PD Updates 2010-2011
From LiteracyTentWiki
Subject: [PD 4695] Trends, Highlights, and Challenges in Professional Development
From: Jackie Taylor jackie at jataylor.net
Date: Wed Jun 23 13:37:19 EDT 2010
Dear Colleagues,
I hope your summer's going well! Many of us are attending, presenting, and/or coordinating summer state conferences. As we move into the 2010-2011 program year, what is the emphasis for professional development in your program, region, or state?
What are the challenges you've been having or you see yourself facing with respect to providing or participating in PD? What are some highlights you'd like to share?
I look forward to hearing from you,
Jackie Taylor
Subject: [PD 4697] Re: Trends, Highlights, and Challenges in Professional Development
From: mmingle at comcast.net
Date: Thu Jun 24 09:08:51 EDT 2010
In PA, we have been focusing on the professional development process for individual practitioners and entire programs for some time. As professional developers, we are working on ways to assist each funded program to tie agency professional development to program improvement goals and agency priorities.
We are beginning to take a "case management" approach as professional developers, helping each program identify needs, set pd goals, identify barriers to successful implementation, and develop strategies for ensuring that what practitioners learn in their pd activities is implemented in the classroom. We are also looking for ways to help programs evaluate the impact of their professional development and determine their "return on investment," so to speak.
For the purposes of professional development and technical support, PA is divided into geographic regions served by professional development centers. The region I serve is large, programs are far apart, and some are located in more remote, rural areas of the state. The time and resources to travel are always a challenge. We are looking for more ways to provide high-quality pd "at a distance" and to use Web 2.0 technology to support regional collaboration and learning. Collaborating with the other PDCs in the state using these technology tools has really helped us think about how we can use them with the programs we serve.
Mary Mingle
Central Northeast Professional Development Center
CIU#10 Development Center for Adults
Central Northeast PDC
Subject: [PD 4698] Re: Trends, Highlights, and Challenges in Professional Development
From: mmingle at comcast.net
Date: Thu Jun 24 09:40:07 EDT 2010
Forgot to mention . . . our professional development system has also been looking at teacher reflection and designing pd activities that promote it before, during, and after an activity or event. I would be very interested in hearing from list members who have explored teacher reflection activities.
Mary
Subject: [PD 4699] Re: Trends, Highlights, and Challenges in Professional Development
From: Fiona Macdonald F.Macdonald at LTScotland.org.uk
Date: Thu Jun 24 10:49:19 EDT 2010
Hi All
We carried out a piece of work on professional development that may be of interest. http://www.aloscotland.com/alo/viewresource.htm?id=2001. This one is on teaching reading to adults and the other is on developing practitioner research http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/01/22131652/0
You might want to look at the processes we used in each of these professional development opportunities and the resulting products too.
Regards
Fiona
Fiona Macdonald, Adult Literacies Development Officer
T: + 44 (0)141 282 5255, M: + 44 (0)7900161973
Learning and Teaching Scotland
The Optima, 58 Robertson Street, Glasgow G2 8DU
www.LTScotland.org.uk<http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/>
Subject: [PD 4700] Re: Trends, Highlights, and Challenges in PD
From: Thompson, Duren J duren.thompson at utk.edu
Date: Thu Jun 24 15:34:30 EDT 2010
In TN, trends affecting PD include:
~ Working to get all programs in the state to use quality continuous
improvement processes, including data-based decision making, in order to
streamline program processes (including instruction) - in order to
best/better assist students to meet their goals - despite recent hits to
funding.
~ Working to focus instruction on what students really *need* in order
to reach their goals - to avoid "overteaching" and "underteaching"
students where possible. This includes developing, testing and training
practitioners statewide in curriculum designed for various NRS levels.
~ Leveraging Web 2.0 tools to enhance both face to face and "at a
distance" PD, as well as incorporating videos of exemplary instruction
into statewide PD.
~ Developing transition processes, partnerships, and curriculum to best
prepare GED and ESOL students for career paths, including success in
post-secondary training.
We are, right now, gearing up for our annual statewide PD event - the
Academy for instructional Excellence, on July 12 - 14. We'll have all
TN program supervisors in attendance, a majority of ABE/GED & ESOL
instructors, and this year, for the first time, program
paraprofessionals (and a majority of those as well) - over 400
attending! Whoot!
Duren Thompson
Center for Literacy Studies - Celebrating 20 years of support for
life-long learning!
University of Tennessee
www.cls.utk.edu
Subject: [PD 4701] Re: Trends, Highlights, and Challenges in PD
From: Sharon Reynolds reynols1 at ohio.edu
Date: Thu Jun 24 15:51:48 EDT 2010
Duren - Can you share where you are finding the "videos of exemplary
instruction?"
Sharon Reynolds, M.Ed
Director
C/SE ABLE Resource Center at
Edward Stevens Center for the Study
and Development of Literacy and Language
Ohio University
Athens, Ohio
Subject: [PD 4707] Re: Trends, Highlights, and Challenges in PD
From: Thompson, Duren J duren.thompson at utk.edu
Date: Fri Jun 25 16:01:19 EDT 2010
Sharon (and all),
TN AE is experimenting with creating its own "exemplary videos" starting
with Math instruction. They have just been completed and will be
unveiled at the Academy. At this time, I suspect that TN DAE has not
considered releasing them nationwide - and I am unsure of what types of
releases video participants signed , and thus if wider release would
even be possible.
I will know more after the Academy,
Duren Thompson
Center for Literacy Studies - Celebrating 20 years of support for
life-long learning!
University of Tennessee
www.cls.utk.edu
Subject: [PD 4728] Re: Trends, Highlights, and Challenges in Professional Development
From: mmingle at comcast.net
Date: Thu Jul 8 11:04:59 EDT 2010
In terms of evaluating the impact and efficacy of professional development, members of our PA professional development system have been exploring Thomas Guskey's work on professional development evaluation (with the assistance of the LINCS course The Path of Professional Development Evaluation and the very helpful course facilitators).
It seems to me that Guskey's Level 4 evaluation strategy (measuring the use of new knowledge and skills by participants in their educational settings) and his Level 5 evaluation strategy (measuring student learning outcomes after professional development) would be two ways programs could determine their return on investment (ROI).
A program could view the extent to which professional development participants are able to use new knowledge and skills acquired through professional development as a return on an investment of time, money, and other resources involved in the pd activity.
Determining whether student learning outcomes are affected by teacher professional development as a measure of return on investment would be a little trickier, since there are so many factors that can impact student learning.
However, this is exactly what many individuals involved in the distribution and use of funding would like to know. And, of course, I believe practitioners who have invested time and energy in professional development would also like to know if their new knowledge and skills produce positive results with their students (whether it be better attendance, better attitudes toward learning, or the achievement of particular outcomes).
We are currently working on ways to evaluate pd on these levels but I would be very interested in hearing how others view the ROI of professional development.
Mary Mingle
Central Northeast Professional Development Center
mmingle at comcast.net
