Teacher Magazine: Making Professional Development an Inside Job
Making Professional Development an Inside Job
By Anthony Cody
Why is it that school districts continue to hire outside consultants to conduct professional development when local classroom teachers often have greater levels of expertise?
Twice in the past two months I have participated in teacher professional development sessions where outside consultants were brought in to share innovative practices with teachers who teach in struggling urban districts. In the first case, I was one of the outsiders. In the second, I was among the participants. In both scenarios, I felt the districts involved were missing a big chance to strengthen local leadership.
In the first instance, I was part of team brought to a district to work with teachers on a Problem-Based Learning approach. The district leadership had decided this was how they wanted teachers to spend the two days prior to the start of school. So we shared an overview to PBL and went to work with teams of teachers broken out in five different classrooms. I was a bit taken aback when the classroom to which we had been sent filled up with teachers but nobody stepped forward to convene the work. The district curriculum administrator had to come around to each of the five classrooms to get us started.
Making Professional Development an Inside Job
By Anthony Cody
Why is it that school districts continue to hire outside consultants to conduct professional development when local classroom teachers often have greater levels of expertise?
Twice in the past two months I have participated in teacher professional development sessions where outside consultants were brought in to share innovative practices with teachers who teach in struggling urban districts. In the first case, I was one of the outsiders. In the second, I was among the participants. In both scenarios, I felt the districts involved were missing a big chance to strengthen local leadership.
In the first instance, I was part of team brought to a district to work with teachers on a Problem-Based Learning approach. The district leadership had decided this was how they wanted teachers to spend the two days prior to the start of school. So we shared an overview to PBL and went to work with teams of teachers broken out in five different classrooms. I was a bit taken aback when the classroom to which we had been sent filled up with teachers but nobody stepped forward to convene the work. The district curriculum administrator had to come around to each of the five classrooms to get us started.