The world of education is overflowing with research. Research that tells us how individuals learn best. Research that speaks to the importance of differentiation, personalization, applied meaning and realistic goals.
The world of Staff Development (SD) or Professional Development (PD) is overflowing with resources. However the majority of it fails to recognize the above research.
Recently I read Change by Design, by Tim Brown and was struck by the applicability of Design Theory to education, specifically SD and PD.
This year, I am working part time in the classroom teaching 8th grade Language Arts and part time as the Technology Coach/Mentor for my school site and district.
Facilitating PD/SD for a staff that I have worked with for 10 years is something I am excited about but am also being very careful about. Historically our staff, like most school staffs out there, have sat through pretty terrible or seemingly meaningless training. I want to avoid that. I want to identify the needs of the staff and plan PD/SD around those needs. This is where Design Theory comes into play. My Action Research will be to apply Design Theory principals to PD/SD.
In turn, it is my hope that teachers will not only have learned something, but will find themselves excited and feel supported as the PD they experience throughout the course of the year will be differentiated, personalized, meaningful and tied to their attainable goals.
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