Key Factors to Create and Maintain Meaningful Engagement During Professional Development
In our last blog, we looked at the value of Establishing Early-Buy in for Professional Development. This is the first step in creating an engaging learning environment — connecting the learning with the current needs/interests of your faculty, being transparent about the challenges learning initiatives may create, and actively advocating for teachers.
So, what about during the training itself? What are the things that really matter to keep people engaged and enthused? Differentiation, teacher autonomy, time, and teacher leadership are paramount to create and maintain energetically engaged learning communities:
Differentiation:
Differentiate for the different levels of teacher experience/expertise within your faculty. Just as we know it is imperative to differentiate for students in a classroom, the same approach brings your ordinary PD to an elite level. Think about how many times first year teachers have sat next to veteran teachers and received the same exact training. These are lost opportunities for teachers of all levels to take a learning initiative and use it to grow in their trade, regardless of their current level of proficiency. This is a great time to use instructional coaches and/or teacher leads to work with small groups of teachers who are at similar stages of development and customize the learning to their levels.
Teacher Autonomy and Time:
Give opportunity for teachers to experiment with the learning as teams and individually in ways that they feel are most beneficial. For each hour of Professional Development in which content is presented, give the same amount of time for teams to collaborate, plan, and implement strategies to integrate the learning. As discussed in Foster a Culture Of Trust, giving time and a safe space for teachers to apply the learning is key to them actually taking the first step of using the learning, and also gives them the autonomy to meaningfully integrate the learning with their own style and craft. As teachers do this individually and as teams, the learning can evolve into masterful practice that grows your faculty in ways that they feel empowered by, and brings powerful instruction to students to help them soar. (Be on the lookout for our next blog on Team Building to support this idea further!)
Champion Teacher Leaders:
Professional Development is also a great time to champion teacher leadership by enlisting teachers who are already familiar with the learning and using them as facilitators and group leads. Developing teacher leaders is proven to keep faculty engaged in a way that positively impacts the school learning environment and supports teacher retention. It is a win/win/win for all involved (administration, teachers and students) as championing teacher leadership takes more of the onus of facilitation off of the administration’s plates and raises engagement, enthusiasm, and interest of faculty. Also, the more you champion teacher leadership, the more you provide authentic opportunities for team building and teamwork among your staff, as we will further support in our next communication.
As we review the principles for meaningful engagement — differentiation, teacher autonomy and time, and champion teacher leaders — we see that so much of what it takes to engage teachers meaningfully is created outside of facilitating content. When working toward this initiative, see yourself sitting in the seats of your faculty. What would engage you? Where is it most important to spend your time in preparation for the training? The closer we examine these questions, the more we realize that the images and fonts that we select for our presentation deck might make a presentation look good, but the ways we engage our faculty is what makes the learning come to life.
