Further reflections on Friday’s professional development
I’ve been thinking a lot about why Overland Trail’s professional development was so good. Here’s my list:
- It built on what they’ve already done. Last year they worked on clarity of target, and providing feedback is crucial in moving students closer to the target.
- It was really well planned. A lot of thought, a lot of time, and a lot of conversation must have gone into putting that together, involving a lot of people.
- It was taken seriously. Really, it was an enormous role-playing exercise, and if not taken seriously it would have bombed.
- It combined making an abstract concept concrete with an emotional experience. That means the people will a) remember it and b) think about it.
- It set the stage for future learning. Not a one-off, a drive-by, a random act of professional development.
During the debrief, the teachers identified through their experience all the important features of effective feedback. They can look at summaries of the research and see how close they were and how it can best be used. And all that will mean more to them because they experienced it themselves Friday morning.
Is that a useful and accurate assessment?
