Professional Learning – Page 3 – The Advisor That Cares

The most wonderful aspect of the ADL program is constant reflection. As I sit here trying to identify a professional learning opportunity, what aspect of my innovation ideas to begin with, how to introduce my ideas to my audience, and so much more, I have once again challenged myself to re-identify my audience and re-examine my why.

Living the learner’s mindset means that even though it would be easy to tell myself I have already done the work on both topics, this is an ever-evolving process of “higher-order thinking” and “meaning-making.” Precisely the objectives of this program, the objectives of learning, and the objectives when teaching.

The theme that always resonates throughout this process for me is authenticity. I am attempting to share my heart with the world. I strive to find, refine, and articulate my passion for helping others. As I check my notes on the research I’ve recently reviewed regarding professional development and the 5 Principles of Professional Learning (Guluamhussein, 2013), it is the ACT/ACTION part of the learning process that particularly resonates with me.

You see, learning wasn’t easy for me. Wait, let me rephrase that. Education wasn’t easy for me. I was lost and behind most of the time. I received low grades and had very low self-esteem due to tying my personal worth to other people’s approval. I spent my early adulthood being taken advantage of due to an overwhelming need to people-please. At one point, I had three adult friends living in a three-bedroom apartment with me while I was the only one working, paying bills, buying groceries, and cleaning.

If these same principles had been applied in my learning journey, I would have had more prolonged exposure to new concepts. Instead of exponentially falling behind, I would be bolstered by significant assistance. I was constantly missing the aspects of understanding needed to transfer the information from the lessons into learning. As a result, almost everything seemed irrelevant and out of reach.

Here is a fun example of exactly what I mean about active, ongoing, thought-provoking learning. See if you can make it all the way to the reflective/active learning part.

History & Context for Active Learning

Now as a catalyst for change, I want to do better for others. I want to make learning meaningful and relevant to them. As a leader, I want to support my team through changes. I want to model the ways that I hope they will, in turn, support their teammates and students.

Reference

Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the Teachers: Effective Professional Development in the Era of High Stakes Accountability. National School Board Association, Center for Public Education.

According to the content in this week’s module, current professional learning could be more effective but fails to meet educators where they are with targeted improvements. Repeatedly we read about professional development attempts that were too broad and generalized to allow teachers to apply them to their specific instructional challenges. While I could not begin to estimate where professional learning dollars are spent in my organization toward professional learning, I have seen some improvements concerning access. My institution now utilizes LinkedIn Learning as professional development software. Employees can access a variety of topics and develop at will those that interest them. There has also been an increase in spending over my last ten years with the institution toward professional learning communities found through professional organization memberships and conference attendance. How these workshop-style professional learning opportunities impact the day-to-day performance and learning indicators, remains. Based on the research presented throughout this module, I am willing to guess that there has been little impact or improvement. Like our learners, active-engaging-relevant content would drive industry improvement in learning and outcomes.

According to Guluamhussein (2013), if the Five Principles were successfully implemented, we would experience “significant and ongoing” development and support throughout any implementation frustrations and challenges while actively engaging with “varied approaches” to make meaning of new practices learned in our professional learning opportunities. Instead of generic content, we would find immediate applications for new learning. While I am unsure about the entire organization’s readiness to change, I do believe my immediate unit is ready to try anything to improve ourselves and serve our learners. While realizing the concept of alternative approaches might be welcome, thanks to the content outlined throughout this module, I now know to expect the frustrating process of trying new things. At the same time, we make changes to the current status quo found in professional learning. While initially uncomfortable, through sharing the expectations and vision for a culture that values continuous learning and improvement, our organization has the opportunity to embrace professional learning that are results driven.

The Mariage report helps us evaluate whether we are effectively utilizing our resources through current professional learning approaches to determine whether or not they are beneficial or valuable to our staff. Once we have done this, we can better decide how best to move forward to support professional learning. The Standards for Professional Learning provide a framework to build the professional learning we, our teams and our organizations deserve so that we can best serve our learners (both students and professionals).

References

Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability. Center for Public Education. Retrieved from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/system/files/2013-176_ProfessionalDevelopment.pdf

TEDx Talks. (2013, November 6). Empowering the teacher technophobe: Kristin Daniels at TEDxBurnsvilleED [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puiNcIFJTCUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puiNcIFJTCU&feature=youtu.be

TNTP. (2015, August 4). The mirage: Confronting the hard truth about our quest for teacher development. https://tntp.org/publications/view/evaluation-and-development/the-mirage-confronting-the-truth-about-our-quest-for-teacher-development

Category: Professional Learning

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