Designing Purposeful Professional Learning for Mid-Career Teachers

Dr. Jennifer Reichel:

I hope that you all are here to learn a little bit more about characteristics of professional development that mid-career teachers say that they need. That was the topic of my dissertation research and I’m really eager to share. So thanks again. I want to begin with gratitude and that is a lovely way to begin, isn’t it? I want us to be thankful and share my thanks for my research participants who took the time to share their professional learning stories. I learned a lot about great learning experiences and very disheartening learning experiences, which led me to the research I’m able to share with you today. I am so thankful for the leaders and facilitators out there and in my world who have created and who continue to lead meaningful learning experiences. I’m thankful for educators both in my system and across spaces for making the commitment to learn and grow to even better serve our students because that’s why we’re here.

And a special thanks to GoReact for inviting me to share and for those of you who chose to set aside time to join me today. Thank you. So as was shared, my name is Jen Reel and I serve as the director of teaching and learning for Madai Public Schools, which is a suburb of the Twin Cities in Minnesota. I also serve as an adjunct professor for the University of St. Thomas. I teach a J-term course for those who are making their way through their principal and director of special ed licensure. And very recently I have become a community leader with the A-S-C-D-C organization. I have a deep appreciation for adult learning theory, love facilitating and coaching others to design and deliver engaging, interactive learning experiences. And my dissertation research really explored those characteristics of learning experiences that mid-career teachers, those not new to the profession, but those who have a tool bag full of tools that they described as meaningful and fun.

Fact, I love meetings. Truly I do. So my intentions for today, I want to share the research from the participants and the connected theories so there’s an academic component to what you’re here for today. I want to lift up those teacher stories of their expertise and show connection to the research that exists out there. And then I want to make it meaningful for you. So unlike some webinars, my intention is to invite participation. And so I invite, I’ll have places for you to add to the chat so we can learn together. And I’m going to offer some reflective questions to help you apply the learning so it’s not just about doing the things and learning, but I’ll give you some questions that you can use as you plan professional learning experiences for folks outside of this. And then I will set aside time for you to, during the presentation, jot some notes down.

So if you want to have a little index card pad of paper or some post-it notes next to you, you might use those and as was stated in the beginning, drop questions in the q and a anytime so that we can answer them. Alright, so here we go. Think about some professional learning experiences that you’ve engaged in and what stands out as making them meaningful for you. If you haven’t already done so, make sure to amend your permissions in the chat so that you’re speaking to everyone and not only the hosts and panelists. And share with us what are the qualities, what stands out as making a professional learning experience meaningful for you. Go ahead and drop those ideas in the chat right now.

Yeah, love that immediate usefulness. We have to be able to take that away, Rebecca. Yes, that active engagement so that you’re not just sitting and getting for sure. Oh, look at that. Those common themes coming up transcends classroom, but really helps to inform how you are taking things away. Your ideas in the chat are making me really excited. Here’s what I invite you to do. As you are learning some of the things that I learned during my research process, I want you to think about the amazing ideas that you had and how connected they are to the research. So yay you for already knowing some amazing things. Just a little bit of why did I choose this particular topic that mid-career and what do professional learning experiences. And it really started with my own professional learning experiences and as I watched teacher colleagues as they engaged, and there are really three big idea things that I’d want to share or two.

So with the Junior Great Books Foundation, I had an opportunity when I was a middle school teacher to do that training and it transformed how I approached learning experiences with kids in my classroom. And I was able to apply that from sixth grade on. I have been a teacher of anywhere from grade six to grade 12. So junior grade books was my first as a learner going, wow, this learning experience really impacted not only what I did the next day, but how I planned my lessons from then on. And then on the flip side, avid, which was something I didn’t experience as a classroom teacher, but as a leader of learning. We initiated the AVID program in a district previous to where I am now and again in this district. And what I saw was people who were good teachers who participated in this learning and it lit a fire within them and it made them great teachers because they were excited and invigorated and reconnected to the work they do with kids.

So I wanted to see what is it about experiences like junior grade books and AVID that make learning experiences applicable and fire lighting if you will. So my research just to give grounding for those of you who like me maybe are some work nerds because that’s a term that I wear with pride, I really wanted to create scholarly work that was actionable. And so I chose a grounded theory methodology, which is about creating a theory that comes out of the research that can be used to apply across the landscape. I interviewed teachers from around the United States and the only parameter is that they needed to have between eight and 20 years of experience. And I’ll talk a little bit about what is it about those years that led to those parameters. And a theoretical framework emerged from the analysis of my findings and I paired that with some guiding questions so that practitioners like you can use it when considering, when designing, when facilitating professional learning experiences.

So that’s how did we get here today? As you all likely know, there were a number of areas in our practice in education that really catalyzed my desire to focus on this in the research. We know that schools and districts address a whole lot of mandates, initiatives, expectations that demand both time and resources and we have to have an impact on how we allocate those resources. According to a study done by TNTP that they wrote about in a document called Mirage, they noted that billions of dollars annually in the United States are allocated to professional development and there’s an increased expectation to be accountable to demonstrate results. A fact that many folks aren’t aware of. There’s research around educators and the stages they move throughout their career. And a majority of teachers you may recognize this inferentially encounter something called career frustration, and it’s particularly during the midpoint of their career.

And finally, hat notes that among the most powerful influences on student learning is what teachers know do and care about, which leads to why professional learning is so important to me and hopefully to you too. So as I shared in my research, the stories and the analysis of data led to what I’ve called the mid-career professional development design framework. This catchy little icon on the right of the screen is how I visualize that theory and really what it says is interactive and contextualized experiences led by facilitators with perceived expertise while being cognizant of the demands and perception of time is what we need to do for educators. That seems like a mouthful, so I’m going to just dig right into that. Let’s do some introductions in the chat. I know that some of you shared, I’m going to ask that you put your professional role in and one of your professional areas of expertise and what gives you credibility. Before you do that though, I’m going to model that for you because that’s one of the things that came out of my research is that it’s really helpful to know what does this look like in practice. And so we’re going to take a micro piece of that and say if I were to add to the chat, I would put director of TNL an adjunct professor. Why don’t you take a moment and just drop in. What’s your role in that chat?

Looks like we have some curriculum specialists and instructional coaches, curriculum director, designer, supervisor. Oh, lovely. Look at that. And Lucy Payne and I know Lucy Payne. I love to see you here. Thanks for joining us today, Lucy. All right. Oh, look at that, Benjamin, you have a whole lot of professional roles going on there. Fabulous. So then the next question I have for you, thinking about what is one of your professional areas of expertise and what gives you credibility? What I would write is adult learning and education. That’s one of my areas of expertise and what gives me credibility, my research and facilitation of lots of learning experiences. Go ahead and think about what is one, your professional areas of expertise, what gives you that credibility? This one takes a little bit more typing and a little bit more thinking, doesn’t it? Yeah. Thinking about that one area of expertise you likely have lots and what gives you that credibility? Oh, nice book coming out. That’s a great way to show your expertise.

Fabulous. Lots of of expertise. That’s great. Keep those things coming in the chat and I’m going to share a little bit about you with you. Why did I ask you to do that? Well, according to my research, practitioners value social experiences that allow meaningful discourse with colleagues who have similar roles, experiences, affinity or mindsets. So think about in the professional learning or you design or facilitate, how might you encourage opportunities for discourse with role alike or some sort of experience alike colleagues, this is one of those questions that you might want to jot down on a notepad, not necessarily in the chat as you’re doing that. One of the things that came out from the research is really having time. And unfortunately in a webinar experience, I replicated that ish by asking you to share what your experiences are so that you could make connections in the virtual invisible landscape, but in a longer professional learning experience, I would invite those breakout rooms so that you could get together with those level alike or content alike or role alike groups. So thinking about in the work that you do, what’s one tweak you could make to make sure that role alike folks have an opportunity for sustained discourse?

All right, I’m going to move us on. So I talked about how mid-career teachers go through stages in their development. All teachers do, but I focused on the mid-career. An important thing to note is independent of the researcher and I have this blocked out into three chunks, those are three different folks who did research in any of them. The researcher states that the stages are dynamic. So not every teacher goes through every stage and stays there for the same duration. Some teachers are consistently in one stage and don’t move into other stages. Some folks might start in one that appears further to the right and then we’ll jump back to another and cycle between different stages. And the graphic to the left, these are the premier researchers in that area. I want you to think about with that bottom box with Huberman whose research really was the foundation, even though it says up there, Burke, it was in 87, I think Huberman had some longer standing research. Think about which of those four stages currently best describes your experience.

Just tuck that in the back of your mind. And the reason that I like to share this, the stages of development is really when we think about professional learning experiences, teachers in different stages of their career value, different things from the learning experiences. And one of the common pieces that comes out for folks who are in the middle I will talk about in just a bit right now. So Carstensen shared a theory called the socioemotional selectivity theory, and it talks about what employees need based on their role longevity. So a person who, if you look at that top arrow, it goes from the left expansive, which means there is much time left in their role. The time is expansive remaining in what they’re intending to do. And on the right limited people see an end coming to this particular role. The time that they have that they perceive is left in their particular role or career really shifts the way that they orient their goals when it comes to that professional experience.

So those who are new, this is the application, those who are new to the profession really want to explore and build that tool bag if you will, take in as much new information as they can. And those folks who are in the middle or the end of their career really value experiences where they can offer their mentorship or expertise and support the system or their colleagues. And so the more we can orient learning experiences that help folks really dig into and align their work with that goal orientation, the better. The bottom of the chart, we talk about the kinds of experiences that are preferred. So if we look on that right-hand side for a mid-career and later we want activities or experiences that have gains, what can I apply tomorrow? I want to think about my whole self in the work that I do, which came out in the chat earlier, I want to deepen existing relationships, which is both that role like, but where we find grade level teams and content teams who want to spend time together to deepen that existing relationship, they want to enhance that expertise, connect to the emotional meeting, not only the practicality and just increasing life satisfaction.

Yeah, thanks for the comments coming in in the chat. That’s fabulous. So thinking about this, the SST, the socio-emotional selectivity theory, consider in your head where do you find yourself on the continuum and what from this aligns with your experience. And then I invite you to take that last questions, what implications might this theory have on your professional practice? And drop an idea in the chat, what implications might this career stages and professional preferences have on your professional practice? Go ahead and drop your ideas in the chat. I know, Antoinette, that you had shared that your comment prior to my invitation and your right spot on, really thinking about different ways to orient those groups. Modalities, color, personality, expertise, you bet anyone else interested in sharing, what implications might this theory have on your professional practice? Yeah, nice idea Rebecca. Really thinking about that where people have some energy, people who want to learn new things together or go deeper together. It’s a great idea. How about one more idea in the chat and then we’ll move on.

Alright, so thank you for adding that next one, Martha. I appreciate it. So today I’m going to spend a little bit of time in each of these three boxes. So while my theory talks about contextualized interactive learning led by those who are perceived to have expertise, being mindful of time, we’re going to do the interaction, but I’m not going to talk a whole lot about it. Ooh, look at all those ideas coming in. That’s fabulous. So those are the three that I’m going to focus a little bit more into today. So when it comes to expertise, the research, this is how the left hand side is how I organize the stories that came in from my participants. And really what this suggests is that our mid-career teachers or those who are not new to the profession really like to have some choice in the learning and they want a facilitator who understands that they want a facilitator who understands how to model and invite movement and who can take that learning and provide some extensions beyond just knowing the facts of it.

And so thinking about meaningful stories, personal anecdotes, having that authentic connection, a deep well of expertise that goes beyond, here’s what the slide says I’m going to say, but having that deep understanding that can be added. And so that expertise is really a balance of that content knowledge and authentic experience and the understanding of what adults in the room need in here are. I’m going to share with you here are four questions and this might be a good screen grab, but I will also at the end, I have a QR code where you can scan that and have access to all of the questions that align with each of the areas. So if you don’t want to have a whole bunch of screen grabs, you can wait for the QR code at the end. But here are four questions that you could consider as you are designing or facilitating an experience where you want to be mindful of expertise. I think this is also super helpful if you are someone who helps to set the agenda for professional learning or find consultation to bring into whatever your space is, how can you make sure that the person coming in has the kind of expertise that’s valued by the folks in your organization?

So here’s the application part of that thinking about how do you determine who has access to providing learning experiences. If you are someone who can tap people on the shoulder or if you direct that, how do you navigate whether or not they have the necessary authentic content expertise? How might you prepare a school or an organization demographics one pager to share with consultants and facilitators that highlights the expertise that’s already on your staff and how might you demonstrate if you are the presenter, demonstrate your authentic expertise. I had a participant in my study talk about somebody who did a presentation and they had read a book and that was the extent of their expertise. And there were other folks in the room who had also read the book. And so they felt that there wasn’t much value because they had already done that learning and that wasn’t awesome for our practitioners.

All right, I’m going to move us along and in the chat share one action step that you’ll consider regarding expertise and we’ll grab those and at the end we can take a look at ideas that you might use. If not in the chat, go ahead and write on your index card or post-it note or a sheet of paper that you have next to you. I’m going to jump to the next piece. So we talked about expertise or perceived expertise of the facilitator. The next chunk, when we think about meaningful professional learning, it needs to be contextualized. So the participants in my study talked about they wanted learning experiences that were meant for their content or for their student demographic or for the things that were happening in the historical context, what was happening in the world. And one of my participants talked about an amazing experience where she learned how to navigate classroom discussions that were tied to a novel but had some potential political influences and wanting to navigate that in a way that invited student perspective but didn’t devolve into an argument in class. And so understanding the political climate that learning experience for her was exactly what she needed based on her context. I had another participant talk about some literacy training. If you are anything in your state, like in Minnesota, we have a statewide initiative that is helping us focus on literacy. And so when we think about those who are participating in the learning and the applicability to the students in their care, that is for some what they need right now.

Here are the questions that you might use when you think about what part of your organization’s context may be helpful, thinking about local or national events that might have an impact on students or staff. That might be an important context and it may not be what integral initiatives or strategic plan pillars might be pulled in? What’s important to know and address about the school’s student body? If you have a ton of students who are eligible for educational benefits and the presentation is all about taking expensive trips, well there’s going to be a mismatch there and it doesn’t seem to be contextually aligned. Thinking about the educator expertise so that we truly are valuing the participants in the room and what they already know and how are we going to take them to the next level. So thinking about those guiding questions, here’s how you might internalize that contextualized learning.

How might you invite perspective from those who are going to participate to figure out what matters most to them as far as context? How might you, again, like in the last set of questions, prepare a school demographics one pager to share with consultants or facilitators so that they understand what is the meaningful context? And the consultant or facilitator or you, if you’re in that space, can make sure that there’s an intentional alignment. How might you ensure the context that matters to your learning participants is incorporated. So even though you might know the context, how do you add that and then take a moment, an action step that you might consider about context.

Annette, you are on a roll in the chat and I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, nice, Martha. Having participants themselves make those connections, it’s a great way to do that. The final piece, when the research came to be there was this consistent conversation and the use of the word time. And when the participants in my research talked about time, they talked about it in two ways. They wanted folks to be or presenters, facilitators, consultants who are leading learning experiences both to honor the idea that time is a valuable commodity and oh, I’m so sorry, Antoinette, thank you that it’s important to value the parameters that you put around time, but also to be mindful of the language that they use. And so the three bullet points I have here, they wanted dedicated sustained time to process, which includes meaningful discourse that’s aligned to their day-to-day experiences, which again connects with making sure that folks are in role alike, subject alike, something where that discourse can be meaningful and applicable to tomorrow or within the next week.

They wanted opportunities to share their expertise and offer mentorship. And the piece that really was interesting to me and that I’m eager to do more research about is time related coded language, thinking about time as a commodity and that power related transactional language. Oftentimes when there is somebody who’s leading learning and they use language that is, I’m going to give you, I’m going to gift you some time, I’m going to allow, creates a pretty significant power dynamic that was recognized particularly by those mid-career teachers. And it made them aware of when they were able to truly engage in the experience and when they felt a significant disconnect. So as I thought about all of this that came from the participants here, it led me to these questions that helps me in my day-to-day work as I’m planning experiences for teachers, for administrators and for colleagues, these are my go-to questions.

How will the way that I use time demonstrate my value of the participants beginning on time, ending on time, making sure that what adults need from the experience is that flexibility and really thinking about how does time play into that? How will I plan a structure or an experience so that participants can enhance relationships, cultivate expertise in areas of perceived strength? How will my learning activities support those practical takeaways? And short-term goal realization, going back to that socio-emotional selectivity theory, thinking about those who have more limited time want short-term application and making sure that there’s a feel of some mentorship. And I’ve really tried to become more aware of how I use language connected to time to minimize that transaction related language so that I am not the one giving or gifting or allocating. And that’s been really tricky because I think that’s part of dominant culture in our country. And that’s one of the things that I acknowledged is as I did this research, it was in the United States, and as we likely know, the way that we perceive time in the US is very different culturally to other parts of the world. And I would suspect, well, I don’t know, I would suspect that from this component of the theory would play out very differently in different cultures.

So thinking about the application, I would invite you to consider these two questions. How might you plan your experiences to demonstrate the value of participants’ time? What are you going to do intentionally? And then how might you internalize and minimize the power dynamics associated with language surrounding time? Would be very curious for those who are interested to share in the chat some ideas that you might have around either of those questions. Oh, Cheryl, I hear you. That choice, it’s interesting. One of the things that came out from the research is two avenues of choice. Very wanted to completely self-direct their learning because of the heavy lift that it takes in designing and finding the resources. And so it was limited, but providing some choice that are all aligned to help bring coherence to the system was one of the things that was shared. And so Cheryl, when you say how do we invite that choice? And then if folks don’t know what they don’t know, they may not know how to direct their learning. It’s gathering that information, making a plan that addresses and then inviting choice within it is what many of the folks that I had the opportunity to listen to shared.

So as we’re nearing that 40 to 45 minutes, I would invite you to think about what is your most realistic bite-size action step related to contextualized learning led by someone with perceived expertise, being cognizant of time, what’s your one thing that you might want to consider as you plan, organize and support professional learning experiences? Sarah, I love what you said. Taking a pause to invite that processing that is in alignment with many of what the participants shared in my research was that sustained discourse different from a turn and talk about this. They wanted time to get deeper. Often a turn and talk is a great way to do that with more new teachers who want that newness and want to build lots of different relationships and go find a new partner. But our teachers who have expertise really wanted give me the same partner or the same small groups so that I can with each follow-up question, go deeper because I already know something about the people with whom I’m having discourse.

Any other action steps? I love that Rebecca, giving time to collaborate, discuss, and build relationships and setting that intention out front is a great way to honor. This is part of what we’re going to do today because here’s what I know about, I had the opportunity to learn about folks in their career and one of the things I learned is they need an opportunity to have discourse. So today I’m structuring this learning to align with that. Sarah, how cool is that? Mid-career teacher dissertation buddies. Yeah, Benjamin, I agree. Being able to invite people to internalize their intent and purpose, I think that sets facilitators up for an awareness of how to better meet needs.

Yeah, Cheryl, I think you’re right on is here’s the theme, but here are different ways to go after it. One of the things that one of my participants talked about was in her district they were having systems wide equity, professional learning, and she’s an EL teacher and so she has done a ton of learning and she said, if I see a cultural iceberg given to me one more time, I might throw up. And she really did say that. And so being able to choose how she wanted to deepen and enhance her learning provided some more ownership of that experience. But it was also, she said comforting to know that she could talk to anyone across her building or across the district and know that there was some thematic commonalities, but that she could also engage in learning and learn something new just by debriefing that professional learning experience.

Yeah, that’s great. Thanks for your conversation. So as we wrap up and provide time for q and a, I would love to connect with you. The QR code in the bottom left will get you to the entire list of the questions for contextualized learning, considering time led with expertise, but you’ll also have access to the questions that are about interactive and those might help you as you think about that. Go ahead and email me if you’d like anytime. I have a newly designed website called Elevate PLD, professional learning design that you can email me there or hop onto my website and there are some resources there. Or feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn if you have follow-up questions, I’d love to check in. I’m going to at this point stop sharing and hand it over to Erin.

Erin Grubbs:

Yeah, thank you. That was probably one of the most interactive webinars we’ve had, so I appreciate everybody’s comments and participation. And as we mentioned, if you guys do have q and a, feel free to use that function down the bottom of your screen. In the meantime, I think they’ve been kind of asking questions throughout. So in the meantime, one question that I had, and I think you touched on a little bit, but maybe you can summarize lots of great activities for the teachers themselves, but how can leadership and stakeholders support some of what you’ve mentioned to really make sure that they do have the time and the ability to focus on this and group them by their expertise, like you mentioned?

Dr. Jennifer Reichel:

Yeah, I think as Cheryl was commenting in the chat, being able to think about how do we provide some choice but not a free for all choice because we know as school districts, schools systems and higher ed that there are some things where we need to do learning around. We might have mandates or we might have expectations, but how might we offer choice within either the way to approach it, the people with whom they may approach it or different nuances to that learning. I would also say figuring out how can you package in a one pager, if you will, the things that are most important to the teachers, the educators in your organization. And whether that’s when we focus on at a school level, what are the things that any person who designs or delivers or comes in to do professional learning, what do they need to know about the staff? And then when we think about our higher ed folks thinking about as an organization, who are the students that we serve and what expertise do our faculty already have so we’re not wasting time redoing learning experiences that have already happened because people want to learn but they don’t want to repeat learning.

Erin Grubbs:

Yeah, no, that definitely makes sense. We had another one come in from Aaron. Thank you. What was the biggest surprise from you as you went through your research and your dissertation?

Dr. Jennifer Reichel:

That’s a really great question. One of the things in grounded theory methodology, I’m going to go research and then I’ll come back to that practicality. The methodology itself is interview a person, analyze their data, interview a second person, and then analyze their data in context with that first person. And the intention is to continue to interview until you’ve saturated that you have no new ideas. That came in. And it was impressive to me how consistent folks were about the things that they wanted or needed. And it was very similar to what you all said as in that introductory question, what do you want from a meaningful learning experience? I think the surprise in the area that intrigues me and wants me to learn more is that idea about time. It wasn’t a surprise that folks value start on time, end on time. Don’t even keep me two minutes later because it is a judgment on people’s value as a human being because time is part of our culture is sort of intertwined, but that idea of transactional language around time is an area that I’m like, Ooh, what other research has been done on that and how might that have informed things that I’ve been doing forever in professional learning and interacting with folks that I unintentionally was putting some power dynamics when I didn’t intend to.

Erin Grubbs:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, even as a manager, I can see how that value of time and how you kind of frame it, it’s completely important. I think we’re going to do one more question. We have another webinar at the top of the hour. So what impact do you think some of this research and the professional learning has on retention knowing the teacher shortages that we’re seeing right now?

Dr. Jennifer Reichel:

Yeah, I think one of the things that we have really spent time with as educational institutions, especially since covid has been about burnout and capacity. And so I think the more intentional we can be with our learning experiences that are seen as valuable and not another thing that is disconnected from the day-to-day work, I think helps us to improve capacity. When folks see, oh, this allows me to do this tomorrow differently in a way that makes my job easier or makes it more impactful, that is a no-brainer. And so I think when we are mindful of capacity and use these experiences to hammer that out, I think we’re on track.

Erin Grubbs:

Nice. Thank you. So I think that’s going to conclude our webinar. So thank you Jennifer, for the excellent presentation provided a ton of key takeaways that I think people can implement right away. So that’s awesome. And thank you to our attendees for joining and making this so interactive. We hope to see you on a future GoReact webinar and have a great week. Bye guys.