The following blog post is the third in a series of four edited excerpts from my new book, Effective Supervision: Supporting the Art and Science of Teaching.



It is probably safe to say that the most common model of professional development in K–12 education is to bring in a “consultant” during professional development days. That consultant commonly addresses the entire faculty in a school, or even an entire district, imparting information on some topic presumably of interest to all members of the faculty. Although this practice has a use in some situations, we propose that the norm in professional development should be teachers within the district or school conducting workshops and seminars. Again, these teachers would be drawn from the ranks of the expert coaches in a district. During professional development days, these teachers would hold workshops on the instructional skills for which they have been recognized. The other teachers in the district would attend those workshops that are most closely related to their professional growth and development plans. For example, during a given professional development day, workshops might be offered for each of the following topics:

* Withitness strategies

* Previewing strategies

* Summarizing and note-taking strategies

* Strategies for tracking student progress

* Strategies for communicating high expectations for all students

Teachers in the district would select from this menu of offerings those professional development experiences that most closely meet their needs and interests.

Another way for teachers to share ideas is through gallery walks. The term gallery walk is derived from the practice of patrons of the arts walking through a gallery. Each piece of art represents expert performance focused on a different topic and employing different technical strategies. The same process has been used with teachers. For example, as part of a monthly faculty meeting, volunteer teachers might exhibit artifacts from their students generated by specific strategies they have used in their classes. The gallery walk might be housed in the library with teacher displays at tables positioned around the library. As teachers walk around the room stopping at different display tables, the artifacts would be explained by those teachers hosting the display.

A variation of the gallery walk is the teacher science fair. Reeves (2008) describes the teacher science fair in the following way: “A growing number of schools throughout the United States use this approach. The most common model is a simple three-panel display board with student achievement results in the left-hand panel, teacher and leadership actions in the middle panel, and the conclusions and inferences from the data in the right-hand panel” (p. 72). As with the gallery walk, teachers peruse the three-panel displays and ask questions of the teachers who created the displays.

Part I: A Knowledge Base for Teaching: Communicating High Expectations for Students

Part II: Focused Feedback and Practice: Teacher-Self Rating

Part III: Opportunities to Observe and Discuss Expertise: Teacher-Led Professional Development

Part IV: Clear Criteria and a Plan for Success: Knowledge Gain

To learn more about the book or pick up a copy, you can navigate to the ASCD Store.