Reflect, Focus, and Grow
“In times of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves beautifully equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”
— Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition
For years I have tried to impress on schools that they don’t need to fly in consultants for professional development, nor send staff to far off conferences. Great professional development can be as simple as a team:
Agreeing on a question to explore that is influencing current teaching and learning practices.
Identifying and involving stakeholders who can influence the team’s ability to explore that question.
Acquire or develop learning resources related to the question to inform team members.
Engage in regular dialog about the question, agree on actions that can further understandings and evaluate the results of those actions.
The role of the consultant or facilitator is still important, just like a teacher in the classroom, consultants and facilitators help to structure the learning and can assess the attainment of skills and dispositions. But, professional growth comes through applying the learning, and that is the bulk of the process. This process unfortunately is not as easy as the 4 steps I outlined above, because this process gets undermined by limitations related to time, resource acquisition, and senior leadership involvement.
If you are passionate about professionally developing yourself and others, the two most important pillars of all great leaders, then watch my presentation to the ACAMIS Technology Conference on Virtualizing PD and read this month’s featured article on Capacity Building Strategies.
November is a time to reflect, focus on where our energy and attention can have the greatest impact on improving teaching and learning, and then collaborate with others to realize the gains from focusing that energy and attention.
