Teacher professional development (PD) is an integral part of a teacher’s professional journey. To support all students in a rapidly changing educational landscape, teachers need to continually develop their knowledge and skills, apply this learning to their practice, and contribute to the advancement of educational research. However, traditional one-size-fits-all PD models that focus on standardized “best practices” often fail to meet teachers’ individualized professional learning needs (Sancar et al., 2021).
In contrast to standardized PD models, teachers should have opportunities to develop their professional capital through individual knowledge and skills (human capital); collaborations and exchanges with others (social capital); and professional agency that leads to changes in educational practices (decisional capital) (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2013).
As a teacher educator and researcher, I have led professional development initiatives, supported administrators and educators to facilitate PD, and engaged with other researchers and practitioners on inquiries regarding teacher professional learning. The professional development strategies explored here draw on two decades of collaboration with administrators and educators, shifting from prescriptive “best practices” to personalized professional learning.
Honor Teacher Personal Practical Theories
Teachers’ personal learning backgrounds and teaching experiences influence how they prioritize and implement teaching and learning theories (Levin, 2014; Levin et al., 2013). Even when teachers attend the same workshops and read the same books, their individual takeaways and classroom implementations differ. These unique perspectives form the foundation of a teacher’s human capital—the individual knowledge and skills they bring to their professional learning. Specifically, teachers’ personal practical theories (PPTs) are the individualized frameworks that guide their teaching and learning practices, and PPTs evolve over time as educators gain teaching experience and learn from others. To identify PD opportunities aligned to their specific needs, teachers can first reflect on their PPTs using sentence stems such as:
- When I plan/teach my lesson, I always . . .
- In my classroom, it is important that . . .
- When I am asked to share my experiences with new teachers, I like to emphasize . . .
- I still remember clearly from my readings/PD workshops/courses that . . .
- I am at my best as a teacher when I . . .
- My students/principals/peers often mention in their evaluations of my teaching that . . .
Teachers may also consider current practices that exemplify their PPTs and desired future practices to guide personal goal setting for their individualized PD plan. To honor teachers’ PPTs, administrators and PD facilitators can organize professional learning communities (PLCs) that focus on different topics to leverage teachers’ backgrounds, match their personal professional learning priorities, and support their learning goals. Small groups of teachers can also be invited to lead professional learning initiatives based on their individual PPTs and shared expertise.
When educators are encouraged to cross boundaries, they can cultivate the social capital necessary to spark and sustain innovative teaching practices.
Support Boundary-Crossing Learning Exchanges
Teachers’ professional learning should not be limited to interactions with those sharing the same disciplinary backgrounds and instructional contexts. For example, although it is important for secondary science teachers to participate in PD sessions tailored to specific biology, chemistry, or physics content and pedagogical topics in secondary settings, it could also be beneficial for these teachers to engage in professional learning exchanges and collaborations with other content-area teachers and with other specialists, including for example, multilingual specialists and special education teachers. In addition, teachers can benefit from learning exchanges beyond school-based improvement discussions. Networked PLCs that involve educators from different schools and various disciplinary backgrounds may foster new knowledge generation and pedagogical innovations (Katz & Earl, 2010; Prenger et al., 2017). When educators are encouraged to cross disciplinary and school boundaries for their professional learning, they can better cultivate the social capital necessary to spark and sustain innovative teaching practices.
Rather than inviting teachers to webinars or workshops with predetermined topics, education leaders can support boundary-crossing learning exchanges by inviting teachers to propose PLC topics that call for interdisciplinary collaborations beyond a single school. For example, exploring strategies to support student learning and well-being through home literacy activities may be a topic of interest to administrators, classroom teachers, school psychologists, media specialists, family liaisons, and community partners across different schools and community organizations. Different perspectives can enrich discussions and challenge all participants to view a shared topic through multiple lenses. Educators with relevant expertise and interest in the topic can facilitate these PLCs, guiding participants to reflect on existing strategies and identify potential tensions or conflicting perspectives, which are often what lead to new ideas and possibilities (He et al., 2024).
The key to sustainable networked PLCs is the authentic engagement of educators who are committed to exchanging expertise, perspectives, and resources to contribute to a joint effort with a shared focus. Unlike mandatory, content-focused, and school-based PD efforts, teachers engaged in authentic networked PLCs develop and sustain autonomous motivation that can expand their professional learning.
Cultivate Leadership with Research Practice Partnerships
Importantly, teachers should not be merely practitioners positioned to apply theories and research to their practices. Rather, they should be active partners who lead and contribute meaningfully to the advancement of educational research (Coburn et al., 2013; Henrick et al., 2017). Research practice partnerships (RPPs) provide an avenue for this type of contribution; these are long-term, collaborative partnerships that engage educators and researchers in joint work to expand educational research, while contributing to teachers’ decisional capital to impact policy and practice (Coburn et al., 2013; He et al., 2020). Through RPPs, educators can take ownership of research initiation, implementation, and dissemination (Farrell et al., 2021). RPPs can build upon teachers’ individual PPTs and leverage boundary-crossing learning exchanges among teachers and researchers—transforming the teacher’s role from one of compliance to one of active changemaking.
One example of such joint efforts is the RPP project focusing on multilingual learner (ML) progress during the COVID-19 pandemic in North Carolina (He et al., 2024). As principal investigator, I led this project, which was designed to engage educators from local educational agencies (LEAs) as researchers in three areas: examining the demographic characteristics and academic performance of MLs; exploring strategies and innovations for MLs; and synthesizing lessons learned from the pandemic to inform ML-focused policies and practices at the state level. Through this project, 29 educators and researchers from 20 LEAs and 7 institutions of higher education across the state applied to serve as research team members. In addition to participating in PD sessions to explore research design, protocol development, and data analysis, participants formed small groups to actively engage in data collection through interviews and focus groups with administrators, educators, and community partners. Each small group also completed a research report that contributed to the larger project report that was then shared at the state level to inform policy decisions. Educators participating in this RPP effort shared the positive outcomes of this professional learning experience. As one educator commented:
I cannot emphasize the collaborative piece enough—I have met with members of our own research team, a couple of members of other teams, and, equally as important, with teachers and specialists with whom we had the privilege of interviewing. Interactions of this sort, transcending the transactional or informational, served as a constant renewal of and source of motivation for improving my own teaching.
After this project concluded, educators continued to apply their learning from this RPP experience in their local educational contexts as educator leaders, and several teacher members continued to pursue additional research engagements. RPPs can serve as a platform for teacher PD that supports teacher professional capacity building through research and leadership activities. The outcomes of such PD can directly impact educational policies and practices beyond individual teacher practices. The process also builds research capacity at the local level that further strengthens the contextualization and use of educational research.
Moving Beyond “Best Practices”
To put the “professional” back in PD, teachers need to be honored for their personalized theories of teaching and learning, be encouraged to engage in cross-boundary learning exchanges, and be positioned as partners in educational research endeavors to advance a shared understanding of educational theories and practices. Instead of requiring teachers to adopt “best practices” through one-size-fits-all PD, educational leaders should invite teachers to share their PPTs, engage them in networked PLCs, and foster RPPs as additions or alternatives to traditional PD offerings. Corresponding PD research and evaluation efforts centering on teacher agency can further contribute to the advancement of teacher PD.
Reflect & Discuss
What is one “personal practical theory” that guides your daily classroom decisions?
Where could cross-boundary learning with other educators solve a challenge your team currently faces?
If you could partner with an outside researcher, what classroom problem would you investigate together?
