Learner-Centered Prof. Dev.: Enabling Continuous Improvement - Essay Sample

Introduction

Learner-centered professional development is defined as a continuous development of professions that use reflections and feedback to ensure that the teachers can gain more skills and knowledge. Such professional development is central to the continuous improvement of schools as it enables teachers and principals to plan and implement on the best professional improvements that they engage themselves in the new teacher programs of induction that help to support, educated and train new teachers so that they can be able to contribute to the achievement of students and the culture of the community they live in. The proposed professional development agenda helps to create environments that are learner-centered as teachers can use the knowledge they currently possess to acquire new skills and knowledge.

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Learner-Centered Principles

The professional development agenda will help in the successful creation of coherent and meaningful knowledge representations as time passes. The implementation of learner-centered professional development is important because teachers can easily use their current beliefs and knowledge (McDonough, 2012). The first principle that the development agenda will reflect is the nature of the process of learning, where the goals of this agenda will be the main focus of the policy. The proposed agenda will play a major role in the support and guidance of instructions, which will help each of the learners to create presentations that are successful and meaningful.

Another principle that the professional agenda will reflect is the motivation of the learners to expand their beliefs, interests, emotional states, and thinking habits. Motivation will is evident in the agenda of professional development as it will help to create influence on the content that various individuals learn in training. The agenda is creative and creates a natural curiosity for the new teachers to learn (Dam, Janssen & Driel, 2020). This principle is evident in the agenda because its main focus is on a student becoming a self-initiated learner where he will acquire complex knowledge and more difficult skills that will play a major role in learning new skills. The agenda finally focuses on the principle of creating willingness in the learners so that they can exert additional efforts that they can use in practice.

Professional Development Session

New teachers in school will go through various sessions that will enable them to continuously use data that will help them make introductions in the usage of data causing them to make instructional and informed decisions that will meet the need of empowering schools, parents, and students. The teachers require excellent professional development needs so that they can learn the instructional strategies that are necessary to teach students certain skills (Peña-López, 2009). The development session also uses effective models of effective practice, which provide teachers with clear visions of the way that best practices are designed to address the time that is required to move towards the practice visions of the experts. The session designed helps the teachers become aware of the student data that is directly related to the approach they take in teaching.

Learning Forward Standards for Professional Learning

Standards for professional learning idealize the standards that outline different professional learning characteristics that lead to teaching practices that are of high quality with leadership that is supportive in the improvement of the learners’ results(Hill, 2015). With the contribution of the professional associations and other organizations that major most on education, the standards of professional growth will increase drastically based on the professional development agenda. The proposed agenda for development will help educators to create skills, practices, and knowledge required to help new teachers perform at the highest levels.

Marzano’s Instructional Strategies

Marzano’s strategies play a major role in professional development because it helps to improve the capacity of students in learning. Based on the work that is adopted in this framework, supporting students, especially where certain structures are included, makes them incorporate structures that will support learning and readiness (Staff, 2019). The professional development identifies similarities and differences that exist in the training of new teachers and the training of normal students. The plan also explains how the teachers will summarize and take short notes where necessary, with practice and homework being compulsory to improve their knowledge and skills (Musmar, 2019). Cooperative learning is evident in professional development, and it will play a major role in setting objectives for the learning processes and the provision of feedback throughout the learning process.

Similarities in the Professional Development

The similarities that existed in the process of professional development included an exploration of various design ranges useful for individual and collaborative learning across the teaching schools (Darling-Hammond, Hyler & Gardner, 2017). Learning begins with the end in mind, and those that are in the learning sessions are expected to have a goal and work their way through the strategies set and the reflection of the time taken to reflect upon oneself with the synthesis of new ideas that will contribute positively to the learning process. An example of how I was able to incorporate these ideas is reaching out to degree level teachers and teaching professionals on a clean accord form strict laws.

Positive Environment for Development Session

A positive environment for the session of professional development will include various strategies such as addressing the needs of the new teachers learning and creating a sense of order. Physical and psychological needs will play a major role in developing positive environments as they will help develop a sense of security, law and freedom, allowing the new teachers to increase their desire to learn new ideas and skills (Killion, 2017). All the new teachers who are students at that time will be assigned a plan for the learning session where they will be able to learn new procedures for the various practical tasks that will be performed in class and the learning institutions (Killion, 2017). Other strategies that will help ensure positive environments for the professional development sessions include making learning relevant, developing a code of conduct, and employing a curriculum that will help the new teachers share an understanding of positive behaviors and whey they are required in the institution.

Activity Participation by all Attendants

The new teachers in the learning process will be expected to complete certain activities effectively regardless of the many challenges that they may face. The new teachers will be allowed to give personal suggestions on how they want the session to be run. The ideas will be combined, and they will settle for a common way of running the activities (Haslam, 2020). They will then be divided into groups where they will brainstorm and create answers to some of the questions posed towards them. The teachers will also be paired up so that they can create an interdisciplinary activity of teaching so that they can create a dynamic experience in the development of their skills and knowledge.

Evaluation of Professional Development Session

Professional development should have a purpose, and the evaluation will be done at various critical levels that require collection and analysis of main standards. The main ideas that will be evaluated in the session include the learning of the participants as well as the needed identities that will be important in acquiring knowledge and skills (Derrington & Kirk, 2016). The participants will also apply the new skills and knowledge they learn, making it possible for an evaluation of each of the new teachers’ performances. The assessments will help determine whether the current session is effective and the changes that are required to make documentation and implementation of the content of the program better.

Follow-up sessions for the New Teachers

The tutors of the new teachers include coaching and support, incorporation of feedback, and providing the teachers with specific and substantive feedback that will give them enough time for reflection on the various feedbacks they receive. Opportunities for active learning will also be created to help reduce the chances of some teachers being left out and increase participation.

Conclusion

The proposed professional development agenda helps to create environments that are learner-centered as teachers can use the knowledge they currently possess to acquire new skills and knowledge. The session shows teachers in their teaching practices that they are required to meet certain goals at the set periods before they can proceed to meet new needs. The session is differentiated to meet such needs through the management of classrooms, parent relations, and assessment of the students. The proposed development agenda will reflect on the principles that are learner-centered by making nature and the goals of the learning process clear.

References

Dam, M., Janssen, F. J. J. M., & Driel, J. V. (2020). Making sense of student data in teacher professional development. Professional Development in Education, 46(2), 256-273. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19415257.2018.1550104?needAccess=true

Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56b90cb101dbae64ff707585/t/5ade348e70a6ad624d417339/1524511888739/NO_LIF~1.PDF

Derrington, M. L., & Kirk, J. (2016). Linking job-embedded professional development and mandated teacher evaluation: teacher as learner.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2016.1231707

Haslam, M. (2020). Teacher professional development evaluation guide. Learningforward.org. https://learningforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/teacher-professional-development-evaluation-guide.pdf.

Hill, K. A. (2015). Teacher Participation and Motivation professional Development. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6717&context=etd

Killion, J. (2017). The learning profession. Learningforward.org. https://learningforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/the-learning-professional-december-2017.pdf.

McDonough, D. (2012). Applying learner-centered principles and strategies: From face to face instruction to a hybrid course learning format. Journal of Learning in Higher Education, 8(2), 31-39. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1145174.pdf

Musmar, R. D. S. (2019). The Impact of Marzano's Instructional Strategies on Grade 10 Students' Achievement in Reading Comprehension in the United Arab Emirates (Doctoral dissertation, The British University in Dubai (BUiD)). https://bspace.buid.ac.ae/bitstream/1234/1469/1/2016152050.pdf

Peña-López, I. (2009). Creating effective teaching and learning environments: First results from TALIS. https://www.oecd.org/berlin/43024880.pdf

Staff, T. (2019). Marzano's 9 Instructional Strategies For Teaching And Learning. TeachThought. https://www.teachthought.com/learning/marzanos-9-instructional-strategies-graphic/.