Episode 59
Professional Learning That Moves the Needle: Insights for K12 Leaders
Brief description of the episode
In this episode, Matthew Kennard, CEO of BetterLesson, discusses transforming professional development in education. Matthew shares how districts can move beyond one-off training days to create ongoing support for teachers, even with limited budgets. He highlights the need to use data to guide decisions, tailoring learning to teacher needs, and practical ways to connect training with real classroom results. The conversation explores how technology and emerging tools can support more responsive and impactful professional learning strategies.
Key Takeaways:
- Districts continue to rely on single-day “Edutainment” workshops that are insufficient for creating lasting instructional change.
- Current approaches often fail to provide targeted, ongoing professional learning that is tailored to individual teachers’ needs and directly connected to their daily classroom experiences.
- When adopting new curricula, districts typically provide only brief product training, without adequate long-term support to help teachers effectively integrate and master new instructional materials.
- Many professional development efforts lack robust data collection and analysis to track changes in instructional practices and student outcomes.
- School leaders often do not participate actively in professional learning, missing opportunities to create a culture of continuous improvement and demonstrate commitment to teacher development.
- There’s often a gap between high-level district strategic plans and the actual implementation of those strategies in individual classrooms.
- Professional development is frequently not personalized or contextualized to the specific needs of individual teachers, schools, or districts.
- Leverage virtual workshops, online coaching, and digital platforms to minimize in-person costs and provide flexible learning opportunities.
- Start with clear, specific outcomes and backward map professional development strategies, focusing on 2-3 key initiatives per year rather than attempting multiple simultaneous changes.
- Tap into multiple funding sources (Title I, Title II, Title IV funds, general budgets, and curriculum adoption budgets) to support professional learning initiatives.
- Provide differentiated professional learning experiences for different educator groups to support varied learning needs.
- Use the Guskey framework to evaluate professional learning, tracking multiple indicators beyond test scores.
- Have school leaders actively participate in professional learning creating a culture of continuous improvement across all organizational levels.
- Develop multi-modal learning experiences to accommodate diverse teaching styles and resource constraints.
- Create a continuous learning environment that goes beyond one-day professional development sessions.
- Implement coaching and non-evaluative learning walks as regular parts of the school day.
- Use virtual workshops, coaching, and observation tools that can be integrated into daily workflows.
- Design targeted support for different groups, such as new teachers or instructional leaders.
- Align professional learning directly with district strategic goals and initiatives.
- Use technology to provide just-in-time, asynchronous learning opportunities.
- Develop a multi-year approach that allows for gradual, sustained implementation of new teaching practices.
- Increased use of sophisticated data collection and analysis to inform and refine professional development strategies.
- Leveraging technology to provide automated, personalized learning suggestions and just-in-time content delivery.
- Utilizing comprehensive data sets to understand effective practices across different districts and provide comparative insights.
- Developing more robust digital tools for observation, coaching, and content delivery that support flexible learning experiences.
- Creating individualized professional learning approaches that adapt to specific district contexts and educator needs.
- Using analytics to suggest professional learning based on district demographics and contextual similarities.
- Shifting from traditional one-off professional development to sustained, job-embedded learning experiences that align with broader educational goals.
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