Professional Development 4 You

The Impact of Customized Teacher Professional Development

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          Are you struggling with providing professional development (PD) to both new and veteran teachers, sitting at performance rubric levels ranging from struggling to master teacher? How about ensuring quality onboarding for mid-year hires? You are not alone. Administrators nationwide are trying to balance the need for more development time with their teachers with the ever-present achievement gap, which has only worsened following the pandemic in 2020. The traditional one-size-fits-all model of providing initial training and ongoing PD leaves many teachers needing help to apply the pedagogy and techniques to their immediate context (Bondie, 2023). It is becoming increasingly evident that there needs to be a more customized continuing education experience to ensure that the learning and implementation of current best practices will succeed.  

Without proper support, teachers may feel ill-equipped to meet expectation levels and struggle to teach with efficacy. Data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) shows an increase in teachers who have either left the teaching profession or moved schools (2024). Figure 1 illustrates this increasing trend and provides a concerning forecast for the teacher turnover rate following the 2023-2024 school year. 

 Figure 1

Public School Teacher Attrition Percentage Forecast

Note:  Data source National Center for Education Statistics (2024).

^a All percentages of public-school teacher mobility rates between the 1991 and 2022 school year reported by the NCES pictured. The lack of data following the 2014 school year is due to a lack of this measurement reported by NCES.

Each vacant teaching position results in less continuity for students and the challenge of recruiting, hiring, and training a new educator.

Faced with this data, administrators must prioritize the well-being of their teaching staff. Indeed, research has demonstrated the significant impact “skilled and highly effective teach[ing]” has on student achievement (Yost et al., 2009, p.20). In a study exploring the impact of frequent quality teacher PD, Yost et al. (2009) report significant increases in teacher knowledge and implementation of strategies as well as higher achievement scores from students of teachers who participated in the additional PD as compared to students within the control group. Chaipidech et al. (2021) agree with the shifting needs of today's educators, referring to personalized PD as “increasingly crucial for teacher professional development” (p. 223).

The issue is not that administrators do not want to provide the best teacher professional development they can. Administrators have seen data proving that increases in growth and achievement begin with building up the teaching core. The heart of the issue is a challenge with which all educators are intimately familiar. Differentiation in the classroom has been considered a research-based approach for years and is an expectation of any proficient first-year teacher. This approach should be applied to teachers learners as well, allowing each to train within an environment where they are exposed to "optimum challenge[s]" and can recognize the applicability of presented strategies for their immediate circumstance (Bondie, 2023, p. 317). Presented with an impersonal and vague professional development series, teachers' ability to access and understand the content and strategies depends on their past experiences and teaching abilities (Bondie, 2023). 

So why is customized or personalized teacher professional development the answer? It is one of several strategies needing implementation to improve the support of America's teaching core; amazingly, it is also a strategy that is defined, effective, and modeled in the classroom. Van Schoors et al. (2023) describe personalized learning as being centered around and driven by the learner, which is the teacher in the case of professional development. The effectiveness of personalized teacher professional development is supported by current studies demonstrating increased teacher motivation and understanding (Salinas & DeBenito, 2020; Shemshack & Spector, 2020). 

A study conducted by Arnesen et al. (2019) demonstrated that teachers who participated in personalized professional development felt better prepared to implement this and other instructional strategies in their classrooms. Similarly, Bajwa (2020) found teachers better equipped to formulate learning objectives, a key component of effective teaching. Furthermore, students of teachers afforded personalized professional development and real-time feedback demonstrate increased academic performance, as shown in a study conducted by Copur-Gencturk et al. (2023), in which students demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in mathematics. It should come as no surprise that implementing a research-based instructional strategy within teacher professional development programs would positively impact teacher learning and effectiveness.

The logistical challenges of personalized professional development have long prevented its widespread successful implementation. However, current research suggests that the most effective and efficient method to increase academic growth and achievement is to equip and support classroom teachers. It is time for administrators to invest in personalized teacher professional development programs to support better outcomes for teachers and students. Moreover, the data collected throughout teacher participation allows administrators to monitor teacher growth and conduct analyses to inform critical decisions concerning future professional development needs.  Combined with another proven best practice, data-driven instruction, administrators can better support the growth and development of Education's most valuable asset, the teacher.

 References

Arnesen, K. T., Graham, C. R., Short, C. R., & Archibald, D. (2019). Experiences with personalized learning in a blended teaching course for preservice teachers. Journal of Online Learning Research, 5(3), 251–274.

Bondie, R. (2023). Exploring personalized learning and open education pedagogy in multilingual learner teacher preparation, Online Learning, 27(4), 315–347.

Bajwa, N. M., De Grasset, J., Audétat, M.-C., Jastrow, N., Richard-Lepouriel, H., Dominicé Dao, M., Nendaz, M. R., & Junod Perron, N. (2020). Training junior faculty to become clinical teachers: The value of personalized coaching. Medical Teacher, 42(6), 663–672. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2020.1732316 

Chaipidech, P., Kajonmanee, T., Chaipah, K., Panjaburee, P., & Srisawasdi, N. (2021). Implementation of an andragogical teacher professional development training program for boosting TPACK in STEM education: The essential role of a personalized learning system. Educational Technology & Society, 24(4), 220–239.

Copur-Gencturk, Y., Li, J., Cohen, A. S., & Orrill, C. H. (2024). The impact of an interactive, personalized computer-based teacher professional development program on student performance: A randomized controlled trial. Computers & Education, p. 210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104963 

National Center for Education Statistics. (2050). Digest of Education Statistics, 2005. U.S. Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d05/tables/dt05_073.asp 

National Center for Education Statistics. (2015). Digest of Education Statistics, 2015. U.S. Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15/tables/dt15_210.30.asp 

Salinas, J., & De-Benito, B. (2020). Construction of personalized learning pathways through mixed methods. Comunicar:   Media Education Research Journal, 28(65), 31-41.

Shemshack, A., & Spector, J. M. (2020). A systematic review of personalized learning terms. Smart Learn. Environ., 7, 33. Doi.org/10.1186/s40561-020-00140-9 

Yost, D. S., Vogel, R., & Rosenberg, M. D. (2009). Transitioning from teacher to instructional leader. Middle School Journal (J3), 40(3), 20–27. https://doi.org/https://www.nmsa.org/Publications/MiddleSchoolJournal/Articles/January2009/tabid/1818/Default.aspx