Standards For Professional Learning Planning

Learning Designs

Learning designs help instructors focus on roles. The role of the learning design could be for individualized classroom instructional or system-wide purposes. Learning designs can be patterned toward student learning or teaching/instructional practices. There are also possibilities for both academic and extra-academic roles within a learning design. An example of this could be that the school is having some sort of system-wide issue with student behavior/non-compliance. In my particular district, there was an issue with students using the bathroom as a meeting place during the day; coordinating a time for a handful of students to meet up for a “social hour”.

This became an opportunity for students to misbehave, fight, vandalize, and other unsavory activities. When the administration became wise to this pattern, new policies were put in place regarding student bathroom privileges. These new policies were adopted by all instructional/support staff and thus far there seems to have been a drop in bathroom delinquency.

Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction

Depending on where the school department employee stands in the hierarchy of the school community, there are varying degrees to which curriculum planning, assessment and instruction may factor into each individual job. A teaching assistant may be following the instructional process of a teacher who has met with their team of other teachers to assemble a curriculum. This curriculum may need to abide by a set of “standards” put in place by a committee at the state level. Wherever an individual lies in the chain of command, it is important that instruction be focused to the individual student but also congruent with “big picture” standards and curriculum. “Educators have the responsibility to understand

a school or system’s curriculum to align classroom teaching to that framework for student learning.” (Roy 2020)

Evidence

Evidence is an important aspect of being an educator. Evidentiary material is crucial in both pre and post planning stages. Students’ results are important to collect because it often shows the effectiveness of the instruction. It can also be important in guiding an instructor towards what may have been previously effective when preparing an instructional unit. Speaking on the subject of evidence, McGill and Reinking note in the 53rd ACM Symposium on Technical Science Education: “The process allowed educators to reflect on their understanding of their particular problems of practice, while also collaboratively with expert researchers in the field to interpret previously published research results.” (McGill 2022) Essentially, evidence helps the teacher to know what worked in the past and what needs to be improved upon in order to work in the future.

Reaching Each Student

A modern teacher’s effectiveness can be determined, in part, by how they are able to provide differentiated instruction to their students. “Educators also address their capacity to recognize and serve students with a range of abilities, often working in partnership with specialized staff to adapt all aspects of teaching to create learning that is both rigorous and accessible.” (Roy 2020) In this instance, a teacher’s academic value to the student is mirrored by their social value. Beyond learning content, students need to learn to feel valued.

Culture of Collaborative Inquiry

When education has checks and balances, the end result for the students is often the most consistent, student to student. In a 2016 article Saul Rubenstein notes that “quality improvement in an educational environment is based on improving curriculum and instructional practice… to improve learning. This all requires input, cooperation, and coordination—in essence, a highly collaborative organization.” (Rubenstein 2016) It is important for educators to understand that through collaboration with their peers that they work through their curriculum in such a way that they work on what they can control without placing too much emphasis on the students or on their environment; things they cannot exactly control.

Leadership

Leadership is a skill that can be practiced and learned as much as it can be an intrinsic skill. Roy notes that a crucial part of leadership is consistency. He specifically notes that “coherence among initiatives” (Roy 2016) is particularly crucial. Consistency helps others feel comfortable and allows them to approach their own jobs in ways that help them plan for their students ahead of time. When the plan changes unexpectedly, it takes time to rework plans and reteach or refocus the students.

Outcomes

It is necessary for teachers to be able to show the effectiveness of their teaching. There is a difference between evidence and outcomes. Student data can often show a zero correlation. This is tough for a teacher because it really means that the instruction is successful in certain situations because of the student. If the student works hard and they achieve regardless of the instructor's efforts it serves to negate the instructors data

Resources

Roy, P. (2020, December 5). Revised standards for professional learning. Learning Forward. https://learningforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/standards-dec5-draft.pdf

McGill, Monica M.; Reinking, Anni. In: Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1. :516-522, 2022

Rubenstein, S. A. & McCarthy , J. E. (2016) Union Management Partnerships, Teacher Collaboration and Student Performance. ILR Review. Oct2016, Vol. 69 Issue 5, p1114-1132.

Union–Management Partnerships, Teacher Collaboration, and Student Performance.