As a school director, you play a crucial role in ensuring that your staff are equipped with the necessary skills & knowledge to provide quality education to their students. Your team's instructional quality is essential, and professional development training is the key to achieving this goal. But how can you go about this? How can you ensure that your school team enhances its instructional capacity? Let's discuss some practical tips to assist you in planning and implementing successful professional development programs for your team.
Set your focus and goals.
The first step in organizing professional development is to think about your goals carefully; what exactly do you want as an outcome of this training? Make sure to think about goals that are applicable and suitable to the challenges and opportunities your team is currently facing. For example, your goal could be to "enhance the productivity of my team members." You may observe some delays in decision-making, or there are some weaknesses within the team. Thus, you should select topics that can address and improve these areas.
Choose your best mode of delivery.
The next step is to choose the mode of training you want for your team's professional development. Most people opt for workshops, in-class observation, or single-session seminars. Numerous options are available—it could even be a presentation or an online course—to suit your budget and time constraints. The format you choose should depend on the specific skills that your teachers need to develop.
Set ready any applicable resources that will be used
Your team will most likely need resources during training. These could include handouts, data, scientific research, or basically anything that they can successfully apply to their roles. Educators should have relatable and real-world examples during these sessions, such as stories and research, as they will benefit greatly from being able to see how the information can be directly applied in their work with students.
The training should be manageable.
It is crucial to ensure that the content provided is manageable. This entails keeping the instruction relatively doable from an educator's standpoint. In other words, the material should not be too extensive or complex to overwhelm and potentially hinder retention.
Find a presenter
Find a presenter who possesses vast knowledge and exudes enthusiasm and passion for their topic. They should facilitate interactive sessions that include engaging activities, meaningful discussions, and active participation from attendees to enhance their learning experience and promote better retention of the new content.
Build your Portfolio
It's time to gather diverse materials, including videos, written cases, lesson plans, unit plans, and sample student work, to help demonstrate effective teaching practices. These materials serve as curricular and instructional models for teachers, providing them with a clear understanding of what best practices should look like.
Getting Feedback
It would be beneficial if the team members were given the chance to provide their insights and reflections after the learning process. Gathering feedback on whether they have successfully met the expected learning outcomes, how they can apply this newly acquired knowledge in their respective roles, and suggestions for enhancing future learning opportunities are crucial factors to consider when planning upcoming activities.
References:
Meijer, M., Kuijpers, M., Boei, F., Vrieling, E., & Geijsel, F. (2017). Professional development of teacher-educators towards transformative learning. Professional Development in Education, 43, 819 - 840. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2016.1254107.
Meet The Author
Sheika Petteway, Chief ENCOURAGING Officer
She provides educational and leadership training to individuals and organizations. She is the founder and CEO of Elite Educational Enterprises and has several years experience serving in the early childhood education industry.
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