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Effective Professional Development Paper

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3. Effective Professional Development
Professional development has been described as “ongoing learning opportunities available to teachers and other education personnel through their schools and districts.” (Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, 2011) It is a concept that is very common in the field of education. Some educators participate in it for continuing education requirements, some because it is mandated my administration, and others on a voluntarily basis to enhance their instruction and keep abreast of new best practices. Whatever reason educators have for engaging in professional development opportunities, it is a necessary part of any efforts to improve or reform a school. The CT State Education Resource Center (SERC) …show more content…

It provides insight into their areas of expertise and elements that can be improved as it relates to student achievement. In addition, it is a tool administration can utilize to target deficient areas where he/she can offer support through staff development, peer coaching, professional development workshops, etc. and areas of strengths they can capitalize to empower others. Marzano expresses, “teacher evaluations should balance two overlapping purposes: measuring teachers’ effectiveness and developing their craft” (2012). He felt the goal of an evaluation should be to “accurately and objectively gauge teacher expertise as observed during individual lessons (i.e., measure). Beyond that ….help teachers progress during the course of their careers, from enthusiastic-if experienced-classroom neophytes straight out of college to accomplished professionals, step-by-step, year-by-year” (i.e., develop) (Marzano, 2012). With this in mind, he and a team of experts, developed a model that would accomplish these objectives. He and his colleagues created a model they call the Marzano Teacher Evaluation Model. This four domain instrument evaluates Classroom Strategies and Behaviors (Domain 1), Planning and Preparing (Domain 2), Reflecting on Teaching (Domain 3), and Collegiality and Professionalism (Domain 4). Each domain is comprised of elements that paints a picture of a teacher’s …show more content…

Administrators could also work with their staff to create their own evaluation tool using ideals from the instruments above that specifically fits their school and goals. Other informal evaluative methods could also be incorporated to provide a more comprehensive, diverse, and balanced view of a professional; for instance, teacher portfolios/artifacts, teacher interviews, student surveys, parent surveys, teacher self-assessments, etc. Research has proven that there is value in using a variety of measures when evaluating teachers. Linda Darling-Hammonds shares, “To create systems that measure and encourage teacher effectiveness, it is important to use multiple measures of practice, performance, and outcomes so that a more complete picture of practice emerges, so that assessments are fair and produce the right incentives, and so that educators are encouraged to improve what they do instead of trying to game an unfair system.” (NEA, 2011) The NEA (2011) stated, “The Association recognizes that no system will be perfect and that no measurement will be exact in all circumstances and for all teachers. But NEA believes that a system that provides a plenty of information about a teacher will be more useful than one that does not-both is supporting teachers in improving their practice and

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