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Paper
Professional Development in a Technological Age: New Definitions, Old Challenges, New Resources
PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER: TWO CASE STUDIESIn the past, it was assumed that the workshop or training method was enough: teachers who attended workshops or training sessions were supposed to come away with the knowledge they needed to apply new curriculum, tools, and pedagogical approaches in their classrooms. What we know now is that what makes professional development effective is the way in which a number of approaches come together and are blended into "collaborative, rigorous programs" (Little, 1986, p. 27), which include a continuum of options. Successful professional development programs in schools are made up of a combination of formal and informal approaches, provided over time, among which teachers can choose and for which they are supported as they build their individual programs. How can schools or school systems weave such varied initiatives as the ones we have described into an integrated whole? The following three case studies offer various approaches. Whether technology is a resource for professional development overall, or the focus of teacher learning, it takes on a new role in integrative professional development programs. Schools face particularly significant challenges as they seek to provide effective professional development programs that invite and prepare teachers to make active and informed choices about technology to enhance learning. A study of the field and of specific case studies provides models in which schools link formal and informal approaches to learning and provide teachers with the necessary support. These models reflect broad understandings of contexts for learning. In these contexts teachers actively reflect on and grapple with the meanings of innovations for their practice; they shape their own learning to build a continually growing personal and communal knowledge base; and they are empowered to make changes. In the first example, the Monterey Model Schools provide a continuum of professional development offerings. Their curriculum intervention plans helped teachers focus on their own particular needs and those of their class. In the second example, TERC's Literacy in a Science Context project, electronic networks provided opportunities for ongoing collegial support for teachers who had taken part in an initial summer institute. Monterey Model Technology Schools In the Monterey Model Technology Schools "it was recognized that teachers embrace instructional technology use at different rates. By bringing together the technologically naive and fearful with the proficient and adventurous, it is possible to build a climate of mutual support and a culture of school technology use" (OTA, 1995, p. 148). Emphasis during the first five years was on developing technology implementation projects and on training. In the first year, Technology Awareness Days focused on the subject areas of language arts, mathematics, and science. The intent was to provide the community with a general overview of what can be accomplished with educational technology. Gradually, with the support of instructional mentoring, the emphasis shifted from broad curriculum areas and operating skills to targeted student outcomes and behaviors. Teachers or teaching teams developed Classroom Intervention Plans (CIPs). Each CIP contained the following elements: curriculum emphasis; desired and measurable end results; necessary hardware, materials, and staff development; evaluation plan; products and procedures for dissemination and; budget. The goal was to develop local expertise in a variety of curriculum applications at the classroom level. The Monterey Model Schools now provide three types of training and dissemination activities to teachers from Monterey and other districts in California:
By offering teachers a continuum of options and access points for learning, the Monterey Models Schools have enabled teachers to focus on learning skills and applications relevant to their personal classroom goals and plans. The Classroom Intervention Plans helped shape that learning into individual and team plans, in order to support carryover of learning into the classroom and sharing of expertise between classrooms. Teacher leadership is encouraged with the invitation to lead Technology Demonstrations Centers and Technology Training Seminars, and to create and share Teacher Productions. Literacy in a Science Context The Literacy in a Science Context (LISC) project brought together the strengths of two institutions (TERC and Lesley College) to work with classroom and special education teachers who taught upper elementary students with learning disabilities. The intent of the collaboration was to explore ways in which technology-based interventions in the context of meaningful inquiries into science might improve the literacy skills of all students, and particularly of students with learning disabilities. Pairs of classroom and special education teachers who taught students in common attended a week-long summer institute. There they used probes connected to microcomputer-based labs (MBL) to conduct investigations on their heart rate, breathing rate, skin temperature, and response time. They learned to use telecommunications in the context of their investigations and as a foundation for their own ongoing collegial communication. And they also reflected on ways of promoting the literacy of students with learning disabilities in the context of science learning. During the following school year, pairs of classroom and special education teachers returned to their classrooms equipped with sets of MBLs and modems to implement the curriculum. Because participating teachers came from several states, they used a telecommunications network to communicate with one another and with project staff. At the end of the year they came together for a LISC reunion and shared their learning, their struggles, and plans for the following year. Based on the train-the-trainer model, some participating teachers then provided a series of workshop offerings and online support to teachers in their own school districts. Trainers were supported at a distance through telecommunications with project staff and each other (Weir, 1994; Weir & Storeygard, 1995). Inquiry, collaboration, and discourse were emphasized throughout the project: face to face during the summer institute, where teachers worked in small groups to conduct investigations about questions of their own choosing; and then at a distance, via the electronic networks as teachers brought the LISC curriculum and approach back to their schools and shared with one another and with the TERC team the successes and dilemmas they encountered in practice. The train the trainer model provided the opportunity for teams of teachers to take on leadership roles in their own districts, and promoted wider dissemination of LISC.
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