1. Reflect on your learning needs

Any decision you make regarding your PD has to be purposeful and intentional to respond to your learning needs as a teacher. You are not supposed to spend your time, or your money (in case it’s paid) and make an effort to learn something that is not that important for you and your students.

It’s true that all learning is good. But, not all what we learn can serve us because our students and the context determine what works best.

So, to select the right teacher professional development programme, reflect on your learning needs. This is the first thing you should do before learning about or searching for any PD initiatives.

When you reflect on what you need to learn you get a sharp vision of what kind of PD programme you should really attend now.

This reflection can unveil the truth which you might not have noticed during those exhausting, stressful working days. The truth about how your students were getting on with learning, the existing learning gaps, what you should have done and what you need now to streamline and support them to learn more.

To identify your learning needs think about :
1) What do your students need to improve, and what difficulties they need to overcome.
2) What instructional strategies do you need to improve to create more learning opportunities for them.
3) What strategies, tools and materials you need to introduce to push those boundaries and make your teaching more innovative.

Focus more on the kind of learning you need now to enhance your students’ learning and bring the necessary change.

After clarifying your learning needs, specify your goals and write them down in order of priority. (See the stages below)

In case you are targeting different kinds of learning, for instance learning about new classroom management strategies, a digital learning tool…etc., should you look for a teacher professional development programme that covers all of them?

Not necessarily, but if you can find one, why not?

What’s important here is that you know your learning needs. So, you can determine which PD programmes can help you achieve them. The more you’re passionate about learning the more PD opportunities you’re going to have to grow.

However, consider always your priorities. For instance, if your students are struggling with a basic skill look for a PD programme that can help you fix this instead of learning how to make them more creative.

If you are new to the world of teaching, you can seek others’ help (mentors, teachers trainers, colleagues, etc.) regarding the kind of PD that is relevant to you. Your experience and reflection on your practices are likely to reveal the kind of learning you need throughout your career.

2. Learn about the PD programme

Once you know what you need to learn in order to streamline and help your students learn, make time for learning about the PD opportunity you have at hand (or search for it in case you don’t). Even in case the PD programme seems a good fit for you, know about all the details before making your final decision.

Address your questions to the people who have designed it to know more about the nature of its content (if it’s grade/ and content-specific,). Also, learn about the cost and what it covers (in case it’s paid), mode of interactions (online, face-to-face/and blended), materials you need, kind of assignments and assessment, time to complete it, etc.

Also, read others’ reviews if there are any. Get your colleagues’ or other educators’ opinions about it on Twitter and teacher forums.

We need to admit that enrolling in any PD programme requires certain teachers’ engagement and commitment to learn best from this experience. So, when you gather such information, you will determine if you can make it happen or not.

3. Examine its relevance

Getting basic information about the PD programme may give you a general idea of whether it fits your learning needs or not. But, it does not explicitly show you how it will serve you and to what extent you can benefit from it.

One common issue about PD programmes is that they are not differentiated. So, in practice, they may not cater for your individual learning needs.

This means that even if you’ve found a good PD programme, its effectiveness is not only measured in terms of its content, resources, and support provided but also in terms of how committed you are to learning and adapting that learning to fit your own context.

To this end, when you examine the PD programme relevance you’re going to refer to your learning needs and reflect on how you can learn from it. So, you relate its perspectives to your context, think about what learning you need to focus on and you visualize the expected learning outcomes.

Doing so, you will figure out what you need to do within this learning (including the amount of time and effort you need to devote), how much learning you’ll gain and how you can fine-tune it so that it is more in line with your students’ needs.

So, you are not just going to say YES or No to enrollment. But, you know why you said it and how you can craft your hone through any PD experience.

It’s so important to take ownership of your professional development (PD). Opportunities to grow are diverse. Yet, making the right choice remains a decisive decision for your career.

So, reflect on your learning needs and clarify your goals to refine your teaching. Then, learn about the PD programme you’ve found. And examine its relevance to make sure it’s the kind of learning you need.

Teacher professional development is so necessary. Following these steps will save you a lot of time, energy and the frustration of taking part in a PD programme that is not as effective as was expected.

Continue learning to grow. I wish you all the best.

The reference
Walter, C. and Briggs, J. (2012). What professional development makes the most difference to teachers? Oxford: Oxford University Press.