The most overlooked component of an effective professional development program is the audience involved—there are adults in the room. An underlying assumption of all school based professional development programs are faculties that enter the process as virtual tabula rasas to be inscribed with new theories, ideas, and practices. The reality however, is that all teachers enter staff development programs from somewhere. That somewhere are families, neighborhoods, schools, jobs, that have developed, over time, an instructional worldview on how children learn; what knowledge is of most worth; how knowledge should be organized; how students should be assessed; and how to teach. No matter how well designed a staff development program maybe, the failure to consider where teachers come from will doom the implementation of any new learning paradigm.
The principles of adult learning fall into three categories: experiences; professionalism; engagement. Before any training takes place, the leaders of the program must first pay attention to and respect for where teachers are coming from. Yes, these backgrounds maybe serving as obstacles to achieving programs goals, but, program leaders must not only acknowledge they exist, but, more importantly, develop connections between the instructional worldviews in front of them and the worldviews of the programs they are presenting. Establishing these connections demonstrates to a teaching staff that the trainers respect the professional standing of the teachers entering their program.
Once this professional standing has been established, trainers would orchestrate the components of a training regime outlined in prior blog. The training components, however, must be conducted in an environment where the content of the program—theories and concepts—are embedded in activities that allow teachers to socially make collective sense out of foreign theories and practices, and, most importantly, practice these theories in a risk-free environment.
As a footnote to the elements of an effective staff development program, a theme that runs throughout all of these blogs is the vital role school leaders play in the process of implementation. From selecting theories, ideas, and concepts to be considered to the design of organizational structures that incorporate theories, ideas, and concepts into real world classrooms are all dependent on leaders who have that rare skill of embedding the why of schooling into the what and how of daily practice.
Alan C. Jones 