7 Strategies for Personal Professional Learning

Professional learning encourages personal growth by teachers, but much professional development (PD) programs are designed around the “one size fits all” approach. A district may mandate that all teachers have to attend specific sessions around the district mission. Did the teachers have a voice in creating the mission? How does your school or district’s PD support teacher’s personal professional learning goals?

That’s not always been the case in existing professional development programs. According to The Teaching Commission report “Teaching at Risk: A Call to Action” in 2004, there was an urgent need in “helping our teachers to succeed and enabling our children to learn is an investment in human potential, one that is essential to guarantee America’s future freedom and prosperity.” Since this report was released, most professional development programs were not part of an overall, well-planned approach for school staff. There have been multiple research studies with many reports on what makes effective professional development. Concepts in common include:

• recognizes teachers as professionals
• focuses on student learning
• collaborative communities of practice
• supported by administrators with funding and time to practice new skills