Professional Learning Vs. PD: The Distinction Matters

IDEAS

Professional learning vs. PD: The distinction matters

By Janice Bradley, Cori Groth, Andrea Rorrer and Leslie Evans

Categories: Change management, Collaboration, Learning designs, Standards for Professional Learning

June 2023

For most professional learning facilitators, this is a familiar scenario: A district invites us to present during a back-to-school professional development day, assigning us to a breakout session slot following a general session keynote address. We work with the educators for a short time — maybe 45 minutes, maybe three hours — and then we never see them again. We hope we’ve made a difference, but we have no way to know for sure. When this scenario occurs, we recognize that the district’s request is well-intentioned and that educators value the support. But research and experience tell us that these kinds of professional development activities rarely result in desired shifts in educational practice and increases in student achievement because they are disconnected from educators’ day-to-day

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How one school shifted to a professional learning mindset

Student achievement at Riverglen Elementary (a pseudonym) was in the bottom 10% of the state. When none of the 5th-grade students achieved proficiency in writing on the state assessment, school leaders knew they needed to do something differently.

They recognized that improving student writing proficiency meant setting shared goals and building teachers’ instructional capacity vertically in grades K-5. In August, the literacy coach, with principal support, introduced the faculty to several research-based writing strategies.

However, in January, students’ writing scores hadn’t increased. School leaders realized that teachers were not consistently implementing the new strategies, so they reached out to our university-based center for help with implementation.

We worked with Riverglen leaders to use a professional learning approach grounded in Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning. In this process, teachers and school leaders developed a shared vision for how they would collaborate in professional learning communities, planned collaboratively for implementation of the writing strategies supported by coaching, engaged in ongoing feedback cycles, participated in lab class learning designs, and used student learning data to ensure effective implementation and continuous improvement of instructional practices.

Three years later, teachers were implementing the strategies more effectively, and an impressive 83% of 5th graders were proficient in writing. The principal attributed students’ success to leaders and teachers developing a professional learning mindset and understanding how the standards could be enacted to result in student learning gains.

References

Archibald, S., Coggshall, J.G., Croft, A., & Goe, L. (2011). High-quality professional development for all teachers: Effectively allocating resources. National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality.

Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M.E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development. Learning Policy Institute.

Foster, E. (2022). Standards for Professional Learning: The research. Learning Forward.

Garet, M.S., Porter, A.C., Desimone, L., Birman, B.F., & Yoon, K. S. (2001). What makes professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 38(4), 915-945. doi-org.ezproxy.lib.utah.edu/10.3102/00028312038004915

Garrett, R., Zhang, Q., Citkowicz, M., & Burr, L. (2021). How Learning Forward’s Standards for Professional Learning are associated with teacher instruction and student achievement: A meta-analysis. Center on Great Teachers and Leaders at the American Institutes for Research.

Koffka, K. (1963). Principles of Gestalt psychology. Harcourt, Brace & World.

Labone, E. & Long, J. (2016). Features of effective professional learning: A case study of the implementation of a system-based professional learning model. Professional Development in Education, 42(1), 54-77.

Learning Forward. (2022). Standards for Professional Learning. Author.

LeFevre, D., Timperley, H., Twyford, K., & Ell, F. (2019). Leading powerful professional learning: Responding to complexity with adaptive expertise. Corwin.