with careful consideration.

SOURCES

DARLING-HAMMOND, L., CHUNG WEI, R., ANDREE, A., RICHARDSON, N., & ORPHANOS, S. (2009). PROFESSIONAL LEARNING IN THE LEARNING PROFESSION: A STATUS REPORT ON TEACHER DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES AND ABROAD. DALLAS, TX: NATIONAL STAFF DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL. RETRIEVED FROM HTTPS://STATIC1.SQUARESPACE.COM/STATIC/56B90CB101DBAE64FF707585/T/583C7FE720099E25D0B1BD24/1480359912004/NSDCSTUDY2009.PDF