RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

Kirstin Reigler

Michigan State University

EAD 863

John M. Dirkx, Ph.D.

December, 12th 2017

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RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

Overall Aims and Purposes of the Professional Development Context

In our nation today, education is constantly on the forefront of parents, policy

makers, and teachers minds. Education reforms regarding class sizes, school year

length, academic content, teacher requirements, and standardized testing have been in

the national spotlight. While the discussions regarding education have been debated

nationally on a large stage, it is the teachers sitting in their classrooms working to

keep up with the ever-changing environment they work in. The most prominent way

that teachers stay up to date and educated with all of the reforms, is through training

and professional development.

When broken down, there can be many aims and purposes of training and

professional development experiences: how to handle behaviors, how to effectively

teach reading strategies, how to best meet student diversity, and so on. However, the

overall aim and purpose of training and professional development in the professional

development context of education would be getting teachers to independently and

confidently take training and professional development content back into their

classrooms to implement both appropriately and correctly. This overall goal in

education is definitely an umbrella, with hundreds and thousands of more specific

goals falling in suit. An educators job is to educate each and every student that walks

through the doors of their classroom. Training and professional development

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RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

experiences in education are the bridges and pathways that lead to the education of

those students.

Conceptual and Philosophical Assumptions to Guide Planning and Delivery

With education being such a broad and diverse profession, there will never be a

one size fits all outlook for planning and delivering a training and professional

development experience. Two schools that are down the road from one another may

service drastically different students, and may employ incredibly diverse teachers. For

reasons like these, it is important that a facilitator in a training and professional

development context understands the beliefs of their learners. An educator in one

school may truly need a training and professional development experience focusing

on how to effectively teach the close reading technique in their classroom, while

another teacher may truly need a training and professional development experience

focusing on how to engage learners that are coming to school from impoverished

homes. Vella (2002), focuses on twelve main principles for effective adult learning.

Vella claims these twelve main principles “begin, maintain, and nurture the dialogue”

in an adult learning environment (Vella, p. 4, 2002). Vella’s first principle of twelve,

emphasizes the importance of completing needs assessments with learners to

understand what the group of learners “really needs to learn, what they already know,

and what aspects of the course fit their situation” (Vella, p. 5, 2002). As Queeny

(1995) states, needs assessment do not guarantee that the training and professional

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RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

development experiences will be successful, but they can help the facilitator

understand the underlying factors that should guide their teaching which will help

increase the likelihood of a successful experience. As mentioned above, education is

incredibly diverse, and the needs of one school’s training and professional

development program may be vastly different than another. Completing a needs

assessment gives the facilitator the opportunity to mold their teaching to meet the

needs of the group.

With education being such a diverse career, participants at a training and

professional development experience may internalize content in a different way. The

nature of knowledge is viewed in reference to the learners taking content back to their

own diverse classrooms. Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (1991) claimed that " First,

knowledge is constructed, discovered, and transformed by students. Faculty create the

conditions within which students can construct meaning from the material studied by

processing it through existing cognitive structures and then retaining it in long-term

memory where it remains open to further processing and possible reconstruction.” If a

training and professional development experience is focusing on the implementation

of a new math curriculum within a district, a kindergarten teacher will construct,

discover, and transform the content differently than a 5th grade teacher. This is why

the nature of learning shows that putting the learning into the actual learners hands is

more powerful than allowing someone to simply facilitate a lecture. Constructivist

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RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

theory states that “Knowledge is discovered by students and transformed into

concepts students can relate to. It is then reconstructed and expanded through new

learning experiences. Learning consists of active participation by the student versus

passive acceptance of information presented by an expert lecturer” (Panitz, p.1, 2014).

Educational training and professional development should follow a constructivist

framework as it allows the learners to take the content presented and mold and

understand it in terms of their classroom, their students, and their experiences.

As Vella states, there are 12 principles that lead to adult learning. All of these

principles, working together, increase the success of an adult training and professional

development experience. These principles includes: needs assessments, safety in the

training and professional development environment, sound relationships amongst

learners and facilitator, adequate sequencing of content, praxis of learning through

reflection, respecting learners as decision makers, appreciating ideas, feelings and

actions of learners, keeping learning immediate, maintain clear roles, using teamwork,

maintaining engagement of learners, and keeping learners accountable of their

learning (Vella, p. 4, 2002). Adults learn best when they take responsibility for their

learning as mentioned above. Knowledge is discovered when students transform the

content into something they can relate to. When learners transform the content into

something they can relate to, they are more willing to learn and more willing to take

responsibility for their learning. In order to take responsibility for their learning, the

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RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

twelve principles Vella reviewed must be met. It can be recognized that none of these

principles ties directly into the content presented within a training and professional

development context. Learning of content can not be completed without the

foundation of learning. The foundation of adult learning relies on the main pillars that

Vella stated above. Once these main pillars are met, students are going to feel

comfortable and confident to learn and take responsibility of their learning.

Conceptual Framework to Guide Design

It has been said time and time again that education is a unique career pathway.

Training and professional development in education may look incredibly different

from other careers. A typical training and professional development experience is

short, sometimes 30-40 minutes, and includes teachers that service diverse groups of

students. There may be teachers that teach art, special education, 5th grade, and

kindergarten all in one professional development experience. This makes a facilitators

job much more difficult, as they have to present content in a way that all the teachers

in the room can absorb content and take it back to their classrooms and service their

population no matter what. This is why active learning is so powerful for educational

training and professional development experiences. “Active training occurs when the

participants do most of the work” (Silberman, p.1, 2015). In education, allowing the

participants to do most of the work, as Silberman said, is much more powerful. “Our

brains need to link what we are being taught with what we already know and how we

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RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

think” (Silberman, p. 4, 2015). Education is unique as each teacher has a different

style. Not only are teaching styles different, but they are encouraged by

administration. One teacher’s thought process may be different than another’s. Active

learning allows teachers to link content with their personal thinking and classroom

styles. Active learning is so beneficial for education, for so many reasons. Teachers

can absorb content, in the framework of their own personal classrooms. They can

implement content, and reach desired learning through their own styles. Active

learning requires the learner to make decisions on their own about how they plan to

understand the material. Active learning allows for the freedom teachers desire in

their classrooms. Not only does the active learning framework fit the flexibility of

education, it is also beneficial in the sense of time. Educational training and

professional development experiences are few and far between. With a national

substitute shortage, administration is hesitant to pull teachers from their classrooms

during the school day. Training and professional development experiences are often

rare, and short in time when they do occur. Active learning fits this timing issue, as it

allows learners to continue to absorb the content and learn on their own time. The

teachers take responsibility for the learn and go back to their classrooms and

implement the content, discuss with peers, and reflect on their teaching all on their

own time. Meanwhile, the facilitator can still reach out to learners via email or phone

to discuss how the active learning is progressing. Active learning allows participants

to continue with their career, while learning and implementing content. Active

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RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

learning also allows participants to mold content to fit into their classroom style, and

their specific population of students.

While active learning seems like a more “laid-back” approach to learning, it

still follows main principles that are important in adult learning. Active learning

stresses the importance of completing needs assessments to understand your learners

and their expectations. Active learning relies on training objectives, as “objectives are

the pillars of the program” (Silberman, p. 40, 2015). There are still goals set by the

facilitators, and course structure to meet those goals. Training activities are still

designed to meet learner needs and to align with end objectives and goals. Active

learning always emphasizes the importance of evaluation and feedback as well. Active

learning is a framework that allows the learners to reach their learning goals, while

still be facilitated in ways that follow the main principles of adult learning.

Instructional and Training Strategies to Guide Implementation

As mentioned above, adult learning is most efficient when it begins with the

foundation of a needs assessment. Once an effective needs assessment is completed,

the facilitator will have much more insight as to how to design and implement a

training and professional development experience. Following an effective needs

assessment, it is important that the facilitator create objectives that align with the

content of the training and professional development program. As Winegarden states,

you have to “begin with the end in mind” (Winegarden, p. 1, 2005). The facilitator
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RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

must create course objectives that align with the goals of the course. Once these

objectives are created, the facilitator can start selecting instructional and training

strategies that guide implementation. Within the educational context, these objectives

may be worked towards over the course of one single experience, or an entire school

year. Depending on the timeline, strategies for implementation may differ. However,

overall there are a few strategies that are most beneficial in the education context.

Group discussions allow the learners to challenge one another, hear one another’s

opinions and experiences, and take charge of their learning. “Student engagement and

deliberation can be viewed as a marker of motivated learning” (p.1) says Gayle,

Cortez, and Preiss regarding group discussions in training and professional

development formats. Group discussions also allow for flexibility regarding the

timeline. With an active learning framework in education, learners can have group

discussions both within training and professional development experiences and

outside of those experiences with participants. The active learning framework also

pairs well with the implementation of collaborative learning. The word collaboration

is defined as “a philosophy of interaction and personal lifestyle where individuals are

responsible for their actions, including learning and respect the abilities and

contributions of their peers” (Panitz, p. 1, 2014). Collaborative learning goes hand in

hand with the active learning framework as it is an implementation strategy that

focuses primarily on the acceptance of responsibility from learners within a group

setting and “highlights group members’ abilities and contributions” (Panitz, p. 1,

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RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

2014). Collaborative learning once again gives the flexibility and freedom to align

with the diversity of a classroom teachers framework. Collaborative learning allows

participants to have deep, thought-provoking discussions, while celebrating the

diversity and experiences that each group member brings. Collaborative learning also

allows learners to meet in group settings on a timeline that is beneficial to them. In

education, this is one of the most beneficial pillars of active learning and collaborative

learning strategies. With training and professional development experiences being few

and far between, the flexibility to have group discussions and collaborative learning

experiences on educators’ own timeline is beneficial.

Practice and feedback are also important strategies within an educational

training and professional development experience. “Goal-directed practice coupled

with targeted feedback are critical to learning” (Ambrose et al, p. 125, 2010). Practice

can be viewed as the time teachers spend in their classrooms implementing content

they have learned. It can also be viewed as the group discussions participants are

having about content. Regardless, independent practice is vital for mastery of content.

However, practice is meaningless without targeted feedback. Feedback can be

difficult within an educational context as facilitators may not always be present during

the practice portion of the active learning framework. Due to this issue, the

collaboration piece of the active learning framework comes into play. With

collaborative learning, a community is created, as well as one of the main

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RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

foundational principles Vella explained: safety. With the safe environment amongst

participants that active learning and collaboration creates, peer feedback can be very

powerful. In education, feedback may be from the facilitator when possible, but can

also be provided by peers who have knowledge of the goals. This offers the learner

feedback on their experiences, but also a different perspective towards their goal. This

feedback throughout the active learning experience helps to look at the content in a

critical aspect, without relying on the facilitator specifically. This feedback is so

important because feedback can “tell students what they are or are not understanding,

where their performance is going well or poorly, and how they should direct their

subsequent efforts” (Ambrose et al, p. 137, 2010). Without feedback, participants

could be spending long periods of time in between training and professional

development experiences implementing content incorrectly, or misunderstanding

something. Relying on feedback, whether it be from a peer or a facilitator, can help

learners reach their goals.

Evaluating Training and Professional Development Programs

With the unique format of educational training and professional development,

the evaluation of these experiences may be different from a typical training and

professional development experience. Some training and professional development

experiences may run over the course of multiple months, with monthly meetings

discussing content. Some training and professional development experiences may run

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RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

over the course of the school year with 4 meetings to discuss content, and some may

be a single session, lasting a day. Due to the diversity of these experiences,

educational training and professional development experiences should implement

different types of evaluation platforms. The needs assessment at the beginning of the

experience, does not technically count as an evaluation, but it can guide the end of

experience evaluation. Formative evaluations, in survey or interview format, may ask

learners if they feel that their needs were met. Not only can formative assessments be

a “post-test” of sorts regarding needs, but a formative assessment can also ask learners

their thoughts and opinions regarding the format, pacing, and design. Training and

professional development experiences within education rarely have two experiences

that are the same. Locations change frequently due to availability, times change, and

sometimes participants may change. Formative assessments allow the facilitator to see

what they can change to help provide a better learning experience. A summative

evaluation at the end of the training and professional development experience, such as

a survey or interview may look at the knowledge of content gained throughout the

experience. The results from this feedback can help guide future training and

professional development experiences. Educators are incredibly busy people, and will

be more honest and give appropriate feedback when they are given evaluations they

can complete easily. Short surveys, or short “exit ticket” assessments are most

beneficial for educators in a sense of assessing if they feel their needs were met, and

evaluations of the pedagogical knowledge. As stated above, the aims of educational

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RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

training and professional development fall under a large umbrella. The overall aim

and purpose of training and professional development in the professional development

context of education would be getting teachers to independently and confidently take

training and professional development content back into their classrooms to

implement both appropriately and correctly. The best way to truly evaluate if

participants have met this goal would be observations. Educators are required to be

evaluated while teaching in their classrooms. These observations can also be a source

of evaluation, as their implementation can be tied directly to training and professional

development experiences. Observations are the most raw form of evaluation as the

goal is to see if educators can independently and confidently take content into their

classrooms. Using different types of evaluations can give facilitators multiple sources

of input, and more knowledge regarding if participants are meeting or working

towards the goals and objectives of the course.

Education is an amazing career path that allows for growth and knowledge each

and every day. The implementation of training and professional development

practices within education can be powerful experiences that lead to improving our

educators in the classroom which in turn helps students to be successful.

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RUNNING HEAD: Development of a Personal Philosophy of Training and Professional Development

Ambrose, S.A., Bridges, M.W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M.C., Norman, M.K. (2010). Seven Research-Based
Principles for Smart Teaching. How Learning Works, 120-153.

Gayle, B.M., Cortez, D., Preiss, R.W. (2013). Safe Spaces, Difficult Dialogue, and Critical Thinking.
International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1-8.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., Smith, K.A., (1991). Change. Active Learning: Cooperation in the College
Classroom, 27-35.

Panitz, T. (2014). Collaborative Versus Cooperative Learning – A Comparison of the Two Concepts
Which will Help us Understand the Underlying Nature of Interactive Learning. 1-2.

Queeny. (1995). What is Needs Assessment? Assessing Needs in Continuing Education, 1-25.

Silberman, M. (2015). Active training: A handbook of techniques, designs, case exmples and tips. San
Francisco: Pfeiffer.

Vella, J. (2002). Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach. The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults, 3-27

Winegarden, B.J. (2005). Writing Instructional Objectives. Learning Objecives, 1-6.

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