Abstract
Asking teachers to lead professional development (PD) for their peers is a complex request. Leading PD requires purposeful skill development for facilitators and thoughtful approaches to adult learning. This chapter proposes four practices for implementing teacher-driven, teacher-led PD: 1) soliciting staff input and involvement, 2) dedicating time to common planning, 3) creating a teacher-leader support structure, and 4) developing a culture of co-thinking with common shared language. These practices grew out of an urban public school's experience with implementing small-group, mixed-grade, mixed-subject PD. This teacher-led PD, called the sharing lab, empowered teacher-leaders and staff to feel valued as professionals, learn from each other using structured conversations, and apply their learning to their practice. Recommendations for future sharing labs include expanding focus to community and culture dilemmas, incorporating student voice, and aligning the sharing labs to other PD so they fit within a consistent arc of learning.
TopBackground
What is Traditional Teacher Professional Development?
The National Staff Development Council (2009) defines “professional development” as “a comprehensive, sustained, and intensive approach to improving teachers’ and principals’ effectiveness in raising student achievement.” The goal of professional development is to improve student performance through professional learning that is aligned to state standards for student learning in well-facilitated regularly scheduled meetings of established teams of educators. Professional learning typically takes place through courses, seminars, workshops, institutes, or conferences (Wei, Darling-Hammond, & Adamson, 2010).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Norms: Shared, agreed-upon behaviors and mindsets that support group learning.
Faculty: Teachers, occupational therapists, speech therapists, special education staff, counselors.
Professional Development: An ongoing process of training and education to improve teachers’ and administrators’ skills and practices in service of improved student learning.
Shared Language: Consistent use of language such as terminology, references, experiences that has been developed by a group to have more effective communication.
Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning: Statements of inquiry provided by teachers and student-generated questions drive the learning activities; students use inquiry process to arrive at their own answers while teachers act as facilitators and coaches to guide learners.
Co-Thinking: When two or more people orient themselves to a given problem, use various perspectives to understand it, and solve it through reciprocal interactions.
Student Support Staff: School support personnel such as operational, student success, and nursing staff.