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Program
Overview
Professional Development
Topics
Speaking Topics
Contact Information
If you would like us to send our Professional
Development literature to you or to those in charge of your local programs, please
let us know.
If there is sufficient interest among teachers in a particular
geographical area, we will make every effort to arrange a workshop or training in
a convenient location. Just let us know.
Professional
Development Programs Overview
Despite
abundant research and numerous documents outlining effective professional
development, the long-term efficacy of many professional development offerings
remains disappointing. Teacher’s
Mind Resources bases its offerings on the premise that the
individual thinking of teachers, administrators, and educational decision-makers
is a critical factor that must be included in any attempt to alter people’s
behavior. Existing guidelines for effective professional development are excellent
as far as they go. But to enhance the likelihood of long-term success, offerings
must include the following factors:
Participants must have ownership in the process. Because issues vary from school
to school and from person to person, offerings must begin with questions rather
than answers. The answers to those questions form the basis for workshop or
training designs.
Effective programs must begin with a definition of terms. Assuming that
all participants define education, teaching, learning, understanding,
and other commonly-used terms in the same way are seriously flawed. An
understanding of how each participant perceives the role of the teacher
is the foundation for meaningful change.
Alternative beliefs, values, and ideas held by individual participants must be
acknowledged, examined, and accommodated in the course of the program.
Participants whose concerns and suggestions are ignored are unlikely to accept or
carry out programs that are not aligned with their unconscious beliefs. Therefore,
bringing those beliefs into consciousness is critical.
Effective professional development is a process rather than a single event. To
this extent, part of the program must involve creating a mechanism for ongoing
discussion, clarification, and support.
Many professional development programs focus on telling people what they should
believe and how they should behave—providing them with information in the
expectation that they will alter their behavior. This is unlikely to produce the
desired results without first examining what people presently
believe and why they engage in their
present behaviors. Focus on Teachers professional development
opportunities are not intended to replace other programs. By encouraging educators
to identify and examine their present beliefs, values, metaphors, language, and
meanings—by asking critical questions rather than providing pre-packaged
answers—we “prepare the ground” for new ideas and possibilities.
Although the focus of our work is teachers, the thinking of administrators,
curriculum developers, and other decision-making educators is no less important.
We pride ourselves on adapting our work to the needs of the participants rather
than offering the same programs for all. Therefore, the samples and descriptions
we have included are guidelines rather than fixed programs. Although programs may
be presented as described, we will make every effort to adapt them to individual
needs.
Workshops may be offered singly or in combination, but one does not
learn to be a reflective thinker in a single day. A commitment to real
change requires follow-up mechanisms, which may be achieved in a variety
of ways--with or without our help. We can also design custom programs to correlate with other
offerings or to address current goals and/or issues. Our expertise lies in going
beneath the surface to the thinking and language through which people
conceptualize their work, and identifying how those factors influence current
practice.
Representative
Professional Development Topics
Teacher
Beliefs (see outline)
Metaphors
of Teaching (see outline)
The
Language of Education—This
workshop examines the language and metaphors prevalent in the educational
environment, such as “No Child Left Behind,” “raising the bar,”
“standards,” and the concept of “covering information.” Participants are
provided with the tools to recognize and analyze language in common use in their own
environment and to determine how that language reflects the beliefs and values of
the school culture and whether that language supports or inhibits stated goals.
They are also encouraged to examine the hidden presuppositions that unconsciously
shape perceptions and decisions.
What
Do You Mean by That?—People in
the educational environment regularly use words such as teach,
learn, knowledge, understanding, success,
and even educate itself, but rarely take
the time to define those words. The differences in meaning held by individuals are
astounding and account for many conflicts. Failure to define terms used in stating
a problem before attempting to find answers often results in frustration and
differences of opinion about potential solutions because, in reality,
people are asking different questions. This workshop encourages
educators to examine their own definitions for common educational terms, to become
aware of the remarkable variety that occurs in those definitions, and to recognize
how their “meaning” shapes their choices.
Teacher
Quality and Teacher Thinking—Although
outstanding teachers may have very different personalities and teaching styles,
studies have shown that they do share a number of important characteristics,
mainly in terms of their beliefs. Participants will be encouraged to compare their
own beliefs about specific educational issues with those of exemplary teachers,
and to identify how their beliefs influence their perceptions, their teaching
goals, and the behaviors in which they choose to engage.
Mentoring
for Meaning—Mentoring offers
tremendous potential for new teacher induction and the ongoing development of
experienced teachers. Mentors encourage mentees to reflect on what they did and
the results of their actions. They seek to identify weaknesses and suggest
alternatives for those actions that didn’t result in expected outcomes. These
are, of course, important questions. But an understanding of why
one chose to do something—or to do it in a certain way—offers tremendous
insight into one’s behavior. Identifying flaws in methodology will not
automatically result in better choices unless the thinking that supported the
original behavior also shifts. This workshop probes the deeper questions that
mentors might ask to uncover the foundations of a teacher’s behavior.
*****
Judith
Lloyd Yero, the author of Teaching
in Mind: How Teacher Thinking Shapes Education and Director of Teacher’s
Mind Resources is also available as a speaker or conference presenter.
Presentations are customized to the occasion. Please
contact us at eagle (at)
teachersmind.com
for more information.
Speaking
Topics
Sample
topics for keynote addresses, motivational speeches, and conference sessions
include:
Raising Teacher Expectations: Why Standards Won’t Do It
Can Effective Teaching Be Taught?
Let’s Trans-form, not Re-form, Education
Searching for the Keys to Teacher Quality
How Educational Metaphors Inhibit Reform
More
information on these and other topics is available on request.
Teacher’s
Mind Resources, 234 Forest Hill Road, Hamilton, MT 59840
Phone/ Fax: 406-821-3905
http://www.TeachersMind.com
email: info
(at) TeachersMind.com
or eagle
(at) TeachersMind.com
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