Professional Development and Policy - ED 6381

 

        Educators are at the heart of educational systems and I firmly believe that nothing can replace a great teacher. Teachers are the direct link to students and they are in charge of their learning journey. They create effective classroom environments where  students are immersed and actively learning. This is why I feel that it is essential that educational systems help educators develop ongoing skills and support them adequately when need be. Professional development should be when vital resources are provided to educators by their schools for the specific training topics and betterment of their skills. The issue then arises when educators feel that most professional developments they are required to attend, do not yield the results they were hoping for. It is as though you have been plunged into a crash course about a certain topic or sometimes multiple topics at once, then are expected to master it in a day or sometimes even half a day training. In turn, this leads to teachers being under enthused about attending such trainings if many turn out to be ineffective. Improve professional development so that instructors, administrators and agency staff are up to date on educational technologies and can maximize their benefits to students (SREB, 2013). As equally important as profession developments, are the policies held by educational systems. Educators must be competent about their current district or institution policies, if not they are at risk of being out of compliance. This can lead to a breach of provided required factors for their students or implementing certain protocols mandated by their schools. Maintaining a sound policy framework means ensuring that it supports relevant standards, strong accountability systems, equitable access to education, and practices that allow students to make continuous educational progress (SREB, 2013).

Professional Development 

         Professional development should be an essential part of educational systems, it should be a great resource for teachers to go to when they are seeking education for themselves to be more effective educators. Professional development generally refers to ongoing learning opportunities available to teachers and other education personnel through their schools and districts. Effective professional development is often seen as vital to school success and teacher satisfaction, but it has also been criticized for its cost, often vaguely determined goals, and for the lack of data on resulting teacher and school improvement that characterizes many efforts (Rebora, 2011). The problem then arises when educators feel that certain workshops and trainings are not fulfilling their needs. They then become redundant in the sense that there are not effective because they are not helping them in areas they need to develop. Such as, perhaps an educator wants to expand their technological skills, and they attend a technology workshop, only to leave out of it still with the inability to implement it in their classroom. This is a difficult task for schools to find a happy medium for educators to feel fulfilled, ready, and able after attending professional developments. Parsing the strengths and weaknesses of the vast array of programs that purport to invest in teachers’ knowledge and skills continues to be a challenge ( Rebora, 2011).

        

        This really resonates with me being a classroom teacher. I cannot begin to describe how many professional developments I have attended that I feel did not adequately meet my needs. I just believe that most of them seem to be a bombardment of information that is very difficult to try to process in one day, much less gain the adequate skills and abilities to implement into our classroom. Over the years, with experience, I learned to methodically try my best to pick and chose certain skills I see I can effectively learn and implement into my classroom. I found that if you try to focus on so much information at once, in the end, it can become meaningless in the way that you did not learn it thoroughly. Which in turn leads to you not integrating it into your teaching and instructional practices. I believe that before a  professional development is presented to educators, they must be assessed with a critical lens to see if teachers will be able to master it in the allotted time, will they be ready to implement it at the end of the workshop, and most importantly will they feel it fulfill their needs adequately. It is like if we are going round and round in a circle that can lead to ineffectiveness and ultimately not benefit our students as it did not create more efficient teacher skills. Educators, just like students, all have different learning styles, abilities, and backgrounds. Thus professional development must be differentiated to meet all teacher's needs and not just hope and pray a one-shot workshop will solve all issues and fix all inabilities. 

"Even so, many teachers still appear to receive much of their professional development through some form of the one-shot workshop" 

(Rebora, 2011).

Policy

     Furthermore, it is as critical for educators to be aware of policies within their educational systems. It is vital to be updated when policies change in order to remain current on what is expected considering certain factors. Districts and schools must assure that there are clear examples of what the policies are and how we are expected to follow them in certain situations. Instead of only presenting policies to educators, there need to be distinct guidelines for educators to follow. If this information is not adequately relayed to educators, then there is a risk of the policy not being followed and implemented as necessary. Policies are only as good as their implementation (SREB, 2013). One policy in particular that needs to be more focused on in our current technological world is digital accessibility. Under policies from The Americans with Disabilities Act, there needs to be equal and fair access to students who have certain disabilities. Digital accessibility ensures the ready availability and usability of content, websites, and processes on computers and electronic devices for all users, including those with hearing, visual, motor, or cognitive impairments (SREB, 2017).

"If digital accessibility for students with disabilities is not addressed in both K-12 and post-secondary education institutions, millions of students could be denied access to an equally engaging educational experience" (SREB, 2017).

 

        In conclusion, considering all these facts, it is apparent that professional development and policies are a crucial part of educational systems. It is in a way ironic to me that we as educators are expected to conduct student-centered environments and adhere to differentiated learning for our students, but on the other hand teachers at times tend to feel these principles are not being applied to them. Yes, we as educators are professionals, but we also require the same, as far as teacher-centered professional development that educators feel is fulfilling their need to learn and implement new skills. We as educators are ongoing learners as well and required differentiated learning styles within our professional developments that will be more effective. Furthermore, instead of only presenting policies to educators, there should be clear examples as to what they are and how we are expected to follow them in real-world situations.

Why is this information important to me and my profession…

        This information is important to me as an educator because is it ever so relevant to me especially when it comes to professional development. It seems that teachers talk about this topic often, as far as what professional developments we would like to have and skills we need to acquire or brush up on. I think there has to be better communication between teachers and administrators and district offices as to the areas of need teachers have. They must hear teachers out as they express their needs and why they feel other professional developments are not being effective and what they can do to make them more efficient for teachers. I feel that along with this issue, comes more issues about materials and resources teachers need for their students. I think this falls under educators expressing their needs for the betterment of their student's education because at the end of the day we want to fulfill our needs to be better educators and have better resources in order to provide the best education possible for our students.

What I need to learn more about…

    
        I would like to learn more about a variety of policies, especially those that are in place to help students such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. I feel that it would be beneficial to become familiar with different policies so that I could be more competent in those specific areas. I feel that perhaps at times I am so preoccupied with a vast array of other teacher duties, that I would like to dedicate some time to learn more about them. I think this will help me become a more effective educator when having to implement policies with or for my students.

Future Reference

For future reference, I would access the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. Office of Educational Technology Plan update from 2017. It has resourceful information about educational technology. It has many topics they focus on such as Teaching With Technology, Creating a Culture and Conditions for Innovation and Change, and Enabling Access and Effective Use, among others.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. Office of Educational Technology. (January 2017). Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education. 2017 National Education

            Technology Plan Update. https://tech.ed.gov/files/2017/01/NETP17.pdf

References

Hanover Research. June 2014. Professional Development for Technology Integration. Improves professional Development so that Instructors, Administrators, and Agency Staff are up to date on Educational Technologies and can Maximize their Benefits to Students. https://app.luminpdf.com/viewer/6339a597c69d511908b9b0ce

Rebora, Anthony. (2011, June). Professional Development. from Education Week. Retrieved October 1, 2022. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/professional-development/2004/09

Southern Regional Education Board. February 2013.  10 Issues in Educational Technology. https://app.luminpdf.com/viewer/6339a58ec69d511908b9af43

Southern Regional Education Board. March 2017.  Expanding Accessibility to Digital Spaces Through Improved Policy and Practice. https://app.luminpdf.com/viewer/6339a591c69d511908b9af9f

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. (Janurary 2017). Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education. 2017 National Education Technology Plan Update. https://tech.ed.gov/files/2017/01/NETP17.pdf