RSA 3: Student Learning in a Professional Development School and a Control School

RSA 3: Student Learning in a Professional Development School and a Control School
http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ802012.pdf
Wendy Bedell
April 17, 2011

The article Teaching Teachers: Professional development to improve student achievement (AERA, 2005) analyzed research studies to determine that professional development must be directly related to the teaching in the classroom. It discussed a shift in thinking from the 1960’s when professional development focused mostly on “generic teaching skills” (p. 1) to the more current trend of emphasizing “reasoning and problem solving potentials rather than only on basic skills” (p. 1). The research proved that when the learning is “rooted in subject matter and focused on student learning (this) can have a significant impact on student achievement” (p. 2). It stated that if learning takes place in this way that teachers will have greater buy-in to the new techniques or curriculum. I agree with this completely. Teachers need thorough understanding before they are willing to accept, and use, new ideas.

In the article Student learning in a professional development school and a control school (Castle, Arends, Rockwood, 2008) a school with a professional development plan was compared to a school without one. The Professional Development School (PDS) had a leadership team who “met regularly to coordinate activities and to determine policies” (p. 2). The PDS took time to develop a “focus and create formal structures for sharing and decision making” (p. 9). They took time to identify a vision, mission, and goals. The teachers met regularly within professional team and had conversations about meaningful instruction. The article goes into great detail, but the results were that the PDS school moved more students to “mastery” level, when compared to the control school.

When comparing these two articles, there leaves little question that meaningful professional development will directly impact student learning for the better. When teachers are given tools and information to bring back to the classrooms that they truly understand they will use this to their advantage. Both articles also indirectly mentioned teacher buy-in to new curriculum. Often “external mandates are often met with skepticism by teachers who do not have passion for the particular mandate, had no voice in its creation, or have been through mandates they feel made no difference” (Arends, Castle, Rockwood, p. 11). A professional learning community alleviates this problem “and that participating in professional learning communities optimizes the time spent on professional development (AERA, p. 4) which will create better teacher buy-in.

References

American Educational Research Association (AERA). (2005). Teaching teachers: Professional development to improve student achievement. Research Points Essential Information for Education Policy, 3(1), 1-4. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED491587.pdf

Arends, Richard., Castle, Sharon., Rockwood, Kathleen. (2008). Student learning in a professional development school and a control school. Professional Educator. v32 n1 p1-15. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ802012.pdf