Professional Learning vs. Professional Development
Reflecting after reading "Categorising teachers’ use of social media for their professional learning: A self-generating professional learning paradigm".
I had a lot of "a-ha" moments while reading this article. Especially when I thought about all of the required Professional Development (PD) I participate in as an educator. It's A LOT. And sometimes it is not optional, even though you may have already participated in a PD that was similar. Since COVID, most of our PD has been online, unless the school site decides to do their own PD instead of a faculty meeting or something.
These online PDs are usually NOT engaging and there is very little interaction among the participants. Typically they go like this:
1. Zoom - log in and listen as the PD leader speaks and presents his or her screen. Periodically, they ask a question that you can answer in the chat, or in some cases, just unmute your self and speak up. You can guess that a lot of people in this PD do not participate actively, no matter how hard the PD leader tries to generate discussion.
2. Self Paced - Using something like Canvas to deliver a PD. The person who created the PD will include some videos and articles to read and you make your way through the modules, but there is no interaction between participants and you "show what you know" at the end of the module by completing a quiz. When it is all said and done, you get your certification points and move along.
What I found interesting about the article is the amount of time spent, as educators, engaging in professional LEARNING as opposed to professional DEVELOPMENT. This is learning that is self-directed, on our own time, and is usually centered around something we have interest in. No one is telling the teachers to do this, BUT, if you are interested in providing a meaningful learning experience for your students, you are constantly on the lookout for what is new and exciting and THAT is typically not in the PD setting, unfortunately. It has been my experience that PDs are a "day late and a dollar short". They come after we have most likely figured out the new process/tool/etc.
While professional learning is something we do constantly as part of our professional pedagogy, we are not given credit for it. It will not help us maintain the points needed for our teaching certification. Another example of the the work that educators do that many outside of the education realm do not understand. But we will continue to participate in professional learning, because it is beneficial to our students and us.
P Prestridge. (2019). Categorising teachers’ use of social media for their professional learning: A self-generating professional learning paradigm. Computers and Education, 129, 143–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.11.003
We must attend the same PD sessions :)
ReplyDeleteHaha! They are all the same in their own way, yeah? lol
DeleteHi, I echo the point that you raised about the dilemma between professional learning and development. Similarly to you, I often do not find corporate professional development programs very engaging and at times struggle through them. That being said, I understand the necessity of them but hope that more time and resources can be transferred to the learners to own their professional learning instead.
ReplyDeleteThat's the hope/wish! I haver had the opportunity several times to present to my colleagues and I always try to keep them engaged and make sure they have good time while presenting them with material. :-)
ReplyDeletehaha I had a lot of the same Aha! moments myself this week. I really think districts need to step up their game and create a system where teachers are pursuing their professional interests AND have it count toward their professional learning. Like in Texas, you have to have a certain amount of PD hours collected in order to renew your teaching license, but only hours that are completed as part of district professional development are counted. It's really a missed opportunity for self-directed learning.
ReplyDelete