Welcome to the unit-- create a collaborative professional development plan that includes coaching and evaluating teacher performance. The learning objectives in this unit will include analyze learning theories and research-based instructional practices, and how these theories apply to collaborative professional development plans. Analyze the role of coaching and teacher evaluation for professional development planning. Develop a collaborative professional development plan that is competency-based and includes professional growth goals and evaluation metrics. And reflect on how the professional development plan can improve teacher performance and student achievement.
We'll begin the unit by taking an in-depth look at some adult learning theories and some research-based instructional practices that together can help us to build a really effective collaborative professional development plan. One of the techniques that we'll examine is a competency-based approach to education, and we know that this is an approach that can be used with students. A competency-based approach to instruction can produce great results as it creates a unique learning plan for each student. And clearly sets the learning targets and the goals for each student.
Well in this learning objective, we are going to expand that idea to apply it to professional development. If it's an effective approach to educating students, maybe we need to look at whether or not this competency-based approach can actually be effective in our professional development, as well.
A great way to more closely examine this idea is through the lens of adult learning theory. We know that adult learners have different needs and different motivations than younger learners, and so we'll apply the principles of andragogy and other adult learning theories to this concept of using competency-based instruction and competency-based goal setting in our professional development plans.
And finally, we will examine several research-based instructional practices, including Marzano's high-yield instructional practices, to complete that full picture of how we might focus our collaborative professional development plans, and to start putting all of those pieces together. Once we have that framework in place, the next learning objective will guide us through analyzing the role of coaching and teacher evaluation for professional development planning.
At this point in the unit, we'll have, again, framed a very effective professional development plan that has all of those important pieces-- a competency-based approach to goal setting, and a foundation in adult learning theories, and incorporation of research-based instructional strategies. But we'll also need some sort of evaluation plan in place and also, perhaps, some peer-to-peer coaching that is going to help us get that feedback that we need in order to evaluate the success of our professional development plan.
One of the ideas that we'll explore here is Vygotsky's sociocultural learning theory. Sometimes as educators, we get very wrapped up in our own personal classroom, in our own unique view of the educational world. And sometimes it can be a little bit scary to try and bridge outside of that and to be encouraged to collaborate with other educators. We feel such ownership of our classrooms and of our instruction, and so this understanding of sociocultural learning theory can help us to understand why it's so important that we do reach out and collaborate with our peers.
We'll also discuss the purpose of teacher evaluation. Sometimes this can be a difficult topic for teachers to approach because there is the potential for there to be a disciplinary element to teacher evaluation. And really, that's not the focus at all. That can be a part of the process, if it's deemed necessary, but really, the focus is not even so much on the evaluative aspect as it is on sharing and receiving feedback and desiring to continually improve our instructional practices. And so, we'll approach the purpose of teacher evaluation then, so that we're all on the same page in terms of how the evaluative aspects can be built into our professional development plans.
And finally, on that note of perhaps, the disciplinary aspect of teacher evaluation, we'll take a good look at the difference between professional growth and professional improvement. There tends to be some confusion out there about what the difference is between a professional growth plan and a professional improvement plan. And so I will clear that up for you, and help you to understand the difference between those two concepts.
At this point then, with a framework in place and an understanding of why we should incorporate these evaluation elements, we'll be ready to finally solidly put all of those pieces together in the form of a complete collaborative professional development plan that incorporates those competency-based elements, that includes SMART goals, and that includes some evaluation metrics. We'll discuss the use of professional teacher standards in creating both our goals and our evaluation metrics. Specifically, we'll talk about the Danielson Framework, and how that can guide artwork here.
And then we'll also talk through the process of establishing a collaborative professional development team. I'll give you some tips or some pointers for getting that process started. How might you determine who is going to be on your team? And how can you get that process rolling?
And, of course, after you have designed and then implemented this professional development plan, an important step in the process is going to be to reflect on how it went. So we'll reflect on the impact of the teacher on student achievement. That actually is going to be a constant that we'll be discussing through all stages of this unit.
Lots of research tells us that the teacher really does play one of the most important roles and is one of the most influential factors in increasing student achievement. And so we'll reflect on whether our plan has helped us to embrace that.
We'll also reflect on whether our SMART goals were effective. Did they help us to achieve all of the objectives or the competencies that we had identified in our plans?
And finally, you'll also be able to use those metrics that we designed for the professional development plan, including rubrics and checklists. You'll want to make sure that your metrics are successful in measuring what you want them to measure. If not, you'll want to go back and make changes to the metrics or really to any elements of the plan that you identify as needing changes throughout this reflection process.
To recap, the learning objectives in this unit will include analyzing learning theories and research-based instructional practices, and how these theories apply to collaborative professional development plans. Analyze the role of coaching and teacher evaluation for professional development planning. Develop a collaborative professional development plan that is competency-based and includes professional growth goals and evaluation metrics. And reflect on how the professional development plan can improve teacher performance and student achievement.
Before we launch into the unit, I invite you here to stop and reflect. Perhaps take a look at your current professional development plan. You may wish to refer to your current plan as we progress through the learning objectives of this unit.
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.
Welcome to the unit. I hope you'll join me on my upcoming tutorials. Thanks for watching. Have a great day.
(00:00 - 00:43) Introduction
(00:44 - 02:31) Learning Objective #1
(02:32 - 05:25) Learning Objective #2
(05:26 - 06:25) Learning Objective #3
(06:26 - 07:43) Learning Objective #4
(07:44 - 08:17) Summary
(08:18 - 08:56) Stop and Reflect