How
to use Tools for Teaching:
A Plan for Professional Development
Reducing the Risk of Change
Effective professional development produces personal
growth and lasting change. Yet, personal growth
is challenging - particularly when it involves changing
old and familiar patterns of behavior. It requires
continuing effort and support over time. When beginning
a program of professional growth and change, it
is helpful to view the process through the trainee's
eyes.
- Professional Growth is Intimate and
Personal
Most people will not risk change unless someone
they know and trust is already succeeding and
will help them as they try to master new skills.
- Change is Risk
You cannot trust some innovation that you have
not yet mastered. Old and familiar ways of doing
things are safe. The willingness to risk trying
something new will rest largely upon a person’s
trust in the network of support that accompanies
his or her attempts to change.
- Change is Difficult
Learning any new skill requires effort. It happens
neither quickly nor easily. Nor, does it always
go right the first time.
- Change is Disruptive
Things usually get worse before they get better.
As old ways of doing things are altered, there
is predictable awkwardness and loss of both comfort
and confidence.
- Change Must Survive the Critical Period
If, with help from a support network, a colleague
persists in using a new skill, integration and
comfort will be achieved at a higher level of
functioning. Without adequate support, however,
that teacher may well attribute the loss of comfort
to the new skill and conclude that “It doesn't
work for me.”
To put it simply, training is the easy part of
effective professional development, even though
it takes more time than we have traditionally given
it. The hard part of professional development is
follow-through. Follow-through requires organizational
change to support personal change. |
