Job-embedded Professional Development: Teachers Learning by Doing and Connecting with Each Other

The classroom is a learning laboratory—not just for students but also for teachers. Human beings are complex. Individuals think and learn in diverse ways. There is no “one size fits all” model of learning and teaching. Classroom teachers must constantly adapt their teaching methods to meet students where they are. This involves a cyclical process where teachers utilize a teaching strategy, assess its impact on student learning, reflect on what changes may be needed to achieve desired student outcomes, adjust accordingly, and try again. Teaching is not static. It is constantly evolving. For this reason, job-embedded professional development is a critical resource that is linked to student success. When teachers are effective in using strategies that promote learning and engagement in their classrooms, students do better. Stephanie Dodman, Assistant Dean for Academic Excellence and associate professor in the Advanced Studies in Teaching and Learning program within the College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University, recently provided an overview of job-embedded professional development for teachers.

“Traditional” vs. Job-embedded Professional Development for Teachers

In some instances, professional development consists of employees attending a workshop where they listen to a presentation on a topic that may be only minimally related to their day-to-day job responsibilities, if at all. In this scenario, participants often feel they have gained little to no benefit from attending. It is simply looked upon as a “one and done” obligatory task to satisfy a job requirement.

For teachers, the content addressed in “traditional” professional development can sometimes feel abstract and far removed from the real-life issues and challenges that can arise at any given time in the classroom. To be effective, professional development for teachers must be content focused, ongoing, sustained, collaborative, and specific to the issues they may experience with their students at a particular moment in time. Job-embedded professional development for teachers meets these criteria. It consists of those learning activities that teachers engage in within their daily classroom life while working with their students. Job-embedded professional development is driven by assessment data that measures how well students understand the content being taught.

A professional learning community is a key element of effective job-embedded professional development.

A key component of an effective job-embedded professional development program for teachers is access to a professional learning community consisting of peer-to-peer teaching and collaboration. A professional learning community can include teachers, mentors, school leaders, and instructional coaches who understand the daily challenges and obstacles often encountered by teachers in the classroom. A professional learning community can offer support and provide recommendations to a struggling teacher who may benefit from learning about evidence-based practices that could more effectively respond to the specific issue at hand. A teacher’s colleagues within a professional learning community can model new techniques that teachers can try in the classroom. These might help the teacher gain a better understanding of how students think and how they learn. A community of this type provides a space for ongoing collaboration and adult learning where teachers feel supported in implementing various approaches with their students to determine which one works best.

Job-embedded professional development should be part of a teacher’s normal workday.

Professional development that helps educators improve their skills in the classroom should be incorporated into the teacher’s regular workday. It should not be held outside of the school or during off hours when students are not present. Integrating job-embedded professional development into a regular school day aligns with the long-held “learning-by-doing" principle of education which emphasizes an active “hands-on” approach to learning by performing a task—and for educators that task is teaching.

Job-embedded professional development structured in this fashion gives educators the opportunity to collaborate with their colleagues either immediately before or after a class on instructional methods that might be more effective in addressing a particular problem they are having. Feedback and suggestions given near the time class is conducted will have a greater impact because it will be fresh in the teacher's mind.

With the permission of the teacher, a colleague, mentor, or instructional coach could even observe the class in person and later reflect with the teacher to offer a constructive assessment of the teacher. Inherent in the collaborative nature of job-embedded professional development is the concept of teachers learning from one another, taking that learning into the classroom, applying it while working directly with students, reflecting on the results as measured by student subject matter proficiency, and modifying teaching methods, as necessary.

Teachers’ use of data can help identify areas to modify instructional practices to better meet the strengths and needs of their students.

Data collection and analysis is also a critical component of job-embedded professional development. Teachers collect data consistently throughout their teaching. Using those data reflectively to understand students’ learning and their own teaching is a key part of job-embedded professional development. Data come from many sources and teachers might collaborate as part of a team by meeting and working together to analyze academic, behavioral, or social emotional assessment data, consistently reflecting on how their teaching influenced the data. Data are a powerful tool that when harnessed well can identify areas for strengthening both students’ classroom learning progress and whole school opportunities for equity.

To learn more about the Advanced Studies in Teaching and Learning program in the School of Education at George Mason University, please visit the program website.