Following-up Staff Development

In far too many cases, all of the energy that goes into a staff development program winds up in the planning and instruction, with little dedicated to follow-up. This method might be based on hope, but in reality is very self defeating. Hoping something stuck, does not insure the trainings will ever make a difference.

There are many models of following-up or supporting further growth. In Results: A Fresh Look at Follow-up,author Pat Roy lists a number of ways to do this:
•Classroom visitation of a master teacher using the new practices along with debriefing;
•Classroom demonstration lessons with a debriefing session;
•Reading an article on the new strategy and discussing it with colleagues;
•Reviewing sample lesson plans and adapting them for the classroom;
•Co-planning and co-teaching lessons with a coach or knowledgeable peer;
•Planning with a study group that focuses on implementing new practices;
•Developing an Innovation Configuration with colleagues;
•Videotaping a lesson and requesting collegial review and feedback;
•Problem-solving implementation issues; and
•Self-assessing new practices using a rubric or Innovation Configuration.

In 1998, The National Training Partnership posted Some Hot Notes on Staff Development and Follow-up Strategies. Some of their more interesting points include the fact that:
•"Teachers typically forget 90 percent of what they learn in one-shot workshops."
•"Strong professional communities provide a context for sustained learning. The most effective teachers hooked up with a network of professionals who addressed problems and found solutions together, gaining in their sense of professional identity, motivation."
•"Released time for sharing what teachers are doing--what has and has not worked--has been effective and powerful."

Thomas R. Guskey from the University of Kentucky states, "For advances to be made and professional improvements to continue, the new practices and techniques that were the focus of the professional development effort must become used almost out of habit. And for this to occur, continued support and encouragement, paired with subtle pressure to persist, are essential." Guskey gives more details to this process in RESULTS-ORIENTED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:IN SEARCH OF AN OPTIMAL MIX OF EFFECTIVE PRACTICES