Teacher Voice and Choice in Professional Development

Video Transcription

In this tutorial, we'll talk about how teacher voice and choice influence professional development. We'll begin by exploring how teacher choice impacts PD. We'll see how offering choices in professional development can build teacher empowerment. And then I'll share some methods for differentiating professional development for teachers. Let's get started.

Let's first look at the issue of teacher choice in professional development. We know that many professional development activities are simply seen as a waste of time by teachers, so how can we prevent that mindset?

A Gates Foundation report tells us that teachers who are given choices in their professional development are significantly more satisfied in that professional development. Teachers tend to value professional development that directly supports their work, so activities that are centered around topics like planning instruction and reflecting on instruction are going to be seen as more valuable. We know that teachers who are able to choose most or all of their professional learning experiences are more than two times as satisfied with those experiences as teachers who are not given these types of choices.

The Gates Foundation sums it up nicely when they say, "the correlation between teachers' ability to choose professional development and their levels of satisfaction speaks volumes about the impact of limited choice on the perceived effectiveness of professional learning."

One new trend in teacher professional development is the concept of the unconference. In an unconference, participants actually drive the professional learning, and they form their own learning sessions, rather than the more traditional setup of signing up in advance for predetermined sessions or workshops.

Providing teachers with choices, for example, implementing a concept like the unconference, supports not only self-directed learning theory, but also the self-concept assumption in andragogy. Ultimately, we find that providing teachers with these choices in their professional development results in increased teacher empowerment.

Really, one of the main reasons to engage in professional development is to develop that sense of empowerment. The teacher empowerment process is so important, because it's through this process where teachers begin to become capable of engaging in and sharing control of and even in influencing the events and the institutions that affect their daily lives as teachers.

So if teachers are given the opportunity and helped to build this confidence to act upon their ideas and to influence the ways in which they are performing, in turn, these results in increasing student achievement. So let's discuss some possible methods for differentiating professional development for teachers.

Differentiation in professional development parallels differentiation in the classroom in some ways. A notable difference is that differentiation in professional development zeros in on using teacher strengths as the basis for the differentiation. Compare this to differentiation in the classroom, where sometimes what we are using as the basis for differentiation is our observation of students' struggles or weaknesses or areas, in which they need improvement. In contrast, in professional development for teachers, we really do want to pinpoint those strengths that teachers are bringing to the table and build the differentiation off of those.

An important element here is that administrators are modeling effective differentiation to teachers, and this should help teachers then to use differentiation more effectively in their classrooms to meet the needs of their individual learners, as well.

Using differentiated professional development can help to build teacher leadership capacity, as well. Allowing teachers to be involved in the selection and the planning and the implementation of PD results in the development of teacher empowerment and teacher growth. So here are some different methods that you might consider using to differentiate your professional development.

You may consider using action research, study groups, vertical teaming, collaborative planning, professional learning communities, school-developed sessions, and district-wide initiatives. No matter which methods are being used to differentiate professional development, keep in mind that allowing teachers to have choice in their professional development results in increased satisfaction with those professional development opportunities and ultimately increased student achievement and growth.

In this tutorial, we learned how teacher choice impacts professional development. We looked at teacher empowerment through the use of choice in PD. And finally, I shared some methods for differentiating professional development for teachers.

So now it's your tread to stop and reflect. Do you agree with the assertion that professional development is viewed as more effective and more meaningful when teachers are given a choice in the selection and implementation? 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 skillset.

Thanks for joining me today. Have a great day.