A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

The Policy Dilemma

1. The well-tested models of skill development, built on the staff development and implementation-of-innovations literatures, will work reasonably well to introduce those aspects of reforms that are "technical," or can be rendered as a repertoire of classroom practices. Among the possibilities generated by the five streams of reform, for example, are training programs in which outside experts or experienced colleagues introduce teachers to various models of cooperative learning, to the uses of manipulatives in mathematics instruction, or to methods for organizing portfolio assessment of students work. On the basis of research into the conditions of teachers' "skill transfer," the practices associated with skill training have demonstrated increasingly greater sophistication (for example, Joyce, Murphy, Showers, and Murphy, 1989; Sparks and Loucks-Horsley, 1990). Effective training has come to be defined largely by its ability to provide adequate opportunities for practice and to provide for classroom consultation and coaching as teachers learn to use new ideas. All in all, then, we might make some substantial gains in some arenas if we more uniformly and consistently made use of what we have learned about the organization of training and classroom follow-up .

2. However, much of what we anticipate in the present reforms does not lend itself to skill training, because it is not readily expressed in terms of specific, transferable skills and practices. Rather, the present reforms require that persons in local situations grapple with what broad principles look like in practice. In Deborah Meier's terms, we are called upon to "reinvent" teaching and schooling, and to do so even while in the midst of day to day work (Meier, 1992). This aspect of reform calls not for training, but for adequate "opportunity to learn" (and investigate, experiment, consult, or evaluate) embedded in the routine organization of teachers' work day and work year. It requires the kinds of structures and cultures, both organizational and occupational, compatible with the image of "teacher as intellectual" (Giroux's phrase) rather than teacher as technician. And finally, it requires that teachers and others with whom they work enjoy the latitude to invent local solutions to discover and develop practices that embody central values and principles, rather than to implement or adopt or demonstrate practices thought to be universally effective. This assertion acknowledges both the uncertainty surrounding best practice and the complexity of local contexts.

3. Local patterns of resource allocation tend to favor the training model over alternative models. In the absence of a good fit between the nature of the reform task and the nature of professional development, schools and districts are nonetheless inclined to do something in the name of professional development (before the fiscal year ends, the state program expires, or the school board demands results). That something is likely to look very much like the existing menu of training options: workshop series, special courses or inservice days devoted to transmitting some specific set of ideas, practices, or materials to teachers. For example, a decision to expand the available training in cooperative learning is readily defensible: the training is accessible as a well-tested program, and it has a plausible connection with efforts to improve classroom teaching. But such a decision is also problematic on two grounds. First, the investment in packaged programs of training tends to consume all or most of the available resources. The messier and more contentious forms of teachers' involvement required to examine existing practice and to invent new possibilities remain under-supported. Second, the training paradigm tends toward standardized solutions to the problem of "best practice." The more ambiguous aspects of reform what "authentic assessment" or "integrated curricula" might amount to, for example are granted comparatively less attention.

So: we know how to do training well, and could profitably do more of it well; the training paradigm, no matter how well executed, will not enable us to realize the reform agendas; and resource allocations for professional development represent a relatively poor fit with the intellectual, organizational, and social requirements of the most ambitious reforms.

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[Teachers' Professional Development in a Climate of Educational Reform]

[Professional Development Principles and Practices]