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Effective
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In-service teacher training is a popular approach to staff development, but it might not always be the most effective way to nurture professional growth, contends Angela B. Peery, Ed.D., of the South Carolina Department of Education. Peery claims that those sessions tend not to address teachers' specific needs and often are disconnected from actual practice. Peery recommends practical strategies for school-based professional development. Included: Peery thoughts on building teacher buy-in, and on using video, journals, study groups, and other effective professional development strategies.

Angela Peery Angela Peery is a teacher specialist for the South Carolina Department of Education. She is currently working on-site at Whale Branch Middle School in Beaufort County. Peery has been a high school English teacher, district- and school-level curriculum coordinator, and most recently, a high school assistant principal. Her book, Deep Change: Professional Development From the Inside Out, was released in 2004.

Education World: You've been critical of teacher in-service training, noting that it often is unsuccessful because the facilitator is not familiar with the teachers' needs, the sessions are too generic, and the workshops are not connected to real classroom application. Why do schools continue to offer that type of professional development? What is needed if schools are to change their approach?

Peery: One reason schools continue to offer such in-services is because they seem cost-effective. The rationale is to get everyone in the same room and offer the same learning… and expect everyone to implement it correctly without sustained, in-depth follow-up. This is faulty reasoning. True change -- lasting change -- comes about slowly. We see this with our students. We have to teach and re-teach. We put the same learning out there in a hundred different ways, we allow them to manipulate it, and we allow them to inquire. It's time to do the same with adults. Staff developers must honor the knowledge teachers bring to the table, create a hospitable environment, and allow teachers to work with real problems based on their classroom experience.

EW: How does a principal ensure teacher buy-in of professional development?

Peery: A principal must get to know the teachers as people and educators. You have to talk to them and really listen in order to know them well. Principals can engage teachers in true dialogue through faculty leadership and input committees. Principals must also go into classrooms; an astute administrator learns a great deal in five-minute "drop-ins" over a period of time.

When a principal is well-versed in what is actually going on in classrooms and has a good grasp of what the teachers know, don't know, and accomplish on a daily basis, then professional development will better meet teachers' needs and interests.

EW: You caution against whole-faculty staff development. Is there ever a place for whole-staff training?

Peery: Of course. There is a place for whole-faculty in-service, especially if the topic has "bubbled up" from the teachers. And, there are always district and state mandates that require such types of training. As an administrator, it would be my job to plan ways to support my staff, so I would feel free to require teachers to attend training on large-scale initiatives. Administrators, however, should make sure such training is responsive to teachers' specific needs, interests, and practices.

EW: Whole-faculty meetings are usually held just once a month; a good chunk of those meetings can end up being devoted to housekeeping duties. How can a principal ensure that every meeting offers some form of professional growth and/or development?

Peery: Most housekeeping issues can be handled through e-mails or memos. Housekeeping-type sessions can be run separately from regular faculty meetings. I read about a principal who holds two such meetings -- one before and the other after the school day; teachers choose which to attend. I recommend breaking up long meetings with short presentations. Or, meetings can highlight a department or one grade level each month. What is most important is focusing on student learning. That should be a good portion of every meeting.

EW: Have you experienced a faculty meeting in which learning was the focal point?

Peery: At Socastee High School in Horry County, South Carolina, we had a segment at faculty meetings called "Teachers Helping Teachers." In brief presentations, three to six teachers shared strategies, assignments, or tips. Sometimes, a software program was highlighted or student work was shared. We learned how we could adapt strategies across grade levels and subject areas.

EW: How can principals ensure that their staff meetings and professional development sessions will be valuable for all -- that they will combine staff development as well as self-development?

Peery: Setting a self-development framework at the start of meetings is key. Icebreakers and other social or "inclusion" activities are good to have at the beginning of meetings. People instantly feel more comfortable. Journal writing is another great opening activity. Pose a question or allow people to write away the stresses of the day until all arrive and the official business starts. In a school where I served as a consultant, our monthly staff development sessions began with 10-15 minutes of journal writing. I posed a question related to the day's content, and volunteers shared their entries to begin our dialogue. In this way, self-knowledge and teaching knowledge blended.

EW: You say the best professional development blends "inside and outside knowledge." Would you elaborate?

Peery: Inside knowledge comes from the heart of the teacher. It's what he or she has personally experienced in the classroom -- what works and what doesn't work. On the other hand, outside knowledge comes from the head of the teacher -- it's the more intellectual stuff. It comes from professional reading, from the knowledge of colleagues, from graduate work, conferences, and institutes. In order to be the most effective teacher you can be, you must blend what you know in your heart with what you know in your head. You must reconcile theory with practice and vice versa. Therefore, it's important for staff developers to blend the theoretical and practical while they are working with teachers.

"…we had a segment at faculty meetings called 'Teachers Helping Teachers.' In brief presentations, three to six teachers shared strategies, assignments, or tips. Sometimes, a software program was highlighted or student work was shared. We learned how we could adapt strategies across grade levels and subject areas." -- Angela Peery

EW: Video is often used as a professional development tool. Have you seen a particularly effective use of video? How would you recommend this type of approach be used?

Peery: One effective use of video was in Horry County, South Carolina, where the district's language arts leaders videotaped effective teachers in practice. As a consultant and graduate school instructor, I used those tapes with different audiences to show classroom footage of silent sustained reading, effective student-led class discussions, and so on. The videos made the methods come alive. Teachers can videotape themselves and videos are effective in coaching situations.

EW: You recommend teacher journals as a form of teachers' professional development. Do you see those journals as formalized professional development? Do the principals read them? Or are they strictly personal?

Peery: I see journals as a reflective tool for individual personal and professional growth. Once writing has another audience, it becomes totally different. I would not want a supervisor reading my journal for fear that he or she would use it as a supervisory tool rather than as a way to support my practice. In my journal, I plan lessons, write about what went wrong in the classroom, and just plain vent frustrations. I learn more about what I think as I write. I really wouldn't want someone evaluating my "rough-draft" thinking, although if I'm invited to share in a comfortable environment, I may choose to do so.

EW: Are study groups an effective professional development strategy?

Peery: Study groups are very beneficial. I've worked with several different situations that loosely could be termed "study groups." One was the gathering of the faculty of a small private school to study the Robert J. Marzano book, Classroom Instruction That Works. Though the book brought us together, our monthly meetings were productive in other ways. For example, we talked about how we had applied the strategies discussed in the book, and we also debated their effectiveness. Younger teachers learned from older teachers. We shared instructional successes and failures. Our study was fluid. I think that is important; the more open and flexible, the better.

EW: What was the most memorable in-service session you ever attended?

Peery: That would have to be the 1993 National Writing Project (NWP). The NWP programs blend inside and outside knowledge, encouraging teachers to share their best practices with colleagues. And the work is sustained over time. Once you complete the NWP summer institute, you become part of a network of colleagues. It's the best model I know of a true professional learning community for teachers.

Article by Michele Israel
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