MythOrReality5
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Myth or Reality #5: Professional development includes program development
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Subject:NIFL-AALPD:478] Re: Myths and Realities
From: Joshua Hayes (joshchayes@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Jun 24 2003 - 16:05:23 EDT
In the charity world, regardless of the kind of program one operates, the
overriding assumption is that you “manufacture” good in the community you
serve. Funders then “purchase” the product of your work. We measure our
product by outcomes, however they are determined. To suggest that program
development and PD operate independently is to ignore the fundamental nature
of the product you produce in your community. If the mission and vision of
our organizations is to improve the literacy skills of people in the
communities we serve, you have to measure everything against that purpose.
And if you’re talking program, what is that outside of your educators. You
can write all the manuals you want, but if you don’t have educators who can
teach, all you have are manuals.
Joshua Craig Hayes
Education Coordinator
Ubi Caritas - Project Welcome
PH 409-832-1669
FX 409-839-8345
jhayes@ubicaritas.org
www.ubicaritas.org
Subject:[NIFL-AALPD:479] Re: Myths and Realities
From: Eileen Eckert (eileeneckert@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Jun 24 2003 - 16:55:31 EDT
5 PD includes program development. Not often, but it should. When we start with what program staff (teachers, tutors, administrators, office staff) want to accomplish for their programs, learning is involved in effecting that improvement. There is a role for the PD person here--there's always a need for an outside perspective, knowledge of resources, someone who can ask questions to trigger reflection or a different way of looking at things. But the role of the PD worker should be a supporting one, not a directing one. Sherry Royce gave an example of this. Shirley Wright's wonderful article in an old Focus on Basics, "Learners First," describes a process of program improvement, accountability, and professional development.
Eileen Eckert
January 24, 2005
I like to think of professional development and program development as two separate, but ideally overlapping areas leading to better programs for students. I have found that program improvement requires professional development, but that professional development, in itself, does not necessarily lead to program improvement. For example, if your goal is to improve program capacity to address adult learning disabilities, and you have limited resources, you might decide to provide limited training for one teacher at every program. My experience has been that this approach has no lasting impact on the program because that teacher may leave, only the students who have the one trained teacher benefit, and that minimal training in this area, while helpful, does not address some of the more challenging issues. Instead, choosing fewer programs where teachers and administrators all agree that improvement in their capacity to address LD needs is a program priotity, and providing different kinds and intensities of training depending on interest and need, may be more effective staff and program development.
We began to do just that in Massachusetts, and although there were challenges, we saw significant improvement in some of the few programs we were able to reach.
David J. Rosen
djrosen&comcast.net (substitute @ for & leaving no spaces)
