As we undertake the complex and compelling challenge of building capacity for all educators to meet the needs of all students, we know a few things for sure. The first is that supporting adult learning has a direct and positive influence on increasing student achievement. We know that not all professional learning initiatives — for example, strict content delivery, or what is often known as sit-and-get (Murnane & Willett, 2011) — have the same effect on student achievement. However, we also know that authentic professional learning, in which adults are learning and growing and experiencing as they participate, can make a tremendous difference for adults, children, schools, and school systems. 

For these reasons and more, Learning Forward’s new Learning Designs standard is an important reminder that shaping professional learning as opportunities for adults to learn and grow is essential and that our understanding of how adults learn is an essential component of this pressing goal. Doing this work — shaping learning and growth-enhancing conditions in professional learning — will help us meet the adaptive challenges we encounter every day. This holds the promise of helping us to increase our personal and organizational capacities and resources. With new kinds of implicit and explicit demands placed on practicing and aspiring school leaders — principals, assistant principals, teachers, superintendents, district leaders, specialists, professional developers — who dedicate themselves to educating children and youth, we need to carefully consider how we can best design learning environments that are supportive of growth. I define growth as increases in our cognitive, emotional or affective, intrapersonal (the way the self relates to the self), and interpersonal (the way the self relates to others) capacities to better mange leading, teaching, learning, and living.

More specifically, the three strands of the Learning Designs standard — apply learning theories, research, and models; select learning designs; and promote active engagement (Learning Forward, 2011) — point toward the promise of crafting professional learning as learning labs (Drago-Severson, in press) in which educators learn about content, learn by engaging with each other, and learn from the process of learning itself. 

APPLY LEARNING THEORIES, RESEARCH, AND MODELS

The first major idea in the Learning Designs standard focuses on the underlying beliefs and values that drive professional learning and the common features of robust learning environments that are informed by theories, research, and models. For example, the explanation of the standard names “active engagement, modeling, reflection, metacognition, application, feedback, ongoing support, and formative and summative assessment” as key components of many effective learning designs (Learning Forward, 2011).

These elements are all very important. As a developmental psychologist and teacher who has worked with K-12 educators as well as aspiring and practicing leaders in university settings, I have studied how people learn and grow for more than 20 years. My work is closely aligned with this standard in that both seek to create conditions that enhance learning and growth for adults with what I would call very different developmental orientations — that is, varied ways of interpreting their experiences and the differentiated kinds of supports and challenges they need to grow and learn. More specifically, constructive developmental theory (Kegan, 1982, 1994, 2000) and the pillar practices (Drago-Severson, 2004, 2009, in press) derived from my research inform my thinking about the common features of robust learning environments highlighted in this strand. 

For example, one particularly powerful idea from constructive developmental theory is that we, as human beings, make sense of our learning experiences, life experiences, and the world in qualitatively different ways. Understanding that, as adults, we have different ways of knowing.

WE ARE ALL LEARNING DESIGNERS

The ideas presented in the new Learning Designs standard are imperative — and a call for even greater mindfulness — for all of us. I offer this because from my perspective, we are all learning designers. In working with colleagues, parents, and students, we are all mindful of the influence that design has on learning. Recognizing — as this standard emphasizes — that aligning our designs with what we know about the different ways adults learn, and how they learn best, holds great promise for the future of education. 

Just as Learning Forward’s decision to use the term “professional learning” is significant and inspiring, so too is the organization’s commitment to sharing these new standards and ideas. Educators value professional learning that feels meaningful. Integrating theories, research, and models of human learning is a promising pathway for professional learning to achieve its intended outcomes and to open real possibilities for growth.