Professional Development

Professional Development to Change Practice

Professional development sessions focus on hands-on participation. Teachers practice their new learning as active participants before implementing instruction with students. Collaborative planning, reflective writing, and frequent discussions are key elements incorporated to foster metacognitive thinking about instructional practices. To enhance reasoned judgments in literacy instruction, participants learn the theory behind what they are being asked to implement. The teachers attended follow-up sessions to ensure on-going support as they implemented their newly gained understanding.

Four professional development models were used with different audiences in differing contexts.

1.School Institutes for Reading and Teaching, teachers discussed current research findings and learned new instructional and assessment methodology. Daily opportunities to implement their new learning with students were given followed by time to discuss and reflect on what occurred.

2.Summer School Programs model for students’ at-risk of retention, teachers attended two days of intensive, practical training. Follow-up classroom observations and coaching insured that metacognition and higher level thinking remained the focus of the program. Teachers and researchers met weekly to develop curriculum.

3.Upper elementary and middle schools teachers participated in a one-year research-based science literacy program.

4.Primary teachers collaborated with our research team in a yearlong program to study effective and efficient ways of teaching decoding and spelling through articulation and metacognition.

Teachers’ views about reading and writing instruction are transformed. They report that, because they are active participants, their learning was much greater than at previous workshops and courses where their role was more passive. Because they actually experience the strategies on a first-hand basis, they feel comfortable utilizing them. Finally, based on student work samples, classroom observations, and reflections of teaching practices, all participants implement a wide variety of the concepts taught that resulted in substantial student achievement gains.

Sample Training Agenda
Promoting Change