Okay. Welcome everyone I think we're going to go ahead and get started I, think. We'll probably have a few people joining us still. But we want. To respect your time so. Good morning to those of you joining us from across the Pacific region and good afternoon to those of you joining us from the mainland us in Hawaii thanks. So much for being with us for today's rel Pacific webinar contextualizing. Professional, learning for an improved teacher effectiveness. My. Name is Kirsten Miller. I'm. A communications. Manager, at rel Pacific, and I'll be your facilitator today, I'm, joined by my colleague Judy Connelly who will be our technical, facilitator. Today so if you have any issues with your audio or if, you have any questions, about Adobe Connect functionality. Please feel free to send Judy a note in the chat box tear right off. To resolve those we. Do also. Have all of your phone's muted sometimes people. Will sneak through and the technology, doesn't quite work right so we're going to ask you to go ahead and mute, your phones or microphones, on your end as well to avoid any echoes, as. I've also learned to say at webinars. Technology. Doesn't always cooperate with us the way we want it to so, in, the unlikely event that you do get completely, disconnected, please just dial back in using the instructions, that I sent to you via email earlier, and. We should be able to get you back up and running so. We don't anticipate that but we do like to expect. The unexpected when, we're relying on the Internet to present this information to you we. Are recording, today's, webinar for, future reference and for. You to share with your colleagues or if you have a conflict that requires you to jump off line earlier today and, you can use that chat box to your right also to. Ask questions or to you, know share comments, throughout the webinar we absolutely, encourage, you to do so we, did receive some comments. During the registration process and some questions, during, that registration. Process that we'll get to at, the end of the webinar today but. Please do um you, know any share any thoughts that you'd like to in that chat box we'd like this to be as interactive and. Experienced as possible. We're. Going to try to hold those questions for breaks from the presentation, but we will do our best to get to all of them during our time together today and we're also happy to take follow-up questions and continue the conversation later, over email. We're. Also thrilled to be joined today by our presenter, dr. Alex, Gallagher, who is the associate, director for the Center for Education, Policy at Fri International, I'll. Introduce dr., Gallagher in more detail before I hand the presentation over, to her but first we'd like to know a little bit more about, you so, I'm going to ask Judy to pull up a quick poll to get a sense of who we have joining us today, so, you'll see we're asking you to choose the role that corresponds, most closely to what you do and. There's an other box where. You can fill in additional. Detail if you choose the other option. It's. Going to give that a moment to come up. And. We do this because we like to know at the start of the webinar, sort. Of the composition, of our audience so that we can adjust our content, as appropriate. And as as. Available. As we can throughout, the presentation, so, it looks like we have we, have some le a or, se a staff we have. We. Have some researchers, and. Some University, University. Faculty, so I think we can pull that down and get back to our presentation. Bear. With me for just a second as we get this back up and running.
Next. I'd like to tell you a little bit about rel Pacific, and the work that we're engaged in and specifically, give you a little bit of grounding, in some. Of the work that we're doing in, the, area of teacher professional. Learning. It looks like my slides are advancing. Ahead. Of how I'd like them to I, hope that's not one of those technical, glitches so. Let's see it. Does look like we're having an issue with my slides advancing. So. I'm just going to continue, talking here while hopefully Judy can again. So let's. Let's. Stop here, I think. What happened, is when we switched from the poll it makes, the, slides advance. So. I'm going to stop sharing here. Bear. With us for just a moment everyone, until we get that pulled back up and, we're. Going to try another PowerPoint. And. Maybe. Kearson you can start, from. I'm. Forwarding it we're are so. Let's see here so let's see hopefully this will stay where we want it to while I tell you a little bit about rel Pacific. Again. I wanted to give you a little bit of grounding thank you Judy for for, helping gas back on track on that. Again. I'd like to give you a little bit of grounding in some of the area that were some, of the work that we're doing in the area of teacher, professional, learning and a little bit more, information about the work that we do at rel Pacific, in general so, real Pacific at McCrone International. Is one of ten regional educational, laboratories. Funded by the Institute, of Education Sciences, or IES at. The US Department, of Education our current. Contract cycle runs from 2017. To just the very beginning of 2022, and we, serve seven state and nation level jurisdictions, those. Are American Samoa, the Commonwealth, of, the Northern Mariana Islands. The Federated States, of Micronesia which includes Chuuk Kosrae Pohnpei, and, Yap and, then also Guam the state of Hawaii the Republic, of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. So. As you can see from the map that I'm pulling up here or a region is geographically, very best it. Spans an area that's larger than that of the entire continental, United States and, it's also linguistically. And culturally very, diverse which we'll touch on a little bit more in just a few minutes. Our. Work focuses on four, priority areas college, and career readiness and success, early childhood education, and school readiness teacher. Professional, learning which, is what we'll be talking about today and issues. In specific, cultural education, which really kind of undergirds, all of the work that we do. Before. I tell you a bit about rel, Pacific current work and teacher professional, learning I want to stress that for those of you who are joining us from outside the Pacific region this. Information, is really applicable to a wide variety of contexts, and as I mentioned we do work within a geographically, linguistically, and culturally diverse region, as many of you do also so, you're likely to see connections to your own unique context, and to your own work whether you want to learn more about pre-service. Or in-service, professional learning. Or, if you're just more generally, interested, in the character, of high-quality professional. Learning for teachers. So. Our work is structured around researcher. Practice practitioner. Alliances, and partnerships, and. We initially, began our, work around teacher professional, learning in the Republic of Palau under the last rail contract, cycle, during. This current contract, cycle we currently have two professional learning partnerships, in place the FSM, partnership, for the improvement, of teaching and, the Palau. Partnership, for the improvement, of teaching so. These partnerships, focus, on developing. A clear model of effective instruction, improved. Professional, learning opportunities for in-service, teachers, improved. Teacher preparation and, developing. An aligned incredible. System of teacher evaluation. From pre-service, through in-service. So. Specifically, the. FSM. Partnership, for the improvement, of teaching is focused on developing, a clear model of effective instruction and, improved. Professional, learning opportunities for in-service teachers, and also, on developing, pre-service, teacher preparation that's, really better aligned, for developing, new teachers with the content knowledge, attitude. And skills that are required to be effective. Teachers in the FSM, and that, is that, is specific, to the context, into the jurisdiction, we, do again.
We Do focus as you saw in that priority, area on issues. In, pacific education specifically, so what enough what an effective teacher might look like in the SSI might differ slightly from what, an effective teacher looks like in Palau because of those Geographic and cultural differences. The. Palau partnership, for the improvement of teaching is. Focused, on improving instruction, through advanced teacher preparation and professional development. And their goals include. Developing. An aligned credible, system, of teacher evaluation. That helps teachers improve and that connects to the preparation of pre-service teachers at Palau Community, College. Then. We have two parts to our agenda today part. One is an overview of the current professional, development, in the Pacific, region and. I'll be giving you some context, around teacher professional, development and. Certification. In the region. The. Second part of the agenda is, where, dr. Alex Gallagher will present on the characteristics, of high quality professional, learning which as, you can see includes, alignment, with school goals. State. And district standards and assessments, and other professional, learning activities, it. Includes a focus on core content, and the modeling of teaching strategies for the content, the. Inclusion of opportunities, for the, learning of new strategies and also opportunities to, collaborate, and. For embedded follow-up and continuous, feedback. Ok. So what, does teacher preparation and, professional, development. And learning look like in the Pacific, region. So. First many teachers in the territories, and freely associated, States graduate. From local community colleges with associate, degrees but. In recent years have, we moved we've, all moved toward the notion of teachers being highly qualified as, described initially in NCLB, there's. Been some movement toward, having all teachers in the region earning bachelor's degrees and in some jurisdictions that can be a bit more challenging than in others as. I mentioned before the. Pacific region is really unique in a number of ways and one of the ways in which it's unique is that many areas are quite geographically. Isolated so. Access, to on-site four-year, programs, it. Can be a challenge, in, the Federated States of Micronesia for example there are no bachelor degree programs for. Secondary, education and. While, there is arrived in online and cohort programs through colleges and universities, such as the University of, Hawaii at Manoa, San. Diego State University, and the University of Guam among, others that. Can sometimes also be challenging, due to internet. Connectivity speed, and access issues, in some areas. And. In addition, the, jurisdiction, is very often well. Import, for lack of a better word teachers from other countries, such as the Philippines and. Recruit. From, organizations, like the Peace Corps and world teach and of.
Course That means that there's this onboarding, process, where teachers need to not. Only a climatic. Ultra. And you need to learn, in. The curriculum and so forth and so that's that's. An issue of concern as well. As. No all, 50, states and the District of Columbia, along with these seven affiliated, jurisdictions, have established teacher, certification, requirements. And, these requirements do vary across the jurisdictions. In the Pacific, but. A majority of states, on the mainland and Guam the, Commonwealth, of the Northern Mariana Islands. And American Samoa, have. All implemented, testing, programs, and established, minimum passing scores for teacher applicants. On one. Or both of the practice exams praxis when are practiced you so. In American Samoa for example, teachers. Are required to hold a bachelor's degree from an accredited college, or university, they, have to complete all of the required American. Samoa teacher certification courses. And they, have to pass the Praxis core academic, skills for educators, commonly, known as just the core tests in reading, writing and math but. Again you. Know I keep stressing this the Pacific region is very geographically. Culturally and, linguistically diverse, which. Can present, some challenges certainly, for teachers taking the praxis or similar tests and. For a large percentage of teachers in the region English. Is not their first language so it can be challenging to take a certification test in English. And. Those teacher certification requirements. Again do vary and, the Federated States of Micronesia for, example teachers are required to hold an associate, degree and pass the National standardized, test for teachers or NS TP which. Is a locally, developed test of teacher competencies, and. While. Most teachers in the FSM do meet the education. Requirement, to hold an associate degree I think that number is 90%. Or upwards. The. Passing rates for the certification, exam are, a bit, lower they've hovered around the 50% mark for the past couple of years so again, we're working with these partnerships. In the region and the area for professional, learning and, I want to stress that we're. There for support and we're there as facilitators. But the partnerships, set. Their own goals, they. Align those to their own strategic plans and they're, the ones doing the hard work to ensure that every child in the region is taught by a high quality teacher and, that work again is contextualized, so as, I mentioned before what a high quality teacher looks like in Palau might be a little different than, what a high quality teacher looks like in the SSM. So the partnerships, are also developing, local, definitions, of teacher effectiveness. And. Those then extend to, ensuring that students. Are prepared for college and careers which, as you saw on one of our earlier slides is another of our priority, areas so. All of those priority, areas I mentioned earlier, really build, on one another you, know we we do we. Do try to make those connections across, the region as we're doing this work and as we're supporting this work and of. Course all teachers in any, region need, high quality professional learning, opportunities of, their own and it's, really incumbent upon us as administrators and, researchers and consultants, to provide those for them and to support those in them so. That they in turn can provide, the highest quality of instruction to their students, and to help them succeed. But during part two were going to talk about the characteristics of high quality professional learning, and it is now my pleasure to, introduce dr., Elyse, Gallagher, again. Dr. Gallagher is the associate, director of SR I international. Center for education, policy, where. She runs large-scale studies of teacher quality policies. And programs and she uses a range of methodologies for those she just random eyes trials, causing experimental. Designs mixed methods and, she leads studies in particular on teacher preparation professional. Development, and human capital management. She. Is currently, leading studies of efforts to reform teacher preparation in, the California, State University system, which. Is the largest teacher preparation system, in the world, these. Studies address improving, the integration, of clinical experiences, into teacher preparation, preparing. Teachers to teach in accordance. With the next generation science standards and. Common core standards, and data-driven. Continuous. Improvement. Dr.. Gallagher has also led studies of in-service teacher professional, development and, those, focused on supporting, improvement, of teaching practices, and developing teacher leadership, they.
Span All, kinds of content areas writing, instruction, science instruction mathematics. Instruction. And also, instruction, to support the development of academic language skills for English learners. In. 2015. Dr. Gallagher was selected, to serve on the technical review panel for the national teacher and principal, survey you. Might know it as the schools and staffing survey as it was formerly called and. She's a national expert on teacher professional, development have. Provided technical assistance on, using research to inform ongoing, program improvement, and she, was also a former teacher I'm teaching for several years in the Houston, Independent School, District. And in the Phoenix Elementary, School District so by, now I'm sure you can see why we are so excited to have her with us today to talk about high quality professional. Learning elite. Thank, you so much for joining us and I am going to hand the presentation over to you. Thank. You very much, good. Morning and good afternoon to. Everyone, on the line. Today. It is my great pleasure to, talk, a bit and share, some of the things I've learned from. Conducting, research and reading the research of others. And working alongside, professional. Development, providers as they, work to help meet a wide variety of teacher, needs for, ongoing growth. So. I'm, going to start by just framing. The question, of of what are the varied goals that, people have for professional. Teacher professional. Learning because. Teacher, professional, learning sometimes. Has, a goal, of building specific. Educator, knowledge. Recently. As as new standards, have come in play many. Different states. And districts, have, decided. That one very, important, role for professional, development is to help, teachers build their knowledge of those standards, but other, times professional. Development, is targeting. Other goals like, supporting, major, changes, in teacher instruction. Or, helping. Educators, within a school or district, community develop. A shared vision and. Shared, vocabulary and. Mutual, goals around what. It is that they should be teaching it or how, best to teach material. And these. The different, goals, of professional, development are. Sometimes, really important, to consider, when. Figuring out the best ways, to provide professional development for, teachers. When. We think about effective. Professional learning. We, think really about three. Main characteristics, of, professional. Learning and one. Is that it typically, needs to be aligned with. The content, and pedagogy. Required. By, local, state and national standards. Framework. Assessments. In goals and this. Is really important, because teachers. Actively. Make decisions, about what. To teach their, students, every day and. To the extent to which professional.
Development, Is helping, teachers reach, the goal that they already have it, can be really effective in, moving, teachers, forward, but, when teachers, get messages. From professional. Development, that are. Not aligned or at times might be somewhat contradictory, to. The goals that. A broader, school or district or state is setting. For, teacher. Instruction. Then, it is less likely that, that professional development is, going to make. Substantial progress, in, terms of changing, teacher. Knowledge or helping all teachers in a community to, build the shared mission. Another. Very important, feature of effective, professional development is that, it supports teachers in sustained. Professional. Collaboration with, colleagues and we, emphasize, sustained, because that is often a challenge for. Professional, development, for many reasons. Lots. Of workshops historically. Have, been delivered, in an. Afternoon. Or over. A day at some point in time in the school year but. As we, will discuss, later, on, through this presentation. Actually. Supporting. Teacher change can't happen at one point in time. Teachers. Need, to be able to. Apply. Practice, applying what they're learning and talk with other teachers if they're, going to really make substantial, changes in their practice, and. Finally. Especially. When the goal of professional, development is to help teachers make changes, and instructions, it's. Really important, that the, professional, development offer teachers, new. Models, of teaching so, they can see what desired practices. Would look like in, a classroom like their own then. Give teachers opportunities to, practice, applying. Those, with. Their own students, and then. The opportunity to reflect, and sometimes. Get feedback, on their implementation. Of new practices so, that they can continue, to refine, their, attempts. At implementation over, time. What. Want to emphasis emphasize. On this slide is that there. Is not a direct line, from. Improving. Teacher knowledge to. Increasing. Student, learning in fact. That path goes. Through a, change, in teacher, practice, and. This, is a really important, idea that I want to take a minute to discuss more, and it's, rooted in the fact that teaching. Is very complex, to do if you, think about the, experience of a teacher for, a moment a teacher has, a certain, amount of content, that they know and, they. Need to make decisions and, planning about how best to present, that contact, and engage, that content. Gauge their students, in that, content, and then. They actually go, out into their classroom, and they deliver, that content. To students, at which. Point in time they suddenly, need, to monitor how. Students, are interacting with, that content, what. Aspects, of what they're trying to teach students, are readily understanding. And mastering, where. Students, are struggling. A bit more with, the new ideas, and how. Best to address those in, addition. To those kind of content focus things however. As we all know from our experiences. As students, and as teachers teachers. Also need to do things to engage students. In the. Lesson itself, sometimes. To, manage. Student. Behaviors, if students. Are not engaged, and. Then also deal, with kind. Of more complex. Questions. About how to sequence, any one lesson as part of a broader. Unit. And. Even, further beyond that an, articulated. Path of instruction. That students, will have in given, content, over many years and, even. Taking a look at at that, description, which in some ways only. Scratches, the surface we, see that there are a whole lot of thinking. That goes into planning, effective, instruction. And then, a vast. Amount of information. Synthesizing. And decision making that happens in the moment in a classroom. And that complexity, is, core. To. Understanding. The challenges, that face. Someone. Trying to design professional, development, in ways that it will change teacher, instruction. But. Also helps. Us understand, the things that, we can build in to our design of professional. Development, to help it be effective at changing teacher, practice. So. As we talk about kind, of what those features, are. One. Of the first, ideas that, I mentioned, a bit before is this, idea that professional. Development needs, to focus on the core content of what, teachers will be teaching and also. Provide a model, for, approaches. That a teacher might use to, teach it and the. Models are very important, because implicit. In this notion that we're trying to help teachers change, practice, as well. As just improve knowledge in order, to improve, student, learning is, the idea. That the, way teachers are teaching now and or, the way they are presenting, content at this point in time is.
Supposed To be. Changed. Through, this professional, development and, through, models, you can show teachers kind of what the goal is and, give. Teachers a very applied, sense, of what. It would look like to, be teaching, in the ways that the professional, development is trying to support them to teach. Luckily. There are lots of different approaches, that, any. Number of which can work in any context, to giving teachers model. For. For, how to, prevent. Professional, development, sorry. For how to present, and present instruction. And. These include things like video, clips of teachers, teaching effectively. Or. Written teaching, cases that can, point out specific. Things that teachers do. Instructional. Demonstration. Lessons where someone, could come into a teacher's, classroom and present, those. Approaches, with the teachers, own students. Or. At times doing a demonstration lesson. Where a teacher could come see someone, else teaching, unit. And lesson plans play, a key role as, well. Because, they can help teachers, understand. How, to set up the, content, various, different. Strategies. For presenting, the content materials. To use in, instruction. To support students, and those, types of the unit and lesson plans can in that way play a really key role in helping teachers. Transfer. The ideas, that they see in, other model into. Their own teaching especially, if those, instructional. Resources, are tightly aligned, with. A particular. Approach, to delivering content, or a particular. Pedagogical. Approach. Pure. Observations, can also be very, helpful because. It allows teachers, to see their are their peers working, together. Towards. The same shared goal and also, can. Provide opportunities, for feedback and. Finally. Use, of things like curricular. Materials and. Even, student, work samples, in professional, development can. Help teachers, understand. Where. Their students, are and kind, of reflect, on the aspects, of their instruction, that. Are working and and, let. Teachers see, as they change their practice, the. Difference that it makes sure student work. A. Second. Very big. Idea in, terms of. Thinking about, effective. Professional development is, the idea that teachers need to transfer. What. They are learning. Very. Actively, into, their classroom. And, make, the, figure out how to make a lot of decisions, differently. To. Actually, make changes, in in. The instruction, they provide students, there. Are multiple, approaches, for helping teachers transfer. From. Kind of new knowledge which. Is something, akin to this, is what that process looks like to, actually being able to apply, it in their own classroom, and do that new practice, and want to help to, give teachers an opportunity, to, experience, the. Content presented in a different way or a different set of instructional, strategies with.
Themselves, As the role of the students, getting. To see what it's like to, conduct. An experiment, as opposed, to just reading about one in a book for, example if, one, of the goals is to help teachers will. Conduct more hands-on, science. Activities would, be an example of the type of approach. Sometimes. For, complex. Teaching, approaches, another thing that can help is letting. Teachers try that approach with small groups of students, and we, sometimes see, that actually, in California, with some of the teacher preparation programs. We're working with that they have partnered. With. Districts. That they are working with to, provide, to. Let their student teachers provide. Some after-school tutoring, to. Small groups of students and the process, giving their, student. Teachers small. Group practice, using, strategies, while. While the students, benefit, from the additional, after-school, tutoring and that, the same could be done as part of district, based professional development, as well so, that teachers can, work only with a small set of students, not have to deal, with all of the classroom, management and, other demands, of large groups of students and get, a chance to try out new. Skills. Or approaches, and in the simpler situation than, a full classroom I. Mentioned. Before this point about aligned instructional. Material. That. You, know especially if there are new standards, in play it could be very important, to read it the instructional, material, teachers, have available. To them and whether, or not those materials. Present the content, and. Provide support, for teachers to, present, that content, and work with students on that content, in ways, that match, the. New standards, or school. Or district goals for instruction, and, finally. All of those, different, approaches, and more. We. Lump together under, this idea of transfer, and really, recognizing. That teachers, need the time and space and the variety, of support, as they do which is ultimately, a very complicated, task of. Taking. Knowledge. About, new ideas and figuring, out how to apply that to the specific, students they work with on a day, to day basis, who are themselves unique, individual. Which. Means that it's, not a rote task and it's not very easy and so, we have to understand, that teachers, need a variety, of supports, and a lot of opportunities. To make that transfer. Successful. If we're asking for a pretty big change in an introduction. As. Part. Of this idea that we're, asking teachers for. To make potentially. Large changes, in instruction. We. Recognize, that teachers, are like, all adult, learners in, that, opportunities.
For Reflection, and feedback, can. Be very, key to, helping us process. Changes. Were trying to make, problem-solve. And troubleshoot. Our. Early, attempts, at trying, new things and, ultimately. To refine, and improve our practice, over time and, teacher. Collaboration can. Be a real asset, in. That ongoing, reflection and feedback, especially. If that collaboration, at, least from time to time include. Someone who is a more. Expert, and. Practitioner. At the new practice who can give feedback and help teachers, see, any. Continuing. Gap between, teachers. Current. Practice, and the practices, they're trying to adopt. That. Collaboration, can take a lot of forms it, can be one-to-one, conversation. You. Know with with, you, know between two individuals or, small group and sometimes, those, conversations. Can happen virtually. If. Not in person the people do not need to be in the same place to. Be able to support each other in implementation. And a. Very, important, aspect. Of this type of collaboration can, also be problem-solving. Because. If teachers are really trying something new. Anytime. You try something new and complicated, it probably, doesn't, go best the first time and having. A partner who, is somehow, participating. In the same. The. Same work on, or. That same new approaches, to teaching to. Help you, know bounce ideas off, of and, reflect, and make. Sense of what's. Going on early. Attempts of implementation. Can, really support teachers, in making. Changes, I, also. Wouldn't. Want to minimize the, potential. Real. Strength of bringing. Student, work in. To, share with colleagues or professional, development providers to. Talk about what, it is that students, are, successfully. Taking. Up from. New approaches, at teaching and also look for evidence of next, steps either, in, the teachers practice. Of. New, pedagogical, approaches. Or next, steps in terms of the content, to. Teach students, based, on an analysis, of student work and. Finally. We want, to underline this idea, of. Teachers. Learning together in communities, learning, from each other and working collectively. Towards. A goal of having. A very. Coherent. Consistent. Instructional. Program, students and just, the power of teachers sharing, their professional, knowledge together, and supporting. Each other's learning as a way to really sustain changes. Over time. Finally. One. Of the other things that I hinted at before is, is the idea of feedback. On. Their own studies, have shown that teachers. Sometimes. Overestimate. The. Extent of changes, in instruction, and I. Think one of the examples, that comes, up the most. Is. Comes. From an idea about. Mathematics. Teaching that. Suggests. The, that, students, be given more open-ended. Mathematical. Questions, and problems. And encouraged. To solve them in, multiple. Correct ways and explain their answer and there. Have been studies that have been shown that, teachers, initially. Exposed, to. Those, types of approaches, might first pick up on the, idea of having more word problems, and, could.
Think That if they increase, the number of word problems, in their mathematics, instruction they have successfully. Made the changes, required, but. Might miss the fact that there, are additional, layers, to the change being asked, around. The nature of the word problems, and the, way students, are expected. To answer them to provide evidence, to, support their thinking, and explain their thinking to others and. Again. I think that speaks that particular. Example speaks to the complexity, the fact that that particular, change has, multiple. Different facets, but also, the importance, of having, the teachers work with someone. Who can support, them in in recognizing. The changes, they have already made and helping. Them see how to make, the, next step of changes. In their practice, to fully realize, the, vision of instruction, at the school or a district, is striving for and one. Very common, method. For. Helping. Teachers, do that is the. Use of instructional, coaches, who, can provide job, embedded follow-up. And continuous. Feedback either one-on-one. Facilitating. Small, groups of teachers collaboratively. And. Sometimes, also remotely, using. Virtual, coaching, and. There are some pretty interesting. Technologies. Available, that support. Teachers, in, videotaping. Their own practice, to share that with coaches, or coaches, being able to. You. Know connect, remotely, and you know some of the kind. Of more widespread. Videoconferencing, features, that can really help. People. Overcome, distance. As they, work together in a coaching model. And. To. Close we wanted. To kind of cycle back to two really big points, that, come up repeatedly in the research on professional, development and, one. Is this, idea that. One-shot. Workshops, really. Do. Not accomplish, much unless. The goal is to provide very basic, information. A. One-shot. Workshop, can help teachers. Understand. That, there, is a new. You. Know some new piece of information but. Is not going, to help teachers make. Any substantial, changes. To the, content. They're teaching the, way they're sequencing, it or how they're presenting, it because. Teaching, is so complex, and as. A result, there is a substantial. Research. Base that supports the idea that. Professional. Development that is both a relatively. Long duration, and also. Spread, out over time to. Allow for the ongoing, feedback. And reflection that we we, just discussed, is really. Critical, for making. Sure that professional, development can, support teachers to change their. Instruction, in ways, that help students, achievement, improve and, then. Finally, just. Recognizing. The, very, complicated work, that teachers do. It's, really important, to give teachers time, to learn practice. Apply. Reflect. On new strategies and, then go through that cycle again, recognizing. That no. Substantial. Change is going to happen within.
The Span of a couple weeks really. It is a longer, term process, to, help teachers integrate, new ideas into the complex systems, that our classrooms, and. I. Think that concludes, the, kind, of prepared. Comments. I have Kristen, I don't know if. You'd like to open the floor to questions or, if there were any questions. That were submitted before where. We should start, yes. Thank you Alex for that great presentation and, we would like to open up the chat, box to questions, it, looks like we do have, some. People typing now so we'll give that a couple of minutes but we did have some. Questions that were pre submitted, during the webinar registration. Process, so I'm going to go ahead and jump into those in the meantime. And. You know some of them I, think are really kind of big ideas so we might want to break them into more, than one question or we might want to continue. The conversation. Via. Email or offline or, you. Know through some other literature, searches I do want to let everybody know that we. Have a. We. Have a NASA rail service, through, the, Institute. Of Education Sciences. And, you. Can ask any of your education research questions, through that and we can pull together literature, for you I'm going to go ahead and push that link out in the chat box if you'd like to look. Into that service so, any. Questions that we we aren't able to get to today or, that, come up afterwards. You, could certainly send, a request, through that ask our rail service if, you're, outside of the Pacific region that, would go to your local. Regional. Educational, laboratory, for, review if, you're in the Pacific region that comes to us and we would pull together that information, for you. Let's jump in to the. Questions that were already submitted, so. The first one was in. What. Ways should, districts, design tiered, professional, learning tied to instructional, framework and, what data systems, exists, to track monitor and, provide. ROI, I think. Those are maybe. Two or possibly, even three questions kind of rolled into one there so a weeks I don't know. If you want to jump into that while we wait for more questions to come through. Um. Sure. I can try to first, kind of break apart but questions, since. I'm not looking at them I think one was about how to provide, tiered.
Professional. Development, I know there was another about. Monitoring, the effects. Of professional, development in there and I capture all of it yes. I think so I'm going to go ahead and type that into the chat box okay, I. Think. That you've got the gist of it for sure okay. So. Dealing, with, I'll. Take the question about tiered professional. Development, and brought in an event. To. Kind. Of recognize that, that. Goal. That, that. Districts. And communities, have for. Teachers may vary and teachers. Themselves. May. Come. In with different. Pre-existing. Knowledge skills, and approaches, and I. Think I would, say that the way to plan, professional, development, is probably. Similar. To a lot of strategic. Planning where it's important, to articulate, upfront. The. Goal that are, desired outcomes, of the professional, development and then, map back, from there, how. To achieve them, and it might be that if you can identify what. Tiers. There are upfront, the. The mapping, and the planning process, would, lead you to provide. Different, professional. Learning opportunities for different. Groups of teachers. And. I think connected. To that I see a question in the chat about how culture factors. Into professional, development and. I. Could see kind of a couple different, possible. Interpretation. Of that question wanted, about the culture of the, teachers, themselves and, another question might be about the cultures of students. And I think that that. Would be one of the very important, things you would want to consider in designing, the professional, development is, how, best to work with your teachers, and who, they are and then, in terms of the goals for students. And student, instruction. What. Type of classroom, environment, is going. To be most conducive for, helping. All students, achieve. Their. Best and so, the. All of the various, ways that you can think about, really. That the humans. Emotionally. As well as intellectually. Who. Are involved in learning, in. Professional. Learning opportunities and, then the opportunities. That agitators. Then provide, for their students, I think. Culture. Is one of the many factors, that you might want to consider, as part of a process for. Planning your professional development. There. Was another question another, part of that initial, question that dealt with this question of monitoring, professional. Development, and. Like. You, know one of the ways we would recommend thinking, about that are kind. Of first. Taking. A look at after, you have a plan and then going to assume that you. Know for the for the sake of discussion. You've. Come up with a plan where teachers. Spend a day in professional, development at the start of the school year then. Have, follow-up. Sessions, with the coach. One. Day a month over, the course of the school year and one. Of the things you might want to find out about is implementation, and, making. Sure that teachers are. Choosing. To attend. Each. Of the events that the coach is actually. Finding ways to connect with teachers and, if. There are particular curricular. Resources but, teachers are supposed to be able to draw on as they. Implement, the things learned in professional, development in their classroom, making. Sure that that part of the implementation of, the program. And so that's definitely one. Of the things that you'd want to do in monitoring, but, you would also want to monitor, in. An ongoing way, for, whether, or not the professional, development is achieving, its goal in. Terms of the changes, in instruction that, students, are receiving and. So. You, know there are a variety of different ways that that. People could do that. One. Way, might be, observing. In teachers classrooms. Unless. An easier. But, you know less accurate, way would, be asking, teachers about. Whether they they, believe they are successfully. Implementing. And. When. I say it's less accurate it is a less accurate, way.
To Find. Out if teachers have made the changes in instruction, but. There. Is another thing you can do in terms of asking teachers, about professionals, that. Is really important, which, is to learn, a bit about their experiences. Trying, to implement. The. New approaches, into their classroom, learning about, which things are challenging, for them sometimes. People. Find out about. Places. Where teachers. Are not seeing the, alignment, across between. The new approaches, or new resources, and and, school. Goals. Sometimes. You learn about things as basic, and critical, as you, know difficulty, if there's any particular technology. That's supposed to be in. Place supporting, the professional learning, like if you had a virtual, coaching but, people have trouble. Actually. Accessing. That this, would be very important, things that you. Could learn from finding, out about teachers, experience with the program, and, I don't think there should be, the importance of those should be downplayed. But it should it is important, to recognize, that those are probably not the best ways to, know whether or not teacher instruction. Has really changed, so, being able to. Find. Out either by directly, observing, teachers, or. Through, data from their students about, the. Effects of professional, development on the ultimate, goal of improving. Instruct, student, learning seemed, like really important parts of comprehensive. Monitoring. Practice, and. To. That end in, this question about data, systems. The. Way that you would probably, want to track. Whether. Or not programs, are meeting, their goals would be somewhat, unique to each program, and so. There could be data. Bases. Or. You, know even more simply, you know data files that, you use to collect the data but. There. Are not any generally. Available existing. Data sets or systems, that. Probably, provide. Sufficiently. Detailed, information. That. Would help you track, whether, or not in the profession, professional, development, is. Being implemented, as designed, or having, the effects that what will helped for it. Thank. You for that Elise I'd like to just circle back if I made to the question, of culture and how that factors into, professional, development and. Just talk a little bit about the, work that rel Pacific, is doing around these partnerships, for improving teaching, and. As I mentioned before we do have this. Underlying, focus. On incorporating. The Pacific culture and issues and specific education, into the work that we're doing and the support that we're providing out, in the region and, so.
When Our, partnerships. Were. Initially launched, this year, and. The, Pulau work was continued, from the last contract, cycle, we. Really sat, down together to talk about you. Know what does. Effective. Teaching what does high quality teaching look like in your context. And I think that's that's critical, to, this conversation is to bring in a variety of stakeholders so, rather than simply having you. Know. Trainers. Or. You. Know higher level administration, you. Know the higher, level staff kind of deciding, what professional, learning should look like in deciding, what. What. High quality and what effective teaching looks like in. In specific, context, we really do try to get all of. The voices at the table for that and. So, you know in Hawaii for example I could imagine that, that conversation might, include some. Conversation, around the ha outcomes, which, for those of you who are, not familiar with that that's, a department. A Hawaii State Department, of Education, wide framework, that, focuses, on developing. Skills. And behaviors and dispositions, that honor. The qualities and the values of the culture of Hawaii and the indigenous language so, I, think you know that's really you. Know that's really kind of how we're coming. At it and we do typically, try, to make a distinction between professional. Learning and professional development. And. In, that professional, learning is really a, more active, kind. Of thing, that's happening you know the teachers are learning the, teachers are engaged the teachers have buy-in the teachers are involved, as. Opposed to development which to you sometimes, can feel a little bit like something that's done to us you know it's we develop another person, rather than you, know we're were these people, learning together in this collaborative kind of environment, so I just wanted to jump in and. And. Provide. That epic that context, and we're, certainly happy to give you more information, offline. If you'd like around. You know the, the continuing, work in Palau and the FSM, and around sort of our our. Approach. To that. So. We, have a couple of other questions now, that I think we can I'm jump into and again please feel free anybody, who has, a question or a. Comment, that you'd like to share in the chat box please feel free to go ahead and type that in, there. Was a question, from. A registrant. Who worked on professional, development in American Samoa in, the past and was wondering about the use to tell the conferencing, and I know you did a league talk, a little bit about remote. In virtual. Professional. Learning, to. Cut down on traveling cost and I wonder if, you could speak a little bit more to sort of the advantages. And potentially. Some of the challenges of that oh. Gosh. Um, you. Know I think one, of the the things that would be most, important, to think about are that you kind of any approach, has, both. Kind. Of strengths and affordances. And, then also challenges. That come with it one. Of the first things I think about when I, you. Know think, about really remote, education, is some work I did up in rural, communities in Alaska for, a different, study. Where. The only way that teachers, within a district, could connect. Was. You, know via technology. Because, the, schools were hours. Apart. Flights. Apart. From. Each other in in, very. Rural communities, that did, not have good access and in, those cases. Technology. Was the only way, that, teachers, outside of a, particular. School and a school typically, had two teachers in it for. The entire the entire k-12, school, the. Only way that people could collaborate. Outside of, with the other teacher at their school and so technology was critical, but, also we, know that that. Sometimes, technology, failed. And. And, that you, know I assume. At. Least as challenging, in in the Pacific region as it is elsewhere and so, you, know I think being. Open to a lot, of approaches, is really important, but, trying. To think sometimes about a balance, and ways. To leverage, in-person.
Communities. When possible, and. Use. Online. Or, other technology. Resources, as. Well, and there are some some pretty useful. Affordances. Of some. Technologies. For. Example you. Know thinking about this idea of going to watch, a demonstration, demonstration, lesson. That a teacher is doing, you, can watch it live and that can. Be very informative, but if there's a video, it. Can actually work, really nicely to, start. Watching a video posit. Have, a group of teachers discuss, maybe, go back and re-watch, and. You. Know the person if there's, a coach or other. Person, leading that group of, teachers and professional, I'll. Say professional, development, but the idea is very much a learning experience not, something, being done to teachers. You. Know the video offers. Ways. To pause and inviting gage Minh and analysis, from teachers and and really. Help. It shift to, from watching. An expert teach their class to. Being, able to discuss, together what. It is that, a teacher is doing in, ways, that can help teachers. Bring. Different. And new ideas about, instruction, to their class so, video can be really helpful in that way. Teachers, also, can, try. Try, out resources. And. You. Know teachers lives like everyone's, are busy they. You. Know have families. And and other commitments in their community, outside and, the, ability to share, things asynchronously is, sometimes really important, so professional. Learning communities, that exist largely. Online, maybe, it's only online can be very vibrant, and don't, always have the time demands that, saying, okay everyone you need to meet after school at 3:30 to, discuss this thing can have and so, that's another real affordance, that technology, can give to. Professional. Learning communities, of, teachers, as they work together, to. Try out new ideas and, new approaches, in their classroom, and so, I mean I think those are two of the things that I think of off the top, of my head. On. The one hand ways to open. Up new avenues for, teachers to collaborate and, share together. And learn together and. This. Other idea, of kind of ways, that technology can, be, used to help teachers share artifacts, and be, able of, instruction. And be those videos, of teaching, or. Examples. Of student work and be able to, collectively. Interact. Analyze, interact. Around and come. To understandings. Of what they're seeing and the implications, for their own teaching. Technology. Can be great, facilitators. Of those things so, I would. Just say that you know I don't think that, either, online virtual you, know that set or, in-person are always best but. It can, be really good to think about the strength of, whatever. Approaches. And try to understand. What. The teachers you're working with need the most and. Which. Approaches, are feasible that, can best help support, those, those. Teachers growth. Thank. You leaks and that you know that really does line up to, the way that we approach it in the Pacific also under. The rel Pacific, contract and this webinar is a really good example so as as you all know we are recording this and, we will take this out into the region into places, where you, know perhaps there's, your. Internet connectivity, makes it a little more difficult, to join.
A Webinar or where. You. Know a number of our colleagues perhaps. Had your conflicts, because, it's the school day right now for example in. Coach. RI or because. You. Know it's the middle of the night somewhere else and and so, so, we do you can take kind of a hybrid approach also, where you know this webinar will come with us out into the region when we're meeting. With our partnerships, and we'll, share that and during. Facilitated, conversations, and also distribute, it a little bit more widely than that so, that. Does really align nicely to kind of how we approach it also because we have you, know so many of those. Same. Challenges with. Intermittent. Kind of connectivity. And and. Traveling great distances, as I mentioned before our region is quite geographically. Vast and so in fact a number of my colleagues are currently. Kind. Of hopscotching, around, the region doing, some improvement. Science work and it's you. Know to just, sort of leverage. That work you. Know it's it's, a two week long trip which is not, always it's not always possible to do that so, so, thank you for that and if there aren't any other questions I, think we're going to give you some found time today which I know is always welcome this close to the holidays I'm sure, we're all scrambling to kind of get. All of our works, done and hopefully take some time off I did want to move into, these next slides we have some references, for you. Please. Don't feel like you have to write, this down or capture these in any way right now I will send out a PDF of the PowerPoint, either, a little, bit later today or first thing tomorrow so, you'll have those resources. There's. Quite a number of them as you can see so, if you have any questions around those and please do feel free to reach out to us or any questions about anything really, you, know something, that you heard today something. That you think of later and you. All have my email so I can go ahead and connect you with the Leakes again, we are so thrilled that a week's joined us today for this presentation. There's. Our contact information, there. Looks. Like we do have a do. You have a couple of more people typing, so I'm going to just pause here for just a second to see if any. More questions come.
2018-08-31