Analyze Professional Development for Alignment to Knowles' Sixth Assumption: The Need to Know.

Video Transcription

In this series of six tutorials, I'll be walking you through the process of aligning your professional development to Knowles' six assumptions for adult learners. Recall that the six assumptions are self-concept, experience, readiness, problem-centered orientation, internal motivation, and the need to know. It's important for us to analyze our professional development plans in the context of adult learning theories.

In all stages of professional learning, from the design to the implementation, teachers need to be able to connect the various stages of their learning to the acquisition of new knowledge and skills and to their classroom practice. Knowles' six assumptions of adult learning can help us here, as they provide a framework for analyzing our professional development. For each of Knowles' six assumptions, I'll guide you through a three-step process.

We'll begin by identifying the areas of existing alignment. We'll then identify areas of possible misalignment. And finally, we'll identify specific areas for enhancement.

This analysis of our professional development is going to be an evaluative process, so I will be providing you with some evaluative questions and possible solutions that I recommend you use throughout the process. Evaluative questions are going to ask for an opinion or ask for a belief or a point of view, and so it's important to remember that these types of questions don't have any wrong answers. Rather, they are meant to spark some thought and to get you to consider multiple points of view as we go through the process of alignment.

As we go through this process, I will be referring to a sample professional development plan. Note that this plan includes the focus area of professional development, the site goal, and the alignment-to-district goals, along with action steps, resources, a timeline, details about who is responsible and who is involved, and evidence. The two action steps outlined in this plan are aligning curriculum to common core standards and enhancing instruction with technology.

We'll look at various aspects of this plan more closely as we go through the alignment process. In this tutorial, we'll be aligning to Knowles' sixth assumption of adult learners, the need to know. This assumption tells us that adult learners simply need to know why they are learning new information or a new skill.

Step one in the alignment process is to identify areas of existing alignment. Here are some questions that you can ask yourself about your professional development plan in order to determine whether the plan is aligned with this sixth assumption. If there is alignment, are teachers clear in understanding why the information is important for them to learn? Has the importance of learning the new knowledge and skills been incorporated right into the professional development?

Step two in the alignment process is to identify areas of potential misalignment. Here you'll be looking for areas in which the assumption is violated or where it simply is not applied to the professional development plan. Here are some questions that you can ask yourself about your professional development plan.

If there is misalignment, what in the professional development could be changed in order to highlight the importance of the new information or the need to know that information? Exactly how are you going to share with learners the need to know the information that they will be gleaning from the professional development.

Step three of the alignment process is to identify areas for enhancement. Remember that in this step, you may be identifying areas in which the approach to the professional development is just fine, but the design could still be altered in order to create even better alignment. So for step three, here are some questions you can ask yourself about your professional development plan. What could be changed in order to foster optimal learning for the adult learners? What could be improved in order to strengthen the activity, so that learners really fully understand their need to know this new information?

So let's return to the sample professional development plan to check for alignment. Step one in the alignment process is identifying areas of existing alignment. This plan is somewhat aligned to the assumption of the need to know, as it does include some elements that will help the adult learners to understand why they are undergoing the process of curriculum alignment and the process of incorporating technology. First and foremost, these two steps are aligned with the district goals, which would serve as motivation for the staff to participate in these endeavors.

Second, the teachers can see in the evidence column that the products they will be creating are going to be used as evidence of completion of these various action steps. So while there is some level of alignment to the need to know, let's move on to step two, identifying areas of misalignment. While the plan can be interpreted to incorporate this need to know, it actually isn't made explicitly clear.

So in step 3, when we identify the areas for potential enhancement, this plan could be made more effective for the adult learners by purposefully integrating the assumption of the need to know. At every step along the path, the involved parties, including the curriculum director and the district technology staff, need to underscore for the teachers who are participating the importance of the steps that they're undertaking. By making the reasoning behind the process clear to the participating teachers, our knowledge of andragogy tells us that these learners will be more likely to find value in the process.

So here's a chance for you to stop and reflect evaluate your own professional development plan for alignment to Knowles' sixth assumption of adult learners, the need to know. To dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure to check out the additional resources section associated with this video. This is where you'll find links targeted toward helping you discover more ways to apply this course material.

Thanks for joining me. Have a great day.