Poor Professional Development
I was on the ‘receiving’ end of two rather boring presentations today. That word presentation should be banned from professional development. Because when you say the word presentation, you automatically envision someone talking at a group of people. That shouldn’t even be allowed! But it is exactly what I had to endure today.
The first one of the day was for the ACTS grant being offered by the Bucks County and Carbon/Lehigh IUs. We had to travel to Bucks County, which was bad enough. The day focused on Understanding by Design and the Sony Clies each particpant received. For the UbD presentation, all the gentleman did was talk at us, throw some PowerPoint slides on the screen and have us participate in little ‘collaborative’ activities. The presentation was simply boring and unengaging. Why do we present the way we tell teachers not to teach!? I don’t get it.
I was thinking of ways that he could have done this differently. I suppose what my ‘problem’ is stems from the fact that I do not learn well in this manner. I learn best when I am given some guidelines, possibly some resources, and have to find information and do something with it. Working with others is also helpful. That would have been so much more useful. But instead, we were talked at.
Which brings me to the second presentation of the day: Brain-based learning. More of the same. Yes, some interactive activities. But not a clue why we need to do this. And they even talked about how after 10 minutes, lecture is typically tuned out! Yet that is precisely what they did! Imagine how deadly that was...a group of 30 teachers, after hours until 7:00 PM. Not charming.
How can we present information that models the way we want teachers to teach? First...guiding questions. Why do we need to know this? And make it clear! Second, make it learner centered. Most people, although not all certainly, do much better when they uncover information instead of having it jammed down their throat. At least that doesn’t work for me.
Next entry: Tools for learning
Previous entry: People make a difference...