PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: IS IT WORTH THE TIME? Kelli Odhuu

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: IS IT WORTH THE TIME?

Kelli Odhuu, Ph.D. Regional English Language Officer U.S. Embassy Tallinn

This summer I had the opportunity to take an online professional development course called “English Language Programs Training of Trainers.” I wanted to connect with colleagues, learn more about conducting effective workshops, and understand more about online professional development. Through the 5-week experience, I found out three things: First, I found out that I was more interested in the resources than passing the class. Since I haven’t been conducting workshops recently, I couldn’t put the newly gained knowledge to use immediately. When I start doing workshops again, I will refresh my mind on several important points in the course, such as adult learning theories and teacher expectations for effective professional development.

Secondly, I found out that discussions are both fascinating and a waste of time. When I was professionally interested in the topic, I found myself writing longer responses and responding more to my colleagues; when the topic didn’t seem relevant to me, I wrote a short, boring response to the discussion thread and didn’t read others’ responses. Time was also wasted when I felt that I had to take time to respond to others’ comments, even if they weren’t interesting to read.

Thirdly, I understood that hybrid courses are most effective for me. Once a week, we would meet together online for an hour. Each synchronous session was scheduled the same way on Zoom: the welcome, three breakout room discussions followed by whole group summaries of those discussions, and a survey question and whole group discussion of the results of the survey. When I write this down, it seems boring and long, but it wasn’t. Each discussion was relevant and interesting to everyone because the discussion questions were worded generally enough to include a wide range of specific topics, and we could have continued to discuss if given the time.

These insights are important as they directly relate to adult learning theories (see Garrison 1997; Knowles 1968; Kolb 1984; Mezirow 1978). Specifically, I want to be self-directed, deciding what I want to learn when; I want what I learn in professional development to build on my own past experiences and still have practical relevance for future activities; and I want opportunities for collaboration, especially synchronous collaboration. Are these similar to your needs during professional development? When I think about professional development conferences, our needs as adult learners are often taken into account: we get to choose a workshop from several concurrent sessions; successful workshops make sure the content builds on our previous knowledge and can be implemented or reflected on immediately to develop more effective teaching practices; and we often find ourselves being directed to “share with a partner” and collaborate that way.

So, what happens when you decide to take an online professional development course alone? How do you meet your need of collaboration with colleagues? Do asynchronous online discussions satisfy your desire to share your insights with colleagues? Or when you write a discussion thread, do you feel something tangible is lacking? Teachers want to connect with other teachers to grapple with new resources, methodologies, or ideas. How can you connect with others when you are alone? The solution to this is to create a teacher support group in your community (Murray 2010), whether that community be in person or virtual. Murray explains the concept of this type of “study group”:

A study group is a group of teachers who meet regularly to discuss a particular aspect or issue related to their teaching. The number of participants can range from three to fifteen. The meetings are structured and have an agenda to follow, and each teacher takes a turn as the facilitator of a meeting. However, the meetings are informal and collegial, with everyone participating in the dialogue. Such meetings are not the same as workshops; no one teacher is “the expert,” and the goal is to learn together about a specific aspect of their teaching strategies and practices. Between meetings, the group reads materials related to the issue to be discussed at the next session. A study group can also be conducted online if that is more convenient and the technology is available. (7)

This sounds like a wonderful concept, doesn’t it? Those teachers who have taken part in this type of study group will most likely speak highly of the support, learning, and professional growth that comes through this strategy. I took part in this type of learning network when I was a new teacher, and when I became head teacher, I kept up the practice with my teachers. This strategy can also happen organically in the teacher’s room. Discussion questions can be created by a teacher each week, placed prominently in the room or emailed with links to resources or handouts to read. Discussions during break times can focus on these discussion questions.

The elephant in the room, however, is the amount of time this professional development strategy takes. A teacher cannot fit this strategy in whenever she has time or find an hour here or an hour there for this strategy. The best results come from weekly attention. And this weekly attention takes away from the time you spend planning your lessons, which then could make your lessons worse— for a time. In the long run, though, this professional development will make your lessons and your classroom better. Let me liken this situation to an athlete reconfiguring her movements. Let’s say a tennis player wants to change her stroke to make it more powerful on the court. The tennis player works on the swing during the off season, but when tournaments start, the player’s stroke isn’t up to professional standards yet, but she still takes part in tournaments, playing worse until her new stroke is perfected. This is the same for a teacher. We will become better teachers through consistent professional development, which takes time away from our lesson planning. What happens when we spend two hours a week on our own professional development? Our classroom lessons must suffer— we are still effective teachers, but just a little less effective because we won’t spend as much time finalizing our lessons. In the long run, though, our effectiveness will reach new heights as the new learning kicks into our practice.

What can you do now for your own professional development? There are many courses available online. My office is offering some great courses at the following address: https://www.openenglishprograms.org/MOOC

“Professional Development for Teacher Trainers,” a course for creating, presenting, and evaluating effective teacher training workshops is open now: enrollment stops very soon—October 23—and this is a facilitated MOOC for 5 weeks. The other course available this fall is “TESOL Methodology,” which provides learners with strategies for teaching speaking, listening, reading, and writing to English learners of different ages and contexts. This course is self-paced, and enrollment closes November 20, 2020.

My office also offers full scholarships for graduate level online courses from leading universities in TESOL in the United States (https://www.openenglishprograms.org/GOC_Information):

Content-Based Instruction

English as a Medium of Instruction Integrating Critical Thinking Skills into the Exploration of Culture in an EFL Setting Professional Development for Teacher Trainers

Teaching English to Young Learners Teaching Grammar Communicatively TESOL Methodology Using Educational Technology in the English Language Classroom

These are intensive 8-weeks courses with about 20 teachers per course, and teachers spend about 8–10 hours a week participating in them. Teachers who have taken these courses state how rewarding they are and that, after the course, the teachers are more effective in the classroom. Write to me at RELOTallinn@state.gov for the application.

In terms of adult learning theories, these courses are full of effective teaching practices and reflection for self-improvement. But what about the live, synchronous engagement with other teachers? I see two very important methods that teachers can use for live engagement (whether virtually or in person). First, be observant in those first weeks of the online course to the other teacher participants. Whose responses in the discussion board do you agree with and find interesting? Whose responses promote a discussion in a positive way? Invite 4–5 of those teachers through individual emails to a Zoom session or Google Hangouts. Create 3 or 4 discussion questions for the 45- or 60-minute session. If the first session goes well, invite the group back again, asking how the “study group” can better meet their needs and stating how your needs are met through it.

The second way to create the important collaborative side in the online course is to take the course with 3–4 colleagues already in your professional learning network. You and your colleagues can take the course, meeting together once a week to discuss questions and issues that arise through the course. By taking the course with colleagues, you can put yourselves on a schedule to finish the course together and present your findings to colleagues at EATE conferences.

Professional development is important for all teachers, but it takes some effort and time. When the topic is relevant to us, and the knowledge practical, we gain motivation to learn. The last important aspect of professional development, the collaborative side, must also happen for teachers to be fulfilled. Collaboration might not be addressed in most online courses, so it is up to us to create our own collaborative study groups. The benefit to our own professional development is tremendous and worth the extra effort.

WORKS CITED

Garrison, D. Randy. 1997. Self-directed learning: Toward a comprehensive model. Adult Education Quarterly, 48: 1, 18–33. Knowles, Malcolm S. 1968. Andragogy, not pedagogy. Adult Leadership, 16: 10, 350–352. Kolb, David A. 1984. Experience as the source of learning and development. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Mezirow, Jack. 1978. Perspective transformation. Adult Education, 28: 2, 100–110. Murray, Alice. Empowering Teachers through Professional Development. English Teaching Forum, 48: 1, 2–11.