We Need Staff Development More than Ever

Staff development programs are once more at risk.

These programs received a big boost in the 1980s as states adopted educational reform plans in response to A Nation at Risk. States poured more money into teacher training and some even made continued professional development a requisite for retaining certification. But most programs were voluntary and their continuation depended on annual funding.

Public funding is tighter in the 1990s. As legislators and school boards look for ways to redistribute scarcer resources, staff development programs become vulnerable. Policy makers still do not accept staff development as a critical component of school reform, yet if we are to ensure that teachers acquire the new skills they need to prepare students for an increasingly complex and interdependent society, we need to retool the teaching cadre more than ever, and soon.

I am trying to convince my community and school board that staff development deserves a higher funding priority. I am telling them that changes in institutions and society as well as new developments in research on how people learn demand that we train teachers continuously if they are to be effective. Here's why.

The New Basics

Success in the 1990s and beyond will depend largely on each student's ability to master a new set of basic skills, and teachers need to be able to teach them. These include being skilled in:

* Learning to learn, the ability to learn effectively in new situations and to acquire new skills for future job changes;

* Reading, writing, and computation to ensure occupational literacy;

* Communication, so that one becomes aware of different styles of communication and can adjust personal styles to fit various situations;

* Problem-solving to detect the existence of a problem, analyze possible solutions, and choose a viable alternative to resolve the issue;

* Creative thinking to visualize innovations and to propose ideas that fulfill a perceived need;

* Personal management, so that self-esteem, goal setting, and career development will serve to increase personal and organizational productivity;

* Teamwork and negotiation as more organizations shift their production model from competition to collaboration;

* Leadership to motivate others to understand goals in the workplace and to move toward accomplishing them.

New Understandings

Continuing research into the teaching/learning process is revealing amazing insights that will require major shifts in our instructional strategies.

We now understand intelligence as more of a process than an entity--a change in perception from a singular, hierarchical structure to one that is multifaceted, interactive, and not subject to unilateral measurement.

Consequently, curriculum change must move away from the content-centered, subject-specific, and broad-range approach toward an interdisciplinary process that looks at issues and themes for in-depth coverage.

To be successful, instructional techniques must shift from single to multiple strategies, from text-driven curriculum to teacher-student collaboration in curriculum design, and from teacher isolation to a collegial team approach. Even our ideas about student assessment have evolved from checking knowledge and comprehension to assessing the application of learnings. In evaluating student growth, we are moving from product to process, and from traditional testing to portfolios.

These major shifts in emphasis will require even our most experienced teachers to acquire new perspectives and skills if they are to be modern, successful professionals. I do not have the luxury of time to hope they will acquire these skills on their own. I have an obligation to my school district's students to train teachers immediately, using a structured, long-range staff development program that focuses on transferring current research findings into successful teaching strategies.

Now, more than ever, I have to fight against the old paradigm that staff development is a frill that should be supported only during prosperous times. The demands of a rapidly-changing society are requiring new skills of my students and teachers, and I and my colleagues must recognize our responsibility to devise programs that will lead teachers to professional growth consistent with changing global demands.

COPYRIGHT 1994 American Association of School Administrators
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group