Finding Time for Professional Development, Professional Development Training Opportunities, CAEYC's Professional Development Academy, Etc.

Beyond Basic Training

WIDE: Using Networked Technologies to Promote Professional Development

Stone Wiske and David Eddy Spicer, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, describe the school's Wide-Scale Interactive Development for Educators program-also known as WIDE World-which uses new technologies to promote professional development.

At WIDE World our mission is to generate and spread useable, research-based knowledge to improve teaching and learning. WIDE provides professional development training to educators, using technology to disseminate research-based approaches to informing and improving classroom practice. Participants in WIDE's online courses are from 65 countries and consist primarily of classroom teachers, curriculum developers, professional development staff, and administrators of K-12 schools.

To improve the performance of those enrolled in its online courses, WIDE explores the potential of networked technologies to create the sustained support necessary for true understanding in content areas such as learner-centered assessment. Our teaching approach follows a framework for understanding, which has five principles:

1. Organize learning around a generative topic
2. Make goals for learning clear and explicit
3. Organize learning that actively involves participants in applying knowledge
4. Build in opportunities for ongoing feedback to gauge progress
5. Engage learners in reflective, collaborative learning communities

WIDE uses networked technologies in several ways to increase educators' performances of understanding, meaning the application of knowledge in their everyday work. WIDE's application of technology, as outlined below, also fosters communities of learners, facilitating dialogue, goal sharing, exchange of resources, collaboration, and constructive feedback. [ Click here and find more professional development training info ]

Critical Issue: Finding Time for Professional Development

ISSUE : Reform requires that teachers learn new roles and ways of teaching. That translates into a long-term developmental process requiring teachers to focus on changing their own practice. The problem is, where do teachers find the time for change in their already busy schedules? Unfortunately, "the demands posed by daily teaching and other aspects of the reform continue to absorb a bulk of teachers' energy, thought, and attention" (McDiarmid, 1995). This issue explores the vital concern of how to carve out time, opportunity, and other resources teachers need to realize the vision of education reform. Creating professional development opportunities that educators need in order to help all students achieve the ambitious learner goals of reform will require the support and ideas of everyone.

OVERVIEW : School improvement efforts over the last few decades require teachers not only to study, implement, and assess learner outcomes outlined in local, state, and national educational standards but also to provide meaningful, engaged learning (cognitively, socially, and culturally) for a very diverse student population.

Teachers are expected to understand emerging standards--such as those in math and science --and views of learning, and to change their roles and practice accordingly. Teachers who were prepared for their profession prior to the reform movement may not be prepared for these new practices and roles. In working toward change, teachers need to be continually supported with professional development training . Teaching is a complex task, and substantial time will be required for teachers and other educators to test out new ideas, assess their effects, adjust their strategies and approaches, and assess again in an effort to reach all students and make learning meaningful.

A fundamental lesson learned in the past decade of school reform efforts is that far more time is required for professional development and cooperative work than is now available. In fact, time has emerged as the key issue in every analysis of school change appearing in the last decade (Fullan & Miles, 1992). Teachers' professional development in a climate of educational reform must address the additional challenges of implementing educational standards, working with diverse populations, and changing forms of student assessment. Clearly, teachers "need more time to work with colleagues, to critically examine the new standards being proposed, and to revise curriculum. They need opportunities to develop, master, and reflect on new approaches to working with children" (Corcoran, 1995).

McDiarmid (1995) echoes the connection between new expectations for teachers and the element of time: "The changes teachers must make to meet the goals of reform entail much more than learning new techniques. They go to the core of what it means to teach. Because these changes are so momentous, most teachers will require considerable time to achieve them"

professional development training can no longer be viewed as an event that occurs on a particular day of the school year; rather, it must become part of the daily work life of educators. Teachers, administrators, and other school system employees need time to work in study groups , conduct action research , participate in seminars, coach one another, plan lessons together, and meet for other purposes. Fine (1994) states, "School change is the result of both individual and organizational development "

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SDE Cataloging Professional Development Training Opportunities

The South Carolina Department of Education is compiling an ongoing list of training opportunities for educators.

Current Professional Development Training Opportunities

Updated April 23, 2001

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