TFI 1.7, Professional Development, calls for a written process to be used when orienting all faculty/staff to the four core Tier 1 SWPBIS practices: teaching school-wide expectations, acknowledging appropriate behavior, correcting errors, and requesting assistance. The Every Student Succeeds Act calls professional development an integral part of an educator’s work, and says for an activity to be described as high-quality professional development, it must meet these six criteria, which are shared in a recent PBISApps article (Cave, 2023): Sustained, Intensive, Collaborative, Job-embedded, Data-driven, and Classroom-focused. Creating high quality professional learning throughout the school year takes ongoing and purposeful planning.
- Ensure professional learning meets the standard of “High Quality”
A checklist, such as those designed by Kansas Technical Assistance System Network or PBIS Missouri may be useful to provide guidance as you develop professional learning for staff. They may also be used afterwards to provide an opportunity for reflection and feedback on any professional learning event.
- Collect, analyze, and use evaluation feedback
Intentionally building in reflection time for staff to provide feedback following each professional learning event is critical to ensuring that learning experiences build upon one another, meet the needs of the participants, and achieve the desired outcomes. Intentionally responding to this data is a key piece in demonstrating value for staff participation in decision-making around their learning. Consider these quick opportunities for collecting open-ended feedback:
- Provide supports and ongoing feedback to enhance professional learning
Tier 1 professional development engages all staff in professional learning to ensure common understanding of new concepts and skills. Providing Tier 1 professional learning on each of the six essential classroom PBIS practices is critical: physical environments, teaching matrix and procedures/routines, active supervision, encouraging appropriate behavior, continuum of response strategies for inappropriate behaviors and engagement & multiple opportunities to respond. It is then important to consider that some staff may need additional instruction, which may be available through asynchronous means, such as viewing a Midwest PBIS Network Module, perhaps paired with a mentor or coach practicing with them to build skill fluency. Some staff may need more individualized support, such as having a peer or coach model the practice and provide individual coaching and feedback. This is why developing a culture for coaching within a school is invaluable.
Feedback has a strong effect size as a best practice and is a critical component of high quality professional learning. (Hattie, 2018) Whether it is provided by a peer, coach or an administrator, giving and receiving feedback is as important for teachers as it is for students. Read How to Give Teachers Better Feedback (Valenzuela, 2022) to find out what teachers want and need when it comes to feedback.
- Collect data on practices to provide objective feedback
Just as formative assessments are used to monitor and respond to academic instructional needs, collecting baseline data on how classroom PBIS practices are being used allows individual teachers, teacher teams, and even a whole school the ability to determine where additional professional learning may be needed to increase skill level and fidelity of implementation of effective classroom practices. Consider how staff could provide objective feedback by using this Classroom Observation Data Collection Form, one practice at a time, to measure and then prioritize professional learning needs. Consider how you can cultivate a culture of coaching that embeds this process within your current staff support system and frames it as an opportunity for learning and growth.
- Develop a Culture of Coaching
We all have strengths and weaknesses, and we all can benefit from growing together. Have you ever considered Peer Coaching? “Peer coaching is when teachers of similar or equal status support each other through mutual problem solving, observations, collaborative teaching, and planning. The aim being to improve upon skills through reflection and collaboration without evaluation. In addition to helping teachers transfer new skills into their own classrooms, peer coaching also facilitates the development of a culture of learning, experimentation, and collegiality.” (Patzer, 2023) How might you promote, model, and provide support around your area(s) of strength?
References
California Academy of Sciences. (n.d.). Feedback and assessment in professional learning. California Academy of Sciences. https://www.calacademy.org/educators/feedback-and-assessment-in-professional-learning
Cave, M. (2023a, November 14). PBISApps: Teach by design-anatomy of a framework part 4: Professional development. PBISApps.org. https://www.pbisapps.org/articles/anatomy-of-a-framework-part-4-prof-dev
Hattie, J. (2018). Hattie Effect Size List – 256 influences related to achievement . VISIBLE LEARNING. https://visible-learning.org/hattie-ranking-influences-effect-sizes-learning-achievement/
Kansas Technical Assistance System Network. (2020, May). Observation checklist for high-quality professional development (HQPD checklist). KSDE TASN. https://www.ksdetasn.org/resources/368
Midwest PBIS Network. (2019, April). Classroom practices. Midwest PBIS. https://www.midwestpbis2.org/training-content/tier-1-and-classroom/classroom-practices
Missouri PBIS. (2017). Checklist for High Quality Professional learning (HQPD) Training. https://pbismissouri.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/9.1-Checklist-for-High-Quality-Professional-Learning-HQPD-Training.pdf
Patzer, R. (2023b, November 9). Coaching for Teachers: What School Leaders Need to Consider. December 1, 2023, https://blog.irisconnect.com/uk/coaching-for-teachers#third
Valenzuela, J. (2022, June 23). How to Give Teachers Better Feedback. Edutopia.org. https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-give-teachers-better-feedback/
Virginia Tiered Systems of Support. (n.d.). Classroom Observation Data Collection Forms. https://vtss-ric.vcu.edu/. https://vtss-ric.vcu.edu/media/vtss-ric/documents/s2s-strand-2/2021-22/ClassroomObservationDataCollectionForms.docx
