Designing High-Quality Professional Development: Preparing for Learning

Preparation allows adult learners to anticipate what will occur and to plan their engagement in the session. Assigning activities to complete before a session allows the learners to focus attention and activate prior knowledge. Preparation also allows presenters to establish their expertise and motivate learners to engage in the professional development.

The presenter should:

• Create an agenda and learning targets/objectives for dissemination prior to the session so that participants know what they will learn and how they will learn it as well as when start, end, and break times will be.
• Provide participants an assignment to complete prior to the session so that they can reflect on their prior knowledge about the topic and prepare for the event.
• Refer to the assignment above during the presentation (e.g., a discussion of how an article relates to participants’ context, new ideas they learned from the modules that they reviewed, ways in which the feedback they received from the pretest surprised them).
• Share information that reflects the presenter’s history and expertise with the content.

Presenters are experts in the content, but they are often not experts in the local context of the participants. For this reason, we recommend that local providers coordinate with the presenter. To promote participants’ preparation, the local provider should:

• Expand the learning targets/objectives in the agenda to include application beyond the session.
• Introduce the session by explaining what participants will gain and how the local provider will provide follow-up support.

Indicator 1. Prior to the professional development, provides learning objectives addressing the critical concepts.

Providing the participants with learning targets or objectives prior to a session recognizes that adult learners are more engaged if they have the choice of professional development based on their own interests and needs (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017; Knowles, 1988). Learning targets inform participants of what they will learn, how well they will learn it, and what they will do to demonstrate that learning (Marzano, 2013; Moss & Brookhart, 2012). See the section Begin With the End in Mind for a discussion on the characteristics of quality learning objectives.

The presenter, as the expert, should provide the learning objectives that address the target skill or knowledge development for the session. Learning objectives that address the process of implementation and evaluation beyond the session may be added by the local provider.

Indicator 2. Prepares participants to engage in the content by assigning activities in advance.

Providing participants with an opportunity to prepare for the session in advance recognizes that adult learners are self-directed, autonomous, and independent (Knowles, 1988). Connecting to prior knowledge and engaging in learning that is directly applicable to their current situation allows the learners to integrate new learning into their existing schemas. Preparation activities can ensure that the learners have a common base of knowledge.

Indicator 3. Follows an agenda that outlines the flow of the content and includes beginning times, ending times, and key breaks.

Providing participants with a content and process agenda prior to the professional development session allows them to anticipate how they will participate and prepare for the session in advance. The agenda provides information about the flow of content across the instructional session, including relevant times and breaks. Because this is a document that allows the participants to prepare for the session, the agenda should be followed within reasonable time constraints. Any revisions or adjustments to the agenda should be reviewed with the participants beforehand. For example, the presenter could say, “Because we had such a deep conversation about _____, we will adjust the break times to _____ and will begin talking about _____ when we return.”

The presenter usually provides information about the content and flow of the professional development session. The local provider may add additional items to the agenda to address, for example, a welcome to the presenter and participants, an overview of the content as it relates to the district’s mission statement and local initiatives, arrangements for coaching and follow-up activities, or reviews of the responsibilities of local teams to implement the content.

Indicator 4. Establishes credibility by communicating content expertise and/or experience.

Providing participants with information about the background expertise and relationship of the presenter (and, when appropriate, the local provider) to both the content and the participants’ context allows them to evaluate the applicability to their own setting. Adult learners are self-directed, autonomous, and independent, preferring to build on prior knowledge and engage in learning that is directly applicable to their current situation (Knowles, 1988). Communicating expertise and experience allows participants to judge the applicability of the content to their own professional goals, needs, and experiences.

The presenter should include their background relative to the content, including, for example, years of work, collaborations with others, and outcomes achieved. When appropriate, the local provider should also establish their relationship with the participants’ organizations and describe their experiences with students or settings that align with the participants’ roles and responsibilities.