Effective Professional Learning
Professional development, professional learning, teacher development, continuing professional education; it has a lot of names but is it effective? According to the Hechinger Report (2015), The Mirage (2015), and the Center for Public Education (Gulamhussein, 2013) it is not. Professional development (PD) is costly and timely but does not see a difference in the development of teachers ability (Hechinger Report, 2015). According to the Hechinger Report 19 days each year a teacher will spend in PD workshops (2015). In Philadelphia, this equates nearly $41 million spent on teacher professional development days (Education Week, 2010). All this time and money that was spent saw only about 3 out of every 10 teachers showing any form of improvement (Hechinger Report, 2015). The development of a teacher from the first year to the fifth year as compared to the change of a teacher from the fifth year to the twentieth year was nine times as great (The Mirage, 2015).
Effective Professional Learning by Patrick N. Reid is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Taking all of this into account, teachers must have training and professional development for pedagogy and technology integration. My iPad innovation plan involves this as well. Apple has developed a plan to engage teachers into effective teacher development, the Apple Teacher Program. I am in the process of developing professional learning that will use the five principles of effective professional learning from the Center of Public Education. The course utilizes the Apple Teacher Program but also adds extended time for teachers to learn and work collaboratively. There is also time for the learning to be focused on active learning, specific support during the initial phases and within the context of each subject.
The previous video was made in iMovie. I chose iMovie to show what could be possible on the iPad. This could a way for students to show their understanding of topics or ideas. I utilized Google Slides to make the content of the movie. My district is a G Suite for Education school, and as such, I tried to find ways to merge the two programs together. It is the goal of this course for teachers to learn ways to incorporate the iPad into their lessons to develop a learning experience that goes beyond their classroom and into the skills that will be needed in a productive society.
References
Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the teachers: Effective professional development in an era of high stakes accountability (Rep.). Center for Public Education. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/teachingtheteachers
The Mirage. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2017, from http://tntp.org/publications/view/the-mirage-confronting-the-truth-about-our-quest-for-teacher-development
New report reveals that teacher professional development is costly and ineffective. (2015, August 04). Retrieved March 11, 2017, from http://hechingerreport.org/new-report-reveals-that-teacher-professional-development-is-costly-and-ineffective/
