Virtual Professional Learning for Leaders of Learning

The Challenge: How to support school principals to develop a solution brief for creating an exceptional school-based professional learning program.

The Real World Setting: You are a principal preparing to develop the first 90 days of a school-based professional learning program for approximately 50 teachers in a [Select an elementary, middle, or high school]. Based on mixed results from previous PD programs, you want this professional learning program to be exceptional — that is, something teachers will value and will become habitual and passionate about. As you review available resources about quality professional learning, you notice the familiar buzz words such as buy-in, choice, collaboration, self-paced, relevant to the classroom, practical not theoretical. But you’ve tried those concepts for the past decade and it didn’t seem to matter. And there is no evidence they improved PD, teaching, and learning in your school.

So, you decide to "think out of the education box" to find out why people get motivated, become addicted to quality brands, and engage in job-related learning activities that improve their performance. Your goal is to transfer what you learn to begin building your school’s strategy for an exceptional professional learning program.

You decide to develop a solution brief with an online tool to share it virtually with your Professional Learning Team to stimulate their thinking and initiate team discussion about a strategy for exceptional professional learning. Your goal with this approach is to assist all Professional Learning Team members and, ultimately all teachers, to contribute and embrace an exceptional professional learning program.

So, what do you think a virtual professional learning program for principals would look like to help them get started on this challenge? We value and welcome your ideas for solving this challenge. Please add your comments below. Want to benchmark other solutions?