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Designing High-Quality Professional Development: Transferring Learning to Practice

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Domains

  • Preparing for Learning
  • Contextualizing the Content
  • Engaging in Learning
  • Reflecting on Learning
  • Transferring Learning to Practice

Resources

  • HQPD Checklist
  • HQPD Examples
  • HQPD Webinar & Workbook
  • References

This domain is the most important for successful implementation when the learner returns to their work (Joyce & Showers, 2002). These indicators involve ongoing support that will be provided to participants to guide implementation. While some presenters may be available after the training for follow-up coaching, it is most common for the presenter’s involvement to end after the training session and the local provider to spearhead ongoing implementation support.

The presenter should:

  • Provide resources that clearly detail criteria for determining successful transfer to practice, such as a rubric, checklist, or guidelines with implementation benchmarks.
  • Provide resources to support implementation and further study.
  • Engage participants in planning how the first stage of implementation will look in their setting.

Ongoing support is necessary to transfer learning to practice; however, in many cases, presenters don’t have the capacity to provide follow-up coaching. To support fidelity of implementation, the local provider should:

  • Provide ongoing, two-way communication on the implementation of the practice. This ongoing coaching should be systematic and may occur in association with classroom observations, team meetings, or ongoing collaboration efforts.

Indicator 18. Outlines criteria that illustrate a successful transfer of the critical concepts to practice.

In order to sustain implementation, the participants need a process to determine if they are implementing the practice with fidelity. This generally involves the presenter providing clear criteria that outline the critical components of a practice and provide descriptors that allow participants to self-assess their implementation. The criteria need to identify the critical components of the innovation or practice. As described by Harn et al. (2013), fidelity is a process of continuously monitoring implementation of the core elements of the program while monitoring student progress. For example, practice profiles (State Implementation and Scaling-up of Evidence-Based Practices, 2013) and the innovation configuration matrix (Hord et al., 2013) specify the parts of an innovation and provide participants with clear mechanisms to monitor their implementation.

Because the professional development presenter is considered the expert, it is important that they provide criteria for implementation and guide the participants through these criteria. Participants should not leave a professional development session without clear criteria supporting implementation of the core components of the innovation or content.

The presenter reviews an implementation checklist that details observable behaviors indicating successful practice.

Participants analyze the steps of a flowchart that outlines the sequence and decision-making points to complete a process.

The presenter reviews the practice profile rubric to be used to determine fidelity.

Participants work in teams to describe how sections of the implementation checklist might appear during instruction and engage in whole-group discussion.

The presenter reviews the implementation playbook that includes a list of the key components and descriptions as well as a checklist of the essential components of the strategy.

Indicator 19. Ensures that participants leave with detailed action steps to apply their learning.

The opportunity to determine action steps prior to the end of a professional development session helps the participants take the next steps toward sustained implementation. An action plan typically includes actions, due date, resources/supports, and reflection or evaluation. Action steps can be generated by each participant or cocreated with a team, identifying responsible parties for each action. The development, use, and evaluation of an action plan takes advantage of the power of reflection to support change in practice (Bleach, 2014).

Actions can be developed by participants or selected from a range of options provided by the presenter. If action steps are not incorporated into the presentation, the local provider could add the development of an action plan at the end of the session or during a follow-up coaching session or professional learning community meeting.

Participating teams complete action plans that are shared with the trainer; plans include details on activities, timeline, resources required, and individuals responsible.

Individuals leave the training with due dates for implementing each component of the newly learned practice and a plan to reconvene after each due date to reflect on implementation and outcomes.

Interdisciplinary teams develop a strategy, including the timeline and process, to provide ongoing professional development across all school staff on the instructional strategies that were covered during the training.

Indicator 20. Provides resources and technical assistance for continued learning.

One of the prominent characteristics of adult learners is a preference to control their own learning (Knowles, 1988). Presenters can provide resources to support additional learning about and implementation of the core components of the professional development’s innovation or content. Because the adult learner may prefer to access content in different formats, presenters are encouraged to provide support materials in a variety of formats (e.g., audio, video, text) that meet the needs of those who are new to a topic and for those who wish to delve more deeply into the content. Because the presenter is the expert, they should be encouraged to provide additional resources to support continued learning or implementation.

The presenter describes future trainings that directly build on the content from the current training.

The presenter shows participants where to find additional materials on the project website to support the learning objectives.

The presenter provides a link to online modules for more in-depth training on aspects of the content covered.

Indicator 21. Establishes ongoing, two-way communication (coaching) to improve the implementation fidelity of critical concepts.

The use of coaching as part of a professional development model is an evidence-based practice (Dunst et al., 2015; Joyce & Showers, 2002; Knight, 2009). Research on the effectiveness of professional development events suggests that participants require extended follow-up supports of sufficient duration and intensity to improve outcomes. Coaching is a sustained and embedded process that is developed within the cultural context of organizations (Dunst et al., 2015). Coaching, initiated as part of the learning design, has also been shown to increase the use of data monitoring to support implementation (Castillo et al., 2024). While the presenter may offer follow-up to questions or analysis of work, in most cases this will not constitute a coaching relationship. It is anticipated that the local provider will establish or take advantage of established coaching relationships to assist the participants in sustaining the core components of the innovation or content.

Project coaches schedule times with each participant to provide follow-up in-person and/or online support to increase fidelity in implementing the practice(s).

The presenter provides monthly 2-hour webinars to discuss barriers, strategize solutions, and share observed benefits of participation.

Participating district teams plan three follow-up meetings to review videos of their own classrooms, based on a performance rubric, and provide additional support to each other on how to continually refine implementation of the practices.

The presenter facilitates the selection of accountability partners (peer coaches) in which partners set multiple meeting times to discuss implementation and brainstorm solutions to challenges.

Project coaches offer support to district-level instructional coaches, who are tasked with providing ongoing, in-district coaching around the content.

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