What is Professional Development?
In the field of Education the term Professional Development describes learning opportunities, both formal and informal, that help facilitate educators to grow in their abilities and understanding of subject matter and pedagogy. While more traditional Professional Development has often been in the forms of conferences, seminars and workshops the world of Education has begun to embrace a more modern approach including a variety of learning tools. Small groups like Planning Learning Communities (PLCs) give teachers a setting for feedback and knowledge sharing, Online webinars or self-paced seminars open the doors of opportunity that might otherwise be limited by financial and time constraints. Social Media platforms allow for a higher level of connectedness, leading the way to establishing an even greater Planned Learning Network (PLN) that an educator can reach out to for support.
Whatever format the Professional Development takes the goal is the same...to increase an educators ability to achieve effectiveness within the classroom.
Effective, Reactive and Collective
While Professional Development can take many forms there is an understanding of what it must contain and provide in order to be considered effective. According to James Heibert from the Journal in Research in Mathematics Education,
"Research on teacher learning shows that fruitful opportunities to learn new teaching methods share several core features: (a) ongoing (measured in years) collaboration of teachers for purposes of planning with (b) the explicit goal of improving students' achievement of clear learning goals, (c) anchored by attention to students' thinking, the curriculum, and pedagogy, with (d) access to alternative ideas and methods and opportunities to observe these in action and to reflect on the reasons for their effectiveness ..." (Heibert, 1999, p. 15).
Highlighting on Heibert's words, for a program to fruitful is should feature an opportunity for observation and reflection as a key element. Here programs often can fall short with attendees independently trying to absorb knowledge and then lacking the crucial element of feedback and community to really allow meaningful growth to be achieved.
Adding to this, Mizell, from Learning Forward, summarizes with, "to be effective, professional development requires thoughtful planning followed by careful implementation with feedback to ensure it responds to educators’ learning needs. Educators who participate in professional development then must put their new knowledge and skills to work. Professional development is not effective unless it causes teachers to improve their instruction or causes administrators to become better school leaders". (Mizell, 2010).
Research has proven that teacher collaboration is a significant predictor of student achievement (Goddard, 2007) but what that collaboration looks like, in person or through online connections, isn't as static. Here, the modern online community can expand the network for learners.
ENGAGE in Community
Reflecting on the fact that effective Professional Development is continual and requires a community for maximum effectiveness, ENGAGE seeks to connect educators by providing a database for programs as well as establishing an online community so that learning can continue to unfold, widening the network of support. Knowing that student achievement is impacted by a network rather than a singular teacher (Sun, 2015) the goal of collaboration is indeed one that benefits the entire education community.
Collaboration for Increased Efficacy
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Educators from around the globe share how collaboration has increased teacher efficacy, student success and job satisfaction.
References
Hiebert, J. (1999). Relationships between research and the NCTM standards. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 300), 3-19.
Mizell, Hayes. (2010). Why professional development matters. Learning Forward. Retrieved from https://learningforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/professional-development-matters.pdf
Goddard, Y., Goddard, R., Tschannen-Moran, M. (April, 2007). A theoretical and empirical investigation of teacher collaboration for school improvement and student achievement in public elementary schools. Teachers College Record., 109 (4), 877-896. Retrieved from https://education.illinoisstate.edu/downloads/casei/collaboration_studentachievement.pdf
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (March, 2020). What role does teacher collaboration play in better teaching? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG7kMkNrzwY&feature=emb_title
Sun, M, Loeb, S., Grissom, J. (November, 2015). Building teacher teams: Evidence of positive spillovers
from more effective colleagues. Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis. Retrieved from https://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/wp15-20-v201511.pdf
Yoo, J. (2016). The effect of professional development on teacher efficacy and teachers’ self-analysis of their efficacy change. Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability, 18(1), 84–94. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304607709_The_Effect_of_Professional_Development_on_Teacher_Efficacy_and_Teachers’_Self-Analysis_of_Their_Efficacy_Change