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Establish a Continuous Professional Learning Culture

Joe W. Altmiller

College of Education, Grand Canyon University

EAD-513-O500: Shaping School Culture

Dr. Peter Koza

June 22, 2022

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Establish a Continuous Professional Learning Culture

Professional Learning Topics

An initial survey is requested of all staff. Teaching strengths and weaknesses would be

asked along with a request for areas staff would feel relevant for professional development.

Disaggregated data would be reviewed for any areas that might suggest professional

development would be relevant. The Head of School would also be consulted for any immediate

needs or direction that should be suggested from the teachers' classroom evaluations. The

surveys, disaggregated data, and recommendations from administration would be shared with the

Education and Technology Committee so that a collaborative direction and goals could be

decided upon. Research would be done on the variety of development opportunities that would

meet the goals of the Education and Technology Committee.

Professional Learning Shared

Professional development would be presented as part of the back-to-school learning at the

start of the school year. The entire staff would take part in a large cooperative learning activity.

Staff would be invited to sit as grade level teams to encourage the collaboration that already

exists at Eugene Christian School (ECS). This would again be a follow-up on the development of

those teams as part of previous years' professional development on professional learning

community, which have been given the name grade level teams at ECS. Follow-up opportunities

are provided through scheduled professional development days, monthly staff meetings, and bi-

monthly teaching and learning grade level team meetings.

Implementation into Professional Practice

As part of the professional development, the staff would be instructed with a clear plan of

expectations on the implementation in the classroom. During the professional development

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training, opportunities to practice would be provided, along with added times for sharing

strategies on how staff feel they can quickly implement the skill into the classroom. Intentionally

following up with staff, inquiring on how the implementation is going, or how it is not going,

and inquiring how I could be of help. With guidance and support from grade level teams and

administration the strategies would be successfully implemented within every classroom.

Providing Reflective Feedback

When initial professional development sessions have been completed, an immediate

opportunity for the staff to reflect on the implementation of this training will be recorded through

a brief survey. As the year progresses, opportunities for staff to share about success and failures

for themselves and shout outs during staff meetings concerning positive observations of others.

Coffee cards and other gifts card could be used as incentives for these shout outs.

Administrations observations of exemplary implementation of the learned strategies could be

invited to share their success and help troubleshoot for others throughout the year. Intentional

short recaps of successes and failures during the twice a month teaching and learning grade level

team meetings will be a vital part of collaboration. Consistency would need to be the mainstay

for yearlong success to occur. Continuation and follow-up training would need to occur as the

cycle restarts in the new year.

Rationale

Effective school restructuring requires teacher motivation and action to transform

knowledge about change into reality (Hoyd, 1997). Making changes at Eugene Christian School

we must remember that we must motivate the staff into action. In contrast, in a shared leadership

school—often called a professional learning community—all adults continually learn together so

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that every student achieves at the highest levels (Wilhelm, 2013). Make sure to communicate the

continual learning cycle and the training staff took part in selecting.

The decision made to move forward with professional development in the manner listed

flows from my belief in continuous learning and collaboration. For so long the staff at Eugene

Christian School were placed on islands without any teammates or learning communities.

Growth has happened within the school and with that growth more teachers and grade level

teams and communities have formed. Collaboration is part of that community which enhances all

adult learning opportunities. Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern,

a set of problems, or passion about a topic and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this

area by interacting on an ongoing basis (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). Technology

integrated into the leaning opportunities supplies an edge for the collaboration to take part.

Leaders who embrace a digital style of learning understand that such an investment is necessary

to create the types of schools needed to prepare students for a digital world (Scheninger, 2014).

The collaboration process is key to the success of the students at ECS, as the grade level teams

successfully navigate new opportunities and leadership every student social, emotional, and

academic success will be a reality. Shared leadership is a powerful path to school improvement

because it generates ownership of schoolwide student outcomes (Wilhelm, 2013).

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References

Hoyd, S. M. (1997). Professional leaning communities: communities of continuous inquiry and

improvement. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED410659

Scheninger, E. (2014). Connectedness: The new standard. Principal Leadership, 14(7), 46-52.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R. A., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A

Guide to Managing Knowledge. Harvard Business Review Press.

Wilhelm, T. (2013). How principals cultivate shared leadership. Educational Leadership, 71(2),

62-66.