Generative Professional Learning
At NSDC’s 2005 Annual Conference keynoter Beverly Daniel Tatum told participants, “We teach who we are,” a reminder of the importance of educators’ inner development as well as their acquisition of “external” knowledge and skills. Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, another keynoter at that conference, pointed out that teaching is a “deeply relational activity” and emphasized the importance of respect in teaching and all other human interactions. In her speech, Lawrence-Lightfoot used the phrase “generative professional learning,” a term that resonated with me. My notes from the conference indicate that once back home I consulted my dictionary and added in the margins that “generative” means “having the power or function of generating, originating, producing, or reproducing” and that “generate” means “to bring into existence.”
I was motivated to retrieve my 2005 conference notes when I recently reread Thich Nhat Hanh’s No Death, No Fear. Hanh, a Buddhist monk, points out that “Just because we do not see something does not mean that it doesn’t exist.” To illustrate he offers the example of a room without a TV or radio in which one might reasonably claim that TV and radio signals do not exist. “But all of us,” he observes, “know that the space in the room is full of signals. The signals are filling the air everywhere. We need only one more condition, a radio or a television set, and many forms, colors, and sounds will appear. It would have been wrong to say that the signals do not exist because we did not have a radio or television to receive and manifest them.” Hahn uses the term “manifest” to describe the processes through which latent and invisible forces becomes visible and active.
Schools, I believe, possess latent and often recognized potential—which could be thought of as invisible signals—for improved performance. Professional learning designed to release this potential would recognize and tap the talents and strengths that already reside in the school community rather than produce dependence on outside expertise, an unintended but not uncommon byproduct of traditional forms of staff development. (See my JSD interview with Jerry Sternin, who pioneered the Amplifying Positive Deviance approach to reform.) Such professional learning would also develop and refine, through intellectually rigorous, team-based activities, the otherwise unarticulated forms of “craft knowledge,” wisdom, and professional judgment that are essential to successful teaching and school leadership.
Viewing professional learning as manifesting that which is present but not apparent is a significant change in perspective from a conveying-the-information-through-presentations approach to staff development that continues to pervade our field. Skillful school and system leaders will manifest generative professional learning as they create school cultures that are appreciative, respectful, and oriented toward continuous improvements in teaching, learning, and relationships among all members of the school community.
As always, I invite your responses to the ideas I pose.
I was motivated to retrieve my 2005 conference notes when I recently reread Thich Nhat Hanh’s No Death, No Fear. Hanh, a Buddhist monk, points out that “Just because we do not see something does not mean that it doesn’t exist.” To illustrate he offers the example of a room without a TV or radio in which one might reasonably claim that TV and radio signals do not exist. “But all of us,” he observes, “know that the space in the room is full of signals. The signals are filling the air everywhere. We need only one more condition, a radio or a television set, and many forms, colors, and sounds will appear. It would have been wrong to say that the signals do not exist because we did not have a radio or television to receive and manifest them.” Hahn uses the term “manifest” to describe the processes through which latent and invisible forces becomes visible and active.
Schools, I believe, possess latent and often recognized potential—which could be thought of as invisible signals—for improved performance. Professional learning designed to release this potential would recognize and tap the talents and strengths that already reside in the school community rather than produce dependence on outside expertise, an unintended but not uncommon byproduct of traditional forms of staff development. (See my JSD interview with Jerry Sternin, who pioneered the Amplifying Positive Deviance approach to reform.) Such professional learning would also develop and refine, through intellectually rigorous, team-based activities, the otherwise unarticulated forms of “craft knowledge,” wisdom, and professional judgment that are essential to successful teaching and school leadership.
Viewing professional learning as manifesting that which is present but not apparent is a significant change in perspective from a conveying-the-information-through-presentations approach to staff development that continues to pervade our field. Skillful school and system leaders will manifest generative professional learning as they create school cultures that are appreciative, respectful, and oriented toward continuous improvements in teaching, learning, and relationships among all members of the school community.
As always, I invite your responses to the ideas I pose.
posted by Dennis Sparks at 10:16 AM
43 Comments:
I wonder if the reason we are unable to recognize the potential we each have for deep learning and transformative action is that we are afraid of the possibilities in our collective action.
Thinking differently about professional development works and engaging in "learning that is far more than the expert telling us what we need to know" is fraught with uncertainty and change. Yet, as educators we often have embraced risk-taking and experimentation as methods to help students learn. Perhaps with this reminder from Sparks, we will allow the same kind of powerful learning for educators.
I am all for a change in the way we do professional development As teachers we are told that lecturing is not the most affective way to teach, but that is exactly how we are taught on workshop days.
I totally agree with Martha Q. when we are in professional development and we have to sit and listen to a presenter who "lectures" us, we tend to act like the students we get so frustrated with. I think we would all get a lot more out of professional development if it was hands on and interactive.
I too agree with Martha Q. and Kristi. I have often looked around a room full of teachers who are supposed to be engaged in a presentation and think, "We are a worse audience than the students!" If we are told that lecturing is ineffective but modeling works, our professional development days should be set up to model a collaborative way of teaching.
As a testiment to the unseen signals that do have an affect, a student who managed to scrape by in my science class last year, dropped by with his mother at this year's back to school night to show off his standardized test scores. He scored in the "advanced" range and his mother said he never achieved above basic. She said I was his best science teacher and off they went. He never seemed that engaged which negates the notion of what you see is what you get. There was some type of signal there, I just wish I had a receiver that could tune into it.
There are kids who appear unengaged who are in fact quite engaged just not outwardly. There are also kids who appear to be paying attention who in fact are not doing so. The paradox of education.
Communication is key in creating a positive school culture that is conducive to learning. There is often much untapped potential of school staff. If all staff could exhibit communication that is respectful, appreciative, and caring, individuals would feel valued, relationships among staff would improve, teachers could be more productive, and learning would increase.
I believe that we can not limit our professional development to what we receive on in-service or workshop days. By utilizing technologies, such as educational websites and blogs, we can gain much from the mountains of information that is available to us as educators.
I agree about the importance of putting teachers' minds together to "generate" ideas and end-products. Our inservice days always start out with the information piece-- where we are supposed to learn something new (For example, best practices in teaching writing). But then the district always drops the ball when it comes to the follow up-- letting teachers generate ideas that we can share and actually put what we have learned to good use. As a staff, we continually tell the administration that THIS is what we need, but for some reason they do not hear us.
I think for any of us to actually benefit from a confernece or class we have to use the materials presented in that class with our own students. If the class is just lecture we won't take anything with us or use any of it in our classroom.
Roxane adds,
Professional Development is how we grow. Top-down presentations in a lecture environment do seem to generate poor teacher behavior. In the CTA magazine this month Professional Learning Communities were explored. Teachers work in content area teams to develop strategies and lesson plans. One school had the teachers develop the program, another had it imposed. Needless to say the first one is thriving and the second one has a redesign in place and much bitterness.
Hopefully such dialogues on professional development with stop the top-down approach and give teachers time to professionally develop.
Francisco R adds,
I totally agree with Martha Q and Kristi. My school has professional development every week and we have to sit for one hour and half to someone who lectures us. Once a month they do try to spice it up by playing a game or a hands-on activity.
Hello everyone. My name is Rachael, and I am a special education teacher. After reading this, I felt I had a few things to share with fellow educators. First of all, I completely agree with the idea that we have a lot to learn from one another. Sometimes we underestimate our own potential to work together to create ways to improve our school, our teaching, and the environment that we want to work in. It is interesting how almost all inservice days, at least in my experience, involve listening to a speaker. Although I have heard some excellent speakers, many of which do try and create some hands-on experiences during the day, we seldom get to put our own ideas into action.
Why do we focus on what an "outsider" to our school community has to say? Does that person actually know what our school needs? Of course not. No one knows our situation better than our own personal community of educators.
This is something that I had not thought of before. I think that it is something that should be put into action. In order for it to be successful, I feel that there should be a general idea of goals to accomplish prior to the day of the inservice. Then, on the actual day, educators can put their heads together to make plans to improve whatever they feel neccessary. I think it will boost the community spirit of the school, and will keep teachers attitudes positive for trying new things. When others around you are working to try something new, you will do it. When a speaker you do not know urges you to try something, he/she will never know if you did it or not. The idea of generative professional learning holds everyone accountable.
Laureen said,
As a learner that has never found the stand and deliver expert any use in my own teaching practice, I wonder now how we make others understand how important it is for staff development to become embedded in our learning environments. I wonder what skills our staff developers will need to become relevant in our 21st century climate. Will they accept and embrace the importance of mentorship, fascilitation, and relationship building? Has decontextualized learning become so ingrained in our profession that we no longer are able to discern its existence? Like the radio waves in the air, when will we all acknowledge that our conceptions and misconceptions drive classroom practice. If we are putting the individual needs of the student first, how then can we let any other agenda stand in the way of change.
Your comment about "Viewing professional learning as that which is present but not apparent..." certainly applies to the work I've done with my Data-Based Observation Method. I've found that teachers, when in the midst of the full activity of the classroom, are seldom accurately aware of the specifics of how they teach or how students are reacting. In my method, we gather objective duration and frequency data on behaviors selected in collaboration with the teacher, then join the teacher in a non-evaluative discussion about the data. The number of times the data surprises the teacher is definitely the majority.
Uniformly, when the teacher becomes aware of the behaviors in the classroom (student's or their own), a thoughtful and effective plan of action developed by the teacher is the result. In addition, the defensiveness is gone and the ability to work together productively is greatly enhanced. Becoming aware of those 'present but not apparent' actions is the first step.
As a disclaimer, I developed the method over 30 years of observing classrooms, and have written a software program to support it - however, you can implement the Data-Based Observation Method with pencil and paper.
More information at my blog http://data-based-observation.blogspot.com/ and website www.ecove.net
I am discouraged at my school - we don't have any sort of inservices. The only time we get together as a staff is to receive the scores from the ISTEP test (two grades ahead of my first graders). Once we receive them, we are never instructed as to exactly what we should do with them.
Wouldn't it be nice if more inservices were presented by the staff? Each inservices could be assigned to a few teachers to present what is working for them in their room.... discipline,test prep, class involvment, record keeping... the list goes on. Now, that would be something to sit up and learn from!!
I am also very discouraged at my school. Teaching 8th grade in a low income suburb of Chicago has its challenges. The standardized testing that takes place in our school is multiple grade levels abouve our students. Some of the information on the test are things that we do not, as a district plan to cover until high school. Our inservices are joke. It seems like our district is filling time, instead of trying to come up with ways to help teachers and students.
I agree that teacher in-service days should be meaningful. At our school we have a half day nearly every month for the staff to get together and collaborate. Our principal has an agenda but it is usually put together in a way that allows us time to get together as grade levels and also with teachers a grade above and below to share on the given topic. It has been beneficial and we have put the information that we have shared to work in our classrooms. I appreciate our principal for this.
I agree that the professional development days are boring and ineffective. Once in awhile they will try to spice it up with some hands on activity. In my school, it seems like they talk about the same thing over and over. For example, our reading and writing program. As someone stated before, I think they just come up with something to kill time. As I observed other teachers, many of them look bored and unmotivated; just like our students. However, there are days throughout the month that we have time to meet with other teachers from our team, work on report cards, or AIS plans.
I am fortunate to teach in a school with strong professional development and leadership opportunities. We meet for a half-day each month, during the school day, for collaborative time. Typically we look at student work, share ideas, and occasionally peer observe. This year we have decided to identify a small group of students to follow so we can support each other in designing interventions. I find this time very valuable and I learn more from this interaction than from any workshop I have attended.
We also lead most of our in-service days. Monthly learning meetings are lead by teacher leaders or teachers who have information and insights to share from their experiences and participation in classes and workshops. These meetings allow our professional development to be focused around school and district goals while leaving it open for new learning. Our peers are the audience so typically we present information in an interesting and meaningful way.
I would have to agree with the other comments above about professional development days. Our school district has professional development once a month and we don't even have speakers come and present to us! It is usually goal setting, or working on NCLB. It would be wonderful to learn researched based strategies and have them presented to me in the same matter. I agree that it is hard to focus when someone is just lecturing. Not all students are receptive to that learning style. I know that there are undiscovered talents within my building and it would be amazing to see how we could improve our teaching and our attitudes towards teaching with different types of professional development.
In the system where I teach we have great inservices about best practices, Sitton Spelling, Learning Focused Schools, and make and takes. It seems like we learn new things but never go beyond the superficial implementation. The system isn't giving us time to use them in the classroom and get more indepth training. Things fizzle out before we get to see if they will be beneficial.
I would have to agree Dennis Sparks that there is so much untaped potential in our schools and our districts. However, my school has adapted a new policy staff development. As a part of this new policy the school has budged money to pay for teachers to go professional conferences. However, in order to have the conference paid for, the teacher or teachers needs to apply the strategies learned at the conference in his or her classroom. After a few weeks the teacher or teachers must then present to the staff what they learned at the conference and how they are applying the information. I have found that these staff developments are more interesting and teachers are more engaged in discussions. The teachers are learning from their colleagues and can see how the strategies can be applied right in our own building. Likewise, presenting teachers often come up with more interesting and engaging ways to present the information then the administers do. I'm not saying our school has found all the answers but we are beginning to recognize potential and tap into a variety of professional information.
as an educational leader I find professional development most useful when time is alloted to bot collaborate and utilize the information in a practical form.
Jennifer P...I love the idea of that new policy your school is following. It sounds like the teachers are actively learning because they know they will be held accountable for what they are learning and bringing back to the school to share. Also being held even more accountable for new techniques and strategies after "testing" them out first in their classes before presenting them. Brilliant idea...How effective has it been? I am a first year teacher and place so much emphasis on continuous learning and professional development just to be able to stay ahead in this very competitive profession.
Continuing professional development is so important. However, I find that many conference/professional development days are spent with the entire faculty learning about one aspect of teaching. I believe that we should be able to choose from a variety of different workshops to enhance our teaching. Unless it is something that we as teachers find relative to our classroom it is hard to sit and justify the time spent in some workshops. Jennifer P. I love the way your school handles teachers attending workshops! It is unfortunate that more schools do not allow us to do this!
I do agree with the original statement. Indeed we teach who we are because if a teacher is one is can be deemed as a novice, then that will be the output in-terms of teaching methods, knowing the students individually, ... unlike an expert teacher who can be deemed as an alronder. My aspiration is to become 100% an expert teacher in the near future.
Suzette Wickham
There were several great comments provided from many of you.
Teachers do not look forward to in-service days because - if it's the "lecture" type course - it's a waste of time, is uneventful, and teachers can think of 100 other things to accomplish in their classrooms. It would be better for options to be provided to teachers as to what's required of them individually and what interets him/her to spruce things up a bit.
I completely agree with the "teach who we are" statement. That is definitely me in the classroom. I wouldn't know how to survive all day with 100 students if I couldn't teach "me".
Professional development should be a vehicle that assists teachers with enhancing their current skills and knowledge, making the process of teaching, management, and paperwork easier and more effective. However, it seems to only serve as a mandated requirement that's checked off on a list every year.
I have been at my school long enough to witness the transition from "information-through-presentations" to utilizing the professional knowledge within our building and facilitating practical applications. At one time, it was just like many of you described: boring, ineffective, incomplete. Now my school has teachers teach each other. We might do a book study and jigsaw the presentation, or participate in discussion and application groups according to our areas of interest. Also, with the topics that we've explored for several years, we have differentiated groups based on experience with the topic. In addition, we often collect data on exit slips regarding areas of concern or questions we have, and then address them at the next meeting.
Some teachers still grumble about the meetings, but I don't think those teachers would be happy with any style of training. Those teachers are content without professional development, which I find so sad. I believe these teachers struggle in their teaching because of their refusal to participate in developing themselves internally, as referenced in the opening of your statement.
I believe that teachers can only become experts if they continuously seek to improve themselves in their knowledge of content, the way they relate to students and colleagues, and the ever-growing body of data related to how learning occurs. I, personally, would not be comfortable with myself as a person if I did not develop myself professionally as a teacher. After all, if we want to be viewed as true professionals, we need to act like we are.
Cassie,
I totally agree with your last few statements concerning expert teachers. I am a student at Walden University pursing my masters degree and we are currently looking at the novice-expert continuum. I am a true believer that educators are life long learners and that professional development in a key ingredient in becoming an expert teacher. An expert teacher is never satisfied with their knowledge rather they are hungry for more. I agree with you that you can have a wonderful meeting set up and someone in the room will find something to complain about. These to me are the teachers who are satisfied with their level of expertise and they feel that any extra training is a waste of time. As you mention they are content without professional development and content at being a novice teacher. It is fair to say that we have all sat through some long presentations and we end up focusing more on the clock then the presenter. Too often during meetings I see my fellow colleagues get out their cell phones, write notes to a friend, or worse grade papers. I agree one hundred percent with you that even when in these meeting or presentations that drag on we still need to remain professionals. It is ironic how some teachers nag children to pay attention all day and then put them in a presentation and they do exactly the same as their students.
My school has done something very similar to what you were describing. We have literacy and math teams that are comprised of teachers through out our school district. These teachers come from different backgrounds and levels of expertise. They work together and prepare a presentation for their colleagues. As you said, it is teachers teaching teachers. I have yet to find a better source than teachers from other schools, and my colleagues.
I have found that while professional development is key to reaching "expert status", time is an issue. A teacher's school day goes far beyond the hours of 4:00. When is there time to build upon your knowledge of your field when you are busy taking care of your students? Teachers in my school have really rallied together to fight for the gift of time. Our teachers and administration have come up with a great plan. Every Wednesday the children get released an hour early from school. We use this time for professional development planned out by our literacy and math teams, teachers, and administration. An hour does not seem like much, but an hour every week is truly a gift. It is a time for teachers to share and collaborate with other teachers across our district and in our own building. We are also given the right to take a leave of absence for professional days to attend workshops of our choice. No questions asked.
I am very fortunate my school values professional development as much as I do. I only wish some did not take it for granted.
As educators, we need continue our education whether in college, workshops, presentations, or teachers teaching teachers. We are all “receivers,” waiting for the right signals to help us teach our student receivers. Until all districts understand what their teachers believe will help them, we need to work together and help each other through collaborative discussions.
In my district we have assembled a committee of teachers and administrators to collaborate with one another about what professional development will best suite our staff. Unfortunately this will not take affect until 2010 due to state mandates. We have come up with ways of addressing staff needs and still incorporating development addressing state requirements.
It is interesting to read about how different teachers in multiple districts perceive the topic of professional development. As Becky G stated, “it seems like we learn new things but never go beyond the superficial implementations.” Trends in education come and go. Districts can buy into these trends and not allow enough time to really see if they hold true. Some of these trends can stick and become productive, eventually leading them to become a practice. Yes we do need to learn from different perspectives, but some of those perspectives can be in the classroom right next door. Essentially, we are in this together and whatever way we learn or present the information in our classrooms, it must be for all those, “receivers,” out there.
I often wonder if we are using the information that was given to us at professional development and coferences then why are the students still unable to pass the state tests or are still having a hard time in the classroom. We are given so much information these professional development to grasp in a short period of time and often the presenter is lacking in the skills needed to teach the teacher. Therefore when the teacher attempts to use these skills it is to advance for the students or the student is lost. The big problem is often the teacher do not have anyone that can answer any questions that they may have. So what can I do? Can anyone assist me with information or insight. Thanks
If a teacher does not understand the information they are suppose to present they should bring it to the attention of their supervisor or principle. I bet they are not the only one who does not understand, and if they are the only one, then they can be directed to the attention of someone who does understand the new technique.
I feel that another problem is that too much information is crammed into a short amount of time. I often walk away from some of these meetings feeling that I need another hour or two to digest the information. Too often it gets put to the side and forgotten about. Professional development is only useful if you can use it and implement it in the classroom.
I completely agree that I leave many meetings feeling lost and overwhelmed. It was a training crammed into my planning time in 45minutes that should have been about a two hour session where we could have actually learned the material. If I don't understand I am mostly likely to not use any of it.
In the past, I used to share your frusration with professional development days. At my school, we are fortunate to have a Building Resource Teacher, known as a BRT. This is a very experienced teacher that does not have their own class but instead is able to assist new teachers and to help with training and day to day details with all teachers. Our BRT is able to guide what we do on inservice days so that they are more meaningful and what our particular school needs. She is able to lead the trainings and tries to make them interesting. We are more accountable since she will see our progress and follow through. It is still frustrating to have too much information presented to you at a time and our BRT helps spread out the sessions over a few months.
This year at my school we are implementing a new professional development system, that takes into account the individual learning styles and passions of individual teachers. Rather than sitting through multiple presentations, we will be given a "menu" with different professional development opportunities such as a book study, collaboration, research, etc., and each staff member will prepare a plan that will include the overall staff development goal for the year (which is increasing achievement in our low-achieving groups), the desired professional development activity of the staff member, how the staff member sees the PD reaching this goal, and a reflection at the end of the year as to whether or not the goal has been met. We are in the beginning stages of this process, but I am excited to see the outcome.
Great blog! I am intrigued by the idea of Generative Professional Learning because it is so different from the norm of traditional professional development that we are accustomed to. I had the fortunate opportunity to attend a workshop on "Principles of Collaborative Professional Learning" in October 2008. I am impressed with the potential of collegiate discourse and problem solving that can occur if school administrators and educators alike focus on the opportunities to increase teacher effectiveness which ultimately improves student learning. Isn't that what we are all striving for?
As educators, we are called to be life-long learners. We are in the business of education. If we do not participate in educating ourselves, we are hypocrites. Why should we expect students to have good attitudes about their education when we, as teachers, don't have good attitudes about our own education? Jeffrey A. Kottler, Stanley J. Zehm, and Ellen Kottler (2005) suggest that some "[teachers] preach in their classes about how valuable it is to study hard, but they no longer work with the degree of commitment that they expect from others. They demand that their students stretch themselves, yet they are doing essentially the same things they have been doing for a long time...Not only do these discrepancies compromise their professional effectiveness because students are incredibly aware of hypocrisy, but teachers also surrender such a wonderful benefit of the job..." (p. 60). Schools and districts need to be Professional Learning Communities (PLC). It has to be a conscious decision from the teachers to learn something new from every opportunity that is provided. It is all about the attitude we have when we go into these professional development opportunities. I truly believe that when we have a positive attitude we will gain the most from the experience, no matter how it is presented to us.
I enjoy learning and I have never attended a conference that I did not take something away with me that I could use. Sometimes I would learn something from another teacher attending the conference. Part of that reason is because "motivation comes from within" and I want to learn (Kottler, Zehm, Kottler (2005). I do get frustrated when a presenter shares information only through lectures. Kottler, Zehm, & Kottler (2005) shares Gardner's eight categories of intelligence and as teachers, we are expected to use those to help reach our students. Teachers are still learners and we have the same needs as children when trying to comprehend new information.
I do agree that much can be learned through generative profession learning, because teachers working together to share each others talents and skills will help to better the educational process for our students. Teachers have many talents that they can present to one another to help to advance each others professional portfolio. I also agree with the fact that many of the presentations that are conducted at schools for professional development can be found within the staff at the school. There is a wealth of knowledge to be shared within every school staff. We must take advantage of it to make ourselves better teachers, and our students better learners and achievers.
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It has definitely been my experience that when the ideas and experiences are harnessed from within the school rather than from an outside source you are able to find plenty of people with valuable and relevant input. There have been way too many cases of our school/district bringing in an outside company/expert to provide us with useless information (not totally useless, just not relevant). The most valuable sources have always been those around us and everything that can come from simple conversations. I tend to get the most value out of conversations that are focused on specific problems or topics and involve anywhere from 1 to all of the people in my department. Those are the people that I would rather be spending my professional time with and gaining insight from.
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