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To provide our students in special education units with the most effective learning experiences in their new curriculum by implementing blended learning modules, we must first prepare our special education teachers with the proper professional development to achieve that goal. For this professional development plan, we will be using Allison Gulamhussein’s five key principles for effective professional development.

5 Principals of effective PD:

Duration

The duration of professional development must be significant and ongoing to allow time for teachers to learn a new strategy and grapple with the implementation problem. Professional development that is longer in duration has a greater impact on advancing teacher practice, and in turn, student learning.  It is said that teachers need at least 50 hours of instruction, practice and coaching before a new teaching strategy is mastered and implemented in class. PLs will be monthly meetings throughout the year.

Implementation Support

There must be support for a teacher during the implementation stage that addresses the specific challenges of changing classroom practice. Simply increasing the time teachers spend in professional development alone is not enough. Significant time has to be spent dedicated to supporting teachers during the implementation stage. Support at this stage helps teachers navigate the frustration that comes from using a new instructional method. The campus instructional specialist will meet with our special education teachers during their common planning period. Also, a group chat will be organized for all participant teachers who implement blended learning models, giving teachers the option to support each other. 

Active Learning

Teachers’ initial exposure to a concept should not be passive but rather should engage teachers through varied approaches so they can participate actively in making sense of a new practice. In the same way, students must first understand a concept before applying it; teachers need a thorough understanding of research or theory before attempting implementation in their classrooms. Therefore, attention must also be paid to how new practices are introduced. The design of this program is to teach special education teachers the “same way as the learners” through the use of engaging content, blended modalities, and conversations throughout the duration of each month’s session

Modeling 

Modeling is highly effective in helping teachers understand a new practice. When an expert demonstrates the new practice, modeling is particularly successful in assisting teachers in understanding and applying a concept and remaining open to adopting it. Special education teachers will visit classrooms currently using blended learning classes in different school districts. 

Content-Specific

The content presented to teachers shouldn’t be generic, but instead specific to the discipline (for middle school and high school teachers) or grade-level (for elementary school teachers). Several studies have shown that professional development that addresses discipline-specific concepts and skills has been shown to both improve teacher practice, as well as student learning.

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Collaboration.

The instructional specialist, alongside our special education teachers, will work together to bring a new way of teaching by implementing blended learning models to our campus for one common goal: to create student-centered learning environments. Another element of collaboration is that teachers will be able to visit each other’s classrooms to observe the implementation of strategies learned throughout the year of the plan. 

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Who Will Lead?

This program will be led initially by the Executive Director of Special Education GISD  with a selection of trained Learning Delivery Specialists who will act as program learning coaches.

 

The Needs Of The Audience 

The audience will be all-district educators and paraprofessionals and those who interact with students daily.  They will need support from the community as the district shifts to a student-centered learning environment and support from administrators and counselors. 

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Instructional Design of your PL:

The design of the blended learning PL will use Fink’s Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning as the main guide to implementing our new approach to PLs.

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Schedule and Timeline

The first cohort of this program will start in July 2022 and run monthly through December 2022. Upon completion of the first cohort, it is expected that the series will be reviewed for feedback, modifications, and enhancements to increase its effectiveness for the second cohort in January 2023. 

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                                                                                      References

Fink, L. D. (2003). A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning.

Jossey-Bass.

Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the Teachers Effective Professional Development in an Era of High Stakes Accountability. Center for Public Education. Retrieved from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/system/files/2013-176_ProfessionalDevelopment.pdf

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