PD Delivery Should Include Productive Activity and Professional Discourse

By Denise Uehara

Although the following plan for a two-hour workshop for grade 1-3 teachers illustrates two of the Pacific REL’s six standards for high-quality PD delivery, it is important to remember that any PD training should integrate all six standards. The standards highlighted in this scenario are facilitating learning and development through joint productive activity among PD providers and participants (Standard 1) and promoting learners’ expertise in professionally relevant discourse (Standard 2).

The overall goal of the workshop is to improve classroom instruction in early reading in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific, and the specific objective is to increase teachers’ understanding of grade-level expectations for student vocabulary. First, teachers indicate their expectations for student vocabulary, which a facilitator records. Next, they compare their expectations with education department standards. Finally, they participate in a joint productive activity, which is to develop grade-appropriate vocabulary word lists.

The role of the Pacific REL staff in the workshop is to facilitate the professionally relevant discourse that leads to the generation of the vocabulary word lists. An added benefit to this particular PD event is that the activity models a variety of approaches to learning new content – an important component of adult learning.

By Susan Andrews

A training with Awak Elementary School teachers in Pohnpei, one of the Federated States of Micronesia, illustrates two more of the Pacific REL standards for quality PD in action: it should be inclusive and responsive (Standard 6), and it should contextualize teaching, learning, and joint productive activity (Standard 3).

At Awak, follow-up activities for a Pacific REL large-group training were redesigned in order to work constructively within Pacific social conventions. Noticing that many participants in the large-group training were silent, the PD providers brainstormed ways of creating more inclusive follow-up activities. Realizing that in Pacific cultures gender and status often play important roles in determining who may speak in specific contexts, the trainers decided to substitute one-on-one coaching sessions in teachers’ classrooms instead of working in gender-balanced small groups as originally planned.

The trainers’ flexibility and sensitivity paid off. In this context, even the more silent participants responded to opportunities to comment and question, and facilitators were better able to assess individual levels of understanding and address specific needs. This alternative approach honored participants’ need to show respect, a fundamental Pacific value, while providing a context within which they were comfortable taking an active part in the teaching and learning process
(Standard 6). The one-to-one learning experience was also effective because
it drew on participants’ knowledge and skills as a foundation to build new
knowledge (Standard 3).