eJournal Week 3

I must say I’m learning week to week on what it takes to create a great instructional design for this professional development I’m planning to have with administrators.  From the readings, I’m seeing that demographics, beliefs and mental models will play a factor in how I design this professional development.  What I’ve decided to do since deciding on this professional development was to empower our deans which are the second in charge to the principal at these campuses.  I’m considering having a train the trainer flow.  What this will do is limit the number of administrators that are at this professional development.  Since there are 5 schools that will need this training, this will only be for an audience of 5 administrators.  This way it can be more intimate and we can focus on the content which is practicum courses.  Also, they can take back the material and share with whomever is selected to be the evaluator of these practicum teachers.  Going back to the 5 deans at the campuses.  Two of them are fairly new in their roles where the other 3 have been in the roles for 5 years or more.  Also, four of the five are in their thirties and one is in her forties.  They all have master degrees and are very passionate about their leadership at their respective campuses.  Four of the five are very optimistic and receptive to growth and change except one.  This particular dean has been the dean for several years and is very traditional and a bit narrow minded to change. 

As I started to research what this professional development would look like, I stumbled on an article titled, Designing Professional Development that works (http://www.vodppl.upm.edu.my/uploads/docs/edu5822_1456883720.pdf ).  This article mainly speaks to teacher professional development but I thought it was appropriate for my audience of learners which will be administrators. In this article, they identified three structural features that I must evaluate.  They are form, duration and participation.  Form has to do with the activity.  It talks about traditional approaches are less effective than reform approaches. With duration, they spoke about having longer times for activities than shorter times.  Giving the learners plenty of practice and conversation on problem approaches, etc.  Participation is probably the least of my concern dealing with such a small group and they are each representing different campuses.  Additional core features for me to consider are content focus, active learning and coherence.  Content focus should be easy for me to pull off due to the nature of improving internship and practicum courses.  I plan to have lots of heavy data to address the need for improvement.  Active learning is where I’m still working to make a success.  I think it will be important for the administrators to be engaged and not just have a powerpoint sit and get.  Coherence is another area that is my least concern due to the administrators being train the trainers.  They will be forced to continue the professional communication with their respective campus teams.  I hope I’m headed in the right direction with analyzing my learners.