Stopping short of effective staff development

By Mike Murphy

Results, November 2000.

The standard: Effective staff development provides the follow-up necessary to ensure improvement.

Whether or not educators believe one-shot workshops improve teaching, the truth is that many staff developers plan workshops with little or no follow-up.

Carefully planned follow-up is required to support the successful implementation of a particular improvement in teaching content or in a teaching strategy (Joyce and Showers, 1988). In fact, successful staff development ensures that teachers adopt new content or practices. Whether they incorporate new learning into their practice depends on a number of factors, including 1) how useful they see the new practice or content; 2) the "costs" involved in the new content or practice, including time and resources; and 3) if the new learning is aligned with what they are already teaching and doing.

Helping teachers use new content or strategies is complicated. Only follow-up strategies can adequately address how they take home and use what they’ve learned in staff development sessions. For me, the issue is not which follow-up options to suggest, but whether there is planning for follow-up at all! Consider these follow-up assurances and helpful questions when planning staff development with follow-up in mind:

* The staff development content and process are feasible and support the goals for students and adults.

Think about staff development initiatives that will support adult learning and, in turn, student achievement. Are staff development plans focused and reasonable? Do several follow-up strategies come quickly to mind which can be easily designed, orchestrated, and managed?

* The staff development follow-up plans are both short- and long-term.

This assurance makes me think of Suzanne Bailey’s "30-60-90" planning tool. (See the Aug./Sept. 2000 issue of Tools For Schools for an example of this tool.) What could the initial follow-up look like 30 days after the initiation of the learning, 60 days after the initial learning, and so on? This doesn’t mean follow-up should end after 90 days. Thinking of short-term and long-term follow-up strategies would ensure that the efforts are properly supported initially and would give insight to school leaders if adjustments are needed.

* Adequate resources throughout the life of the initiative support staff development plans.

What kind of regular attention (time) is needed for the initiatives and what allocation of resources is needed to support the initiatives throughout the implementation period? Many experts believe as much as 50% of the resources set aside for staff development plans should be targeted at follow-up strategies. Thinking about time as a resource forces leaders to regularly schedule time to visibly support the new adult learning.

It’s hard to argue against follow-up as a key to improving teaching quality. But those who work in schools realize the difficulty of providing that support. In our planning frenzy, we may initiate what appear to be effective staff development plans but, unless we give just as much attention to what comes after the workshop, even the best staff development won’t impact adults and students.

The challenge is to have the kind of staff development thinking that includes a continuum of communication, troubleshooting, and adjustments. Only then will we come closer to having that "seamless" cycle of learning and achievement for the adults and children.

Reference: Joyce, B. and Showers, B. (1988). Student achievement through staff development. White Plains, NY: Longman Press.