BRIAN WHITSON
  • Home
  • My Story
  • My Blog
  • My Portfolio
  • DesignThinking

#ChangetheEquation

Bias in Professional Learning Design

6/20/2018

0 Comments

 
I have spent today working with the North Carolina Digital Coaches Leadership Network (NCDLCN) in Asheville.  NCDLCN is administered by the Friday Institute and funded through the NC Legislature.  I  have worked with NCDLCN over the course this year as a mentor and attended it last year as a participant.  NCDLCN has been a great opportunity to transform into a stronger coach to better support teachers to improve student learning.  I am very appreciative for this opportunity.  While I had many "aha" moments today, one experienced that stood out occurred during the mentor session where we investigated effective professional learning.  We looked specifically at how we create professional learning experiences with our school staffs and how adults view professional learning opportunities.  One specific take-away that I had involved the idea of "creator bias."  As a person who is charged with creating powerful and transformative professional learning, I always strive to create professional learning opportunities that engage staff members and help them improve student learning.  But I had never considered the role of my individual bias toward creating these sessions.  I am partial to interpersonal activities such as discussions and forums.  I strongly feel that conversations allow individuals to synthesize their thoughts.  While I still believe that this is an effective strategy to incorporate into professional learning, it helped me realize that some teachers may find this kind of activity or other activity stressful since it may not be inline with their particular strengths or aptitudes.  This also leads to a larger epiphany  that professional learning should include a variety of strategies to appeal to all learning styles.  Additionally, activities should be geared to compliment the identified strengths of all staff members.  Those, like me, who offer professional learning must incorporate and play to the strengths of those receiving the professional learning.  With the creation of any professional learning, we must apply UID in which we begin with the "end in mind" and determine the learning outcomes.  We must carefully choose strategies and activities that best serve all staff involved.  As I begin planning my professional learning development for the coming year, I will definitely be aware of my personal bias and will activity incorporate the strengths of teachers that I am serving.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Brian's Blog

    The ideas shared here are my own and do not necessarily represent my employers, associations, or organizations.  These thoughts are entirely my own.

    Archives

    July 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • My Story
  • My Blog
  • My Portfolio
  • DesignThinking