Looking at teacher learning from the university: levers for improvement
Date
2018
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This Educational Leadership Portfolio (ELP) investigates how university staff can contribute to high-quality professional learning in K-12 public schools. The current shortcomings of most professional learning are well documented in research and policy, and in the lived experiences of teachers and administrators. There is an urgent need to redesign professional learning and implement it more effectively, thus supporting improvements in teaching and learning. ☐ I argue that research and evaluation professionals at the University of Delaware (UD) can use five levers to effect positive change in professional learning. They can directly conduct research studies or evaluations of programs and innovate with new methods of doing so. They can synthesize and disseminate research and educate others about research-based professional learning. Finally, to make their research and evaluations useful to K-12 public educators, they can listen to what those users value and need. Together, these activities can yield more informed professional learning leaders and better research or evaluation of professional learning. These outcomes then contribute to stronger professional learning designs, implementation and leadership. ☐ This ELP documents my use of these five improvement strategies as a UD professional, primarily through program evaluations I conducted at the Delaware Education Research & Development Center. There are 11 artifacts illustrating the strategies. These include two evaluations and one exploratory study of professional learning programs; a presentation, a practice brief and a website; an annotated bibliography about teacher learning; three artifacts from formal and informal educational efforts; and a follow-up study with former clients about evaluation use. ☐ After reviewing the results of each improvement lever, this ELP offers the following reflections. I successfully informed professional learning leaders and discovered that two of the five levers were the most effective (i.e., conduct research and evaluation about professional learning; educate others about professional learning and program evaluation). I grew as a researcher and evaluator of professional learning, especially qualitatively, and learned more about making my work useful to practitioners. I also found that evaluation use, like the transfer of professional learning to instructional practice, is highly situated. Organizational culture, resources, and leadership can facilitate or constrain it.
Description
Keywords
Education, Leadership, Professional learning, Program evaluation