PORTFOLIOS FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

I spent Thanksgiving in Madrid, Spain at the European Council of International Schools (ECIS) Conference. My two day pre–conference on mentoring and coaching was attended by international educators from around the world. They had various positions from headmaster and principals to department chair, lead teacher, and mentor or coach.

One group of participants were mentors for ECIS’s International Teaching Certificate (ITC) program. This program, designed with the University of Cambridge International Examinations, was designed to enable candidates to develop and demonstrate:
-Competence in teaching international students
-Commitment to continuing professional development reflective practice on personal performance

Those of you looking to design an alternative to teacher evaluation might find some ideas in the ITC format.

This year-plus program has candidates working with a mentor and completing a portfolio around five standard areas:

1. Education in an international context: The teachers design and run an extra-curricular activity, project, or event connecting with the host country's culture.

2. Teaching competencies for the international educator: Teachers plan, teach, and assess a short classroom based learning program with his/her students.

3. Teaching students for whom English is an additional language: The teachers design and conduct a workshop on the EAL learner.

4. Student transition and mobility in international schools: Teachers complete two case studies examining the experiences of two students in transition.

5. Reflective Practice Continuing Professional Development: Teachers complete, undertake, and reflect upon a personal professional development plan.

Portfolios are submitted for evaluation and necessary refinement leading to rewarding of the certificate. Several schools have begun professional development activities to assist teachers in preparing for the ITC.
I was intrigued by the variety of the portfolio activities to assess the key components.

SCHOOL BASED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

I am currently working with two state departments of education and one county wide school district that are focused on designing and implementing building based professional development plans. In each case we are using a backwards design approach starting with desired student achievement.

After identifying specific student achievement goals, designers focus on what students would need to do in order to get the student achievement being sought. This is new to most of the teams with whom I’ve worked. This “what do we need students to do” is the best starting point for designers to consider what teachers need to do. I am suggesting that when teachers are focused on “what students need to do” to reach the achievement goal, they are set to plan instruction. Too often teachers are only focused on the achievement outcome not the precursor student work process.

Having identified the needed teacher behaviors, designers can now plan professional development trainings, peer coaching activities, collaborative staff conversations and professional learning community agendas that would support the desired teacher performance. School leaders are now in a position to determine how their work supports the entire process.

Here is a questioning sequence I recently use to facilitate the above process.

-What is the student achievement goal(s) driving your professional development effort?

-What changes in student experiences/behaviors are precursors to those achievement goals?

-What teacher changes are needed to create the desired student behaviors?

-What will initiate and support those teacher changes? Professional Development/ Coaching/PLC activities/ Leadership

-What resources from Central Office Professional Development would support your efforts?

WHAT SKILLS DO EMPLOYEES NEED?

A recent advertisement in Training Magazine connected with an observation I made while facilitating a two day administrators conference for an urban school district. The ad was titled “When Technical Skills Aren’t Enough:6 Critical Skills Your Employees Need Today.”
ESI International states, “Current business realities such as outsourcing, mergers, and the need to align technology with business goals are placing additional demands on today’s technology workers—and on the training departments responsible for developing their skills.” ESI suggest six skill sets are critical:
1. Business Acumen
2. Communication and Interpersonal Skills
3. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
4. Coaching and Mentoring
5. Managing Change
6. Financial Acumen

In other words, technical skills were insufficient for success. If I replaced the word business and finance in ECI’s list with the words curriculum and assessment, the list of skills will fit for educators as well.

On the second day of the administrators’ conference I was facilitating table group conversations (5-8 administrators) with about 100 in attendance. I had asked that participants individually to answer the following question and then share responses.

“What three changes in teacher behavior would have the greatest positive impact on student achievement?”

As I walked around and watched individuals record their thoughts, I noticed that many had written "raised expectations for students". I interrupted the group and commented that raised expectations wasn’t a behavior… more an attitude or belief. If teachers had higher expectations, how would they behave?

The list they generated contained statements like:

-Build relationships with students
-Know students better
-Encourage and Motivate Learners
-Make Learning Relevant

I then asked the group how much professional development and staff meeting time had recently been dedicated to these behaviors.

Is there a gap between skills teachers need and the focus of professional development? Do principals’ observations of teachers’ needs match district level staff development activities? Are principals dedicating faculty meeting time to the issues identified in observations? Are there “soft skills” that are being overlooked in favor of “technical skills” for teachers?

PLS is currently assisting a school district in designing and implementing an instructional coaching program. Our first set of meetings and trainings are bringing coaches and administrators together to reach consensus around what is NOW observable in teaching and learning and what is the desired outcome or change in teaching and learning that they want their coaching to produce. This agreement is critical to focusing the coaches’ work.

Are teacher communication and relationship skills receiving sufficient focus in your professional development program?