Summary of “Create a Collaborative Professional Development Plan that Includes Coaching and Evaluati

Video Transcription

Thank you for joining me for the unit-- create a collaborative professional development plan that includes coaching and evaluating teacher performance. The learning objectives in this unit included 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 began the unit by discussing some learning theories and research-based instructional practices that would help us to develop our collaborative professional development plan. We reviewed the concept of teachers as adult learners. We need to remember that adult learners have different needs and different motivations than younger learners. And so when designing professional development for teachers, we need to align that PD plan to adult learning theories.

We also talked about several different research-based instructional practices, including John Hattie's Visible Learning. We saw John Hattie's list of the top 20 most influential factors on student achievement. Recall in that list, each factor is given what's called an effect size that helps to describe just how influential that factor is. And we clearly saw that teachers and our teaching practices have a huge impact on increasing student achievement.

And so having seen that in Hattie's work, we actually talked about several other different pieces of research that confirm this idea that the teacher really is one of the most influential factors on student achievement. And so, we needed to incorporate that idea into our collaborative professional development plans. As we are designing professional development opportunities, we need to focus on the fact that incorporating high-effect or high-yield instructional strategies can really make a difference for students.

After building the foundation for our plan with our review of adult learning theories and with our study of these really effective instructional practices, we were ready to consider the evaluation aspects that we were going to include in our plans. And part of this discussion was that element of peer coaching, as well as a potential vehicle for doing some of that evaluation.

We talked about social learning theory as a reminder to us of how important this element of collaboration is. We know that sometimes in the world of education, it's all too easy to isolate ourselves in our own classrooms. And this served as a reminder to us that it really is crucial that we are collaborating with our peers, and professional development can provide a great opportunity and forum for us to do just that.

Another theory that applies here is networked learning theory, and the idea that learning is a product of the context in which it was learned. Again, an understanding of this theory can just help us to make sure that we design the most effective professional development opportunities that we possibly can.

And then in this learning objective, we also took a very close look at peer coaching and other models that you can use for collaborative professional development. What can these different models look like in context? What are the benefits of using each of these different models?

So with the basics in place-- the adult learning theories and the instructional strategies-- and also with those elements of peer-to-peer coaching or other types of collaboration, and then the evaluative elements, as well, we were ready to finally put all of the pieces together to form our complete collaborative professional development plan. I walked you through specific steps that you could follow for the creation of this plan. And we also talked here about potentially using critical friends as one of the elements in the plan.

Sometimes when you, for example, use a PLC group as your format for your collaborative professional development, there might be instances in which that PLC group is even, maybe a little too large. And so breaking down into smaller critical friends groups can be a really effective method to make sure that everyone gets the most out of the professional development opportunities.

And finally, we took an in-depth look at writing competency-based collaborative professional development goals more specifically in the form of SMART goals. So at this point, you were ready to finalize and then implement your professional development plan. And that led us into this final learning objective of reflecting on that plan.

One of the areas of self-reflection here was focusing on the impact of collaboration. Did you find your professional development plan to be any more effective as a result of those collaborative elements? Did you find that you were able to see those results of the high-effect strategies and the research-based instructional strategies? Did you find those to be effective within the context of your plan?

As part of this learning objective, I reminded you about some different metrics that you could use to evaluate the success of your plan, including rubrics and checklists, but also elements like your own self-reflection. I modeled some self-reflection for you, and then I encouraged you to engage in your own reflection, as well.

To recap, the learning objectives in this unit included 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.

So for one last time in this unit, I'll ask you to stop and reflect. Were you successful in achieving all of the learning objectives from this unit?

As you reflect on how this new information can be applied, you may want to explore the Additional resources section that accompanies this video presentation. This is where you'll find links to resources chosen to help you deepen your learning and explore ways to apply your newly acquired skill set. Thanks for joining me for this unit. Have a great day.