1	Listening to Teachers What do teachers want from professional development? Roya Salehi Kaplan K12 Learning Services roya_salehi@kaplan.com
2	Agenda Importance of professional learning Current research Current practices This research How does it apply to your situation?
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4	Why should we pay attention to professional learning? No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001) Correlation between teacher quality and student achievement. (Guskey, 2002; Greenwald, Hedges, & Laine, 1996; Witehurst, 2002) Indicators of teacher quality (Porter et al, 2002) Level of teacher education Content knowledge Experience and cognitive ability NEA Foundation for the improvement of Education (Renyi, 1996)
5	What does research say about effective professional learning? Engages teachers in the process as learners (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995) Includes cycle of teaching, assessment, observation, reflection, and revision; Is grounded in inquiry; Includes avenues for dissemination; Connects to the daily realities; Sustained over time.
6	What does research say about effective professional learning? A recent study of 1027 mathematics and science teachers suggests that effective PL: Focuses on content It provides opportunity for active learning It has coherence with other learning activities (Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, & Yoon, 2001)
7	Current forms of PL Transmission of information (Sparks, 1989, 2000) Individual inquiry (Burnaford, Fischer, and Hobson, 2001) Situated learning (Butcher, 2000; Swafford, 1998) Collaborative inquiry (Elmore, 2002; Putnam & Borko, 2000)
8	Traditional in-service “Although a good deal of money is spent on sessions and workshops, they are often intellectually superficial, disconnected from deep issues and non-cumulative. Rarely do these in-services seem based on curricular view of teacher’s learning.” (Ball & Cohen, 1999, P. 4)
9	Dread factor “Have you ever been to a party for teachers? What do they do? They talk about teaching. Why will teachers talk for hours passionately about teaching at a party but then remain silent at in-service?” (a teacher quoted in Sandholtz, 2002, p. 815)
10	Some of the challenges with current PL practices Limited resources (Darling-Hammond, 1996) Incoherent activities with no or little follow-up (Bambino, 2002; Putnam & Borko, 2000;Sandholtz, 2002) Not learner centered (Bransford et al, 2000) Does not follow Andragogy (Sandholtz, 2002) Structural problems (Sandholtz, 2002) Power inequity (Darling-Hammond, 1990) Mismatch in perception (Flowers, Mertens, & Mulhall, 2002)
11	Purpose of the research¹ Learn about the “wants” of the teachers regarding PL rather than what the authorities traditionally consider the “needs” of the teachers.
12	Research questions What characteristics or attributes do teachers think contributes to a successful professional learning experience? If teachers were in control of choosing their own PL, which activities would they like to include? How involved would they want to be in different planning aspects of PL? What are the impediments to implementing their vision of PL?
13	Forms of data collection Quantitative Questions 1-10 captured information about the process, desired content and motivation for PL. Qualitative Questions 11-12 focused on understanding the impediments to the teacher’s ideal vision of PL. Follow up interviews
14	Information about the sample Roles 12% administrators and support staff 32% K-5 teachers 30% 6-8 middle school teachers 26% 9-12 high school teachers N= 68
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20	Roadblocks What do you see as the roadblocks to the teacher’s vision of professional learning?
21	Why is there a disconnect? Richardson (2003) contends that the sense of individuality is very much a part of the framework of our culture. He suggests that the recommended attributes of a successful professional learning program maybe at odds with our culture of individualism. To successfully implement these recommendations in schools, teachers and administrators need to collaborate.
22	What are the impediments? #1 Lack of Time “One of the major roadblocks I see to professional development is lack of time. It seems as though I can barely keep up with my regular work with lesson plans, grading, etc. Even when I try to get these tasks accomplished at school, my preps and/or lunch periods are taken away with needs of my students, emails, etc.” (Teacher 52, Q12) “Time – It takes time to design and implement. Change (as a result of professional development) takes time. Follow up takes time.” (Teacher 24, Q12)
23	What are the impediments? #2 Lack of Funding “In other professions, when someone (or some group) wants to hear you speak, they pay your way to come and speak. For teachers, we have to pay our own way to the conference, pay admission to the conferences, and pay our own expenses while we are there, with some places able to reimburse their teachers and others not.” (Teacher 38, Q12)
24	What are the impediments? #3 Lack of Vision “Professional development needs to be geared to the real needs of the population. Usually, when I go to a professional development, half of the people that were there didn't know why they were there. Professional development in the future has to be specific and practical. Something you can get and implement it right there into your classroom.” (Teacher 43, Q12)
25	Other impediments? Administration with a sense of indifference to professional learning Lack of buy-in Lack of adequate monetary motivation and recognition
26	Implications for practice Teacher-friendly design characteristics Involve teachers in all levels of decision making “Staff development should not be "one size fits all" and some kind of needs/wants assessment should be done first, so our time is not wasted.” (Teacher 36, Q12)
27	Implications for practice Teacher-friendly design characteristics 2. Allow for active learning using multiple approaches and learning modes “I would like to see collaboration between the middle schools, as well as between the middle schools and the high schools.” (Teacher 28, Q12)
28	Implications for practice Teacher-friendly design characteristics 3. Focus heavily on content with an eye for each teacher’s individual needs “I would like it to be differentiated, just as we are supposed to differentiate for our students. I shouldn't have to sit in an inservice about something I have already demonstrated proficiency in.” (Teacher 47, Q12)
29	Implications for practice Teacher-friendly design characteristics 4. Offer professional learning opportunities at convenient times “We have department professional development for content area and it is held after school. I would like to see it held during the school hours. The benefits are that teachers are not so tired, more content can be covered and teachers are able to work with each other creating a community.” (Teacher 39, Q12)
30	Implications for practice Teacher-friendly design characteristics 5. Plan for implementation, follow up and evaluation upfront “There needs to be proper follow-up by the administration, to show the value/worth of what was programmed. It often seemed to be just so much ‘window dressing’, to show that the school was being up-to-date!” (Teacher 23, Q12)
31	Summary Involve teachers in all levels of decision making Allow for active learning using multiple approaches and learning modes Focus heavily on content with an eye for each teacher’s individual needs Offer professional learning opportunities at convenient times Plan for implementation, follow up and evaluation upfront
32	Most effective schools according to NEA “Most effective schools are those in which teachers make the important decisions about their teaching and the life of the school as a whole. In these schools, teacher’s responsibilities have grown beyond their isolated classroom walls to embrace the success of all children and adults who work in the school”. (Renyi, 1996)
33	About the Presenter Roya Salehi is an Implementation Consultant for Kaplan K12 Learning services currently working on a project with the Philadelphia School District. Prior to Kaplan, Roya worked at The Math Forum as a Project Manager for several years working on such projects as Teacher2Teacher, Bridging Research and Practice (BRAP), Educational Software Components of Tomorrow (ESCOT) and Problems of the Week. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley in pure mathematics, with a minor in computer science and her masters from Pennsylvania State University in the area of Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on Educational Leadership. Her main interest lies in the area of professional development. Roya can be reached via email at Salehi@cal.berkeley.edu.
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