Part 4 What structures and strategies can support implementation?
“Vision without implementation is hallucination.”
Thomas Edison
When it comes to implementation, there is no magic recipe. However, we can make research-informed and collaborative leadership decisions to carefully nuance structures and strategies to work in our local context. Taking advantage of innovative use of technology for professional learning, such as MiniPD, can complement whole-school professional development offerings to give educators ownership of their training and professional learning pathways.
Darling-Hammond et al (2017) in Effective Teacher Development advocate that schools:
Evaluate and redesign the use of time and school schedules to increase opportunities for professional learning and collaboration.
Identify and develop expert teachers as mentors and coaches to support learning in their particular area of expertise for other educators.
Provide technology-facilitated opportunities for professional learning and coaching.
Leaning on the work of Tom Sherrington (2021), we invite you to consider the three levels of professional learning within which structures, approaches and strategies can rest:
Source: Teacherhead
Structures and Strategies
The summary review on effective professional development, Developing Great Teaching (Teacher Development Trust, 2015), highlights the need for a dynamic interactive mix of activities for professional learners to access. Tools are provided to support long term measures and shorter term wins.
Long-Term Measures
Built-in Time: School cultures can support or hinder the impact of professional learning. Built-in high-frequency opportunities are key for supporting impactful professional learning. Many schools disaggregate in-service beginning/end-of-year training weeks in favour of dedicated training and development days interspersed throughout an academic year.
Culture of Coaching: Nurturing and sustaining a supportive whole-school culture of coaching can maximize a school’s investment in strong professional learning experiences. Formal instructional coaching roles meet teachers where they are in the professional learning journey, using strategies specific to coaching that lead to positive changes in instructional practices. Coaching strategies include:
goal-setting
questioning
paraphrasing
modeling
co-planning
co-teaching
feedback.
Instructional coaches can take an active role in the application stage of professional learning to support participants as they implement new learning and practices. Research indicates that
“when teachers are given time and coaching to support implementation, 95 per cent of participants are able to put [new learning] into classroom practice”
Derbiszewska & Tucker-Smith, 2020, p. 64
Distributed Professional Learning Leads
Developing leadership capacity at all levels is likely to result in a greater impact on student learning (Harris, 2013). Subject-specific leadership developed across a school can support the delivery of tailored and responsive professional learning to colleagues based on expertise.
External Input
Educator access to external, curriculum-focused workshop facilitators can support professional learning tailored to meet identified needs. Evidence and educator expertise can determine the most appropriate PD provider and most effective approach for applying to practice.
Partnerships for learning
Aligned to school priorities, building curriculum content, and pedagogy-focused partnerships for learning, as part of local and global professional learning networks, can add valuable expert input to school systems.
Peer Learning Structures
Formative non-judging learning opportunities, such as coaching, co-teaching, and/or mentoring, where practice and performance are shared with focused formative and constructive feedback, reflection time, and follow-up, can positively impact teacher development and instruction. Training, time, and expertise are core elements at play.
Professional Learning Communities
PLCs, with trained facilitators, can provide a powerful route for practitioner inquiry. Educators can meet regularly over the course of an academic year, dig into student learning data, inquire into their own practice, and collaborate with colleagues who share common learning needs about improving student learning. PLCs are a platform for challenging, discussing, experimenting, and testing strategies that can be directly implemented in practice in classrooms.
Short-Term Wins
In addition to the longer-term wins that require patience and persistence, there are simple structures that can add value to an educator’s professional learning experience.
Professional Learning Media Resource Center: To facilitate educator access to up-to-date research and literature, a visible professional learning library is a value-added must. It can be enriched when educators have routes to contribute suggestions and share learning opportunities, inclusive of digital platforms recommendations, such as Twitter handles and blog writers.
Professional Learning Strategies: Simpler structures can add tailored professional learning opportunities and quick wins, such as PD speed dating, mini teachmeets, pupil shadowing, appreciative inquiry, lesson study, collaborative action research, learning not judging observations, videos to live lessons, to name but a few. Professional learning festivals and events, such as Gallery Walks, can elevate and celebrate professional learning.
Professional Learning Strategies that Work
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