July 13, 2023

What if professional development were seamlessly integrated into the day-to-day operation of every school and district? What if districts or departments within a school collaborated on relevant training? What if professional learning was about not just developing skills but solving challenges and breaking down barriers to teacher and student success? What if learning and developing ourselves as teachers were acts of joy? 

When done well, professional development (PD) can keep people in the profession, help address teacher burnout, and improve the conditions for teaching and learning. The first step to more meaningful professional development is adding the time and structure for the systematic implementation of inspirational PD. The second step is to honor the individuality of staff members and replace mandated training with goal-oriented, personalized PD that simultaneously cultivates new skills while elevating the expertise of educators. 

What’s the next step?

Structure professional learning to build agile, flexible thinkers empowered to revolutionize education. Nurture the natural changemaker at the heart of many educators and equip them to design and test solutions to educational challenges. The world is moving too quickly to think that top-down solutions and mandated resources will foster change: targeted, grassroots adjustments—and at times replacement—are needed for education to keep up with the rapid pace of change.  

Simply put, PBL PD. Teachers are embracing the authenticity of project-based learning to challenge students and help them develop real-world problem-solving skills. The same basic approach can redefine professional development.

In addition to equipping teachers with vital agility skills, such a shift in professional learning will emphasize just how much teachers MATTER in the lives of students and in changing society for the better. With burnout at an all-time high, helping teachers see their impact and showing them how much they matter is critical. In his research analysis, Zach Mercurio, organization and leadership development researcher and strategist, found that “Few things are more powerful than when a human being realizes they matter.”

Identify Potential Projects 

While administrators can let teachers pick whatever they want to do, to truly nurture changemakers you must focus on what needs to change. Dedicate time to developing a list of possible PD PBL topics. Brainstorm all the barriers and frustrations that limit or prevent student success. Compile a list of teacher concerns and curriculum hurdles. Identify big world problems that are STILL not being discussed in classrooms. The World Cafe method is a great way to stimulate ideas and nudge collaboration. Questions can be developed using this Needs Organizer, which can also be used by itself to gather input on what is reducing, preventing, or limiting student success. This Joys and Frustrations organizer, while very simple, allows teachers and students to reflect on and celebrate successes while also sharing frustrations (—don’t underestimate the power of venting!). 

Create an open process to hear from ALL stakeholders. Students, parents, community members, staff, faculty, alumni, that is, anyone who interacts with the school should be part of the brainstorming process. This step requires planning, commitment, and thick skin. Email surveys, talk to parents and guardians at student conferences, and have a dedicated phone line or email to gather community suggestions. To circumvent general complaining, ask focused questions: What barriers prevent you/your student from learning at school? What would make you/your student more excited to attend school? How could school be more joyful? What annoys you/your student at/about school? As you look at the world you/your student will inherit, what skills does your student need to thrive? As you look at the world you/your student will inherit, what would you change/improve?

Next, HEAR the feedback. Don’t dismiss anything or start taking sides. To build better schools, better support teachers, and better equip students with life-long skills, we need to honestly acknowledge what is NOT working. While we cannot fix everything, we CAN reinvent professional learning so it’s meaningful, relevant, and fulfilling. 

Organize and Design a Solution

Once you’ve gathered input, organize the problems into categories. Consider these possible groupings:

• Mindset, Curriculum, Spaces, Process & Tools, Systems 
• Needs to be addressed first (so anything else can work!), second, and third
• Possible projects: Teachers, Students, Administrators, Parents/Guardians
• Categories identified by the problems gathered 

Divide teachers into self-selected teams to research solutions and gather ideas and resources. Teachers must be allowed to choose the challenge they want to address. Perhaps multiple teachers will choose the same challenge, working together or in parallel to design one or more possible solutions to that challenge. Each teacher/teacher-team will write a Challenge Question that will drive their inquiry. 

Design. Implement. Reflect. Have teachers present to each other. Design next year’s PD around the most successful efforts. Throughout future PD and in-service days, support teachers as they design possible solutions. Michelle Blanchet and I wrote The Startup Teacher Playbook to help guide districts and educators alike through this PBL as PD process. Tools like the Educator Canvas and its accompanying Impact Log are simple ways to help educators organize their ideas while ensuring the “accountability” most districts require. 

PBL for PD feels like it is a good strategy. So why isn’t it already the norm? Control. Just as PBL can be scary for teachers who yearn for clear-cut timelines and clean answers, letting staff direct their own PD can feel like chaos to some. If the lack of control and synchronicity induce hives for you, there are several ways to mitigate these worries:

• Establish a building or district theme for exploration. This can be as broad as What’s limiting students from being the best versions of themselves? 
• Write one Challenge Question for all staff to address. 
• Provide a step-by-step guide for the PD process. While staffers may complete the steps at wildly different paces, all staff must submit a clear log of what they did and when regardless of the size and scope of the project as well as personal time available. Again, the Educator Canvas and Impact Log can help educators organize their ideas while ensuring “accountability.” 
• Acknowledge that not all teachers will engage, but do not let this worry stop the process. NO professional learning experience will win over all educators, especially not the first time around. After years of canned PD and years of mandated training, it will be understandably difficult for some teachers to trust that they are truly driving their professional learning experience. They will need time to develop the trust to do so. 

Identifying a PD theme can also fuel a local conference. As noted in Goodbye, Conferences As We Know Them—Hello, Authentic PD, such conferences would focus on a “program narrow enough to be thoroughly explored during the conference and with the potential to come to life at schools shortly after the conference.” It would “model effective and active learning strategies,” and prioritize the implementation of inspiration by ensuring “attendees…walk away either with an action plan or the appropriate resources to create one.” 

Host a Two-Day Thematic PBL PD Sprint: 

• Establish an overarching theme, like “Breaking Down Barriers to Student Success.”  
• Ideally, work with a couple of neighboring districts. This allows you to pool resources while including diverse voices to ensure more viable, diverse solutions. 

DAY 1: Inspiration 

• Attendees gather for an opening session focused on brainstorming obstacles, challenges, joy, and frustrations around the theme. 
• (Optional) Have 5-10 pre-planned breakout sessions connected to the theme. This may include tech tools, resources, or strategies connected to the theme.  
• (Optional) Use the EdCamp framework (Unconference) to suggest topics, then break into small groups to share ideas, strategies, and resources using the experience and wisdom of whoever shows up to each session.
• Debrief and share out the best ideas heard that day. 

DAY 2: Implementation

• Design solutions. Work in teams and use the inspiration from Day 1. Design as many possible solutions to the challenge. 
• Supply the Educator Canvas to attendees and give them 20 minutes to come up with a possible solution. 
• Send everyone to small group feedback sessions. Organize these by grade level/subject, topic, solution type (Mindset, Curriculum, Spaces, Process & Tools, System), or let it be random. Provide clear feedback protocols!
• Repeat: Revise/redraft/enhance your Canvas. Feedback Round Two.
• Repeat: Revise/redraft/enhance your Canvas. Feedback Round Three.
• Share out solutions.

This model for professional development requires fewer outside experts and allows districts to divert PD funds directly to teachers in support of the teacher’s learning goals. As teachers explore different paths, use the strategies in PART 2 of this series to share results and expand learning.

Remember: “Problems” are opportunities to try something different. The current stagnant, disconnected professional learning presents us with unlimited options where almost ANYTHING ELSE would be an improvement on the status quo. This article is certainly not an exhaustive treatise nor the only way professional learning can be reimagined. Embrace the possibility and try something new. Fail. Revamp. Try again. 

Students need us. The fate of the teaching profession is riding on nurturing good educators into great ones. It’s riding on us supporting great educators and fueling their passion to teach by keeping them in the classroom. Revolutionizing professional development is one way—perhaps the best way—to empower teachers and show them just how much they matter.

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You may also be interested in reading more articles written by Darcy Bakkegard for Intrepid Ed News.