Professional Learning as a Critical Component in Transforming Education

This is an ongoing series on The Worthy Educators’ Principles of Educator Agency and Efficacy and their implementation in our efforts to transform the profession. This piece addresses the non-negotiable importance of principle 3: Growth: Creating contexts that support our learning through sharing, collaboration and action research. See the accompanying infographic below and share this resource with colleagues. We invite educators everywhere to join us in this important work!

Click here for the companion reflection to this post!

Research shows that teacher professional learning directly impacts the quality of classroom instruction and can improve student achievement as much as twenty-one percent. For today's educators, the traditional sit-and-get professional learning tacked onto staff meetings and built into district professional development days does not meet their needs as dedicated lifelong learners.

Teachers want more and better professional learning options that provide a more sophisticated combination of delivery options. Beyond the dissemination of knowledge and the acquisition of skills and strategies, today’s education professionals want opportunities to test out new ideas for effectiveness and viability, coaching and mentoring relationships that personalize their learning based on their needs and interests, more time to learn from one another and to conduct action research, and opportunities to learn through leadership opportunities.

Effective professional learning is purpose-driven not just by the dictates of districts and certifying organizations, but by the unique needs, interests and goals of each education practitioner. Providing this kind of personalized professional learning mirrors trends in student instruction, ensuring meaningful, impactful professional growth for each educator.

In addition to opening up the range of topics selected for professional learning, there is a need for a diversity of delivery methods. Learning takes place through a variety of modalities and formats that accommodate the learning styles of each individual, honoring their unique passion for the work. Examples of professional learning experiences include:

Interactive, hands-on working sessions

Formal peer presentation, panel and cohort discussions 

Gamified learning that engages participants in simulated learning situations

Online learning that takes advantage of synchronous and asynchronous work

App-based work that tracks progress of student and teacher growth 

Study groups that meet over time to sustain job-embedded learning

School visits and classroom observations that provide sharing of practices and programs 

Classroom-based research on effective teaching strategies and learning outcomes 

Building, district and global professional learning communities and communities of practice

Mentorship and apprenticeship opportunities working with a more experienced colleague 

Personalized learning that aligns with an individual’s long-term career interests and goals 

The onus is on federal and state departments of education, teacher training institutions and local school boards and the districts they serve to shift accreditation, certification and funding models to open up the field to new options that overhaul educator professional learning to create better trained, well equipped professionals who are less apt to experience burnout and more likely to be retained as career-long contributors to our profession serving their children, families, local communities, and society as a whole.

Revitalized, personalized educator professional learning is the impetus for a new breed of educator, dedicated to the work of the profession because the profession is committed to an investment in them. Worthy Educators are called to action to advocate for these changes at the grassroots level, and to build their influence locally towards statewide and national tipping points that are a critical component in the transformation of the institution of education.