Posted: May 10th, 2015

Characteristics of Professional Development

Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements

School District; Orange County Public Schools

This week’s Learning Resources describe characteristics of professional development that improve teacher performance, commitment, and engagement and can have a powerful impact on student learning. Once you know these characteristics, you can begin to evaluate the effectiveness of your school/district’s current professional development efforts.

Analyze the current professional development practices at your school/district as follows:

Compare your professional development practices to those described in this week’s resources and consider the effectiveness of professional development efforts at your school/district in terms of content, process, and context.
Use Tool 1.3, “How Do We Stand?” on the Becoming a Learning School CD to evaluate your school/district’s professional development efforts against Learning Forward’s (formerly NSDC’s) definition. What evidence can you provide to show how your school is currently meeting elements of the definition?
Evaluate the opportunities and challenges that exist related to the following characteristics of effective professional development outlined in Learning Forward’s (formerly NSDC’s) definition:
Results-driven
Standards-based
Job-embedded
Then, share your analysis with members of your learning team and elicit their feedback. If you cannot meet with your learning team in person, you might consider communication tools such as Skype, LiveMeeting, or other network services.

Submit your analysis of the effectiveness of your school/district’s current professional development efforts based on the prompts above. Explain how input from one or more of your learning team members contributed to your analysis.