At Riverside Community College, we have some very good professional development workshops that are beneficial to many faculty and staff members and we have some that are a complete waste of time for many of the attendees at the meetings. Most of the professional development workshops are mandatory, so we don't really have a choice as to which to attend and which to skip.
Some of excellent examples of professional development come from our faculty innovation center. In this center, there are scheduled workshops dealing with the use of many of the software packages that are on our personal computers. There are workshops from beginning to advance use of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Frontpage, Publisher and Outlook. There are workshops on Adobe Photoshop, PaintPro, Camtasia, Dreamweaver and many more. These workshops are scheduled throughout the day to give opportunities for all faculty and staff members to attend. Usually the workshops are hands on, with the computer right in front of you to follow along and perform for yourself. The workshops usually last 1-2 hours in length, and they always provide cookies and some sort of drink for your enjoyment. The size of the workshops range from 2 people to 10 people at most, so there is plenty of opportunities to ask individualize questions and receive one on one training. And the workshops are spread out, so there will be a beginning level workshop one week, and the following week, there will be an intermediate level workshop with the advance workshop following in the third week. I have attend several of these workshops over the years and learned how to use Word, Excel, Publisher and Frontpage from these workshops.
Another example of an excellent workshop as an example of professional development is our sexual harassment workshop that is offered by our college. During this workshop, we are presented with a one hour lecture describing the types of sexual harassment in the workplace, and then we are presented with skits or plays in which we have to determine whether they representing an example of sexual harassment in the workplace or not. I feel by showing us examples and having us determine whether these are sexual harassment or not, gives us a better understanding of the topic of sexual harassment.
A poor example of professional development is our academic council retreats that we have bi-annually. During these workshops, which last from 8am - 3:30pm, all of the department chairs listen to lectures and presentations given by the administration on topics such as fill ratios, room utilization, budgetary issues, administration flowcharts and time schedule brackets. Usually these meetings start off with the typical stand up and introduce yourself which usually takes 20-30 minutes in itself. We have been going to the same meetings for the last 3 years, so I think by now, we all mostly know each other. The topics that are covered are not of interest to many of the chairs in the department. I know in the PE department, I am not interested in room utilization because my classrooms for my classes are either the gym or the track. But we still need to attend these meetings because they are mandatory and required.
Another poor example of professional development is our bi-annual faculty retreats. These meetings are also all day long, including lunch in the middle. But the topics discussed during these meetings is not of interest to a majority of the attendees. Most of the meeting is taken up by the administration justifying what they do all day long during the semester. If there are any presentations dealing with the use of technology, it is usually 30 minutes in length and only shows the bells and whistles of the technology in the classroom. For example, we have had presentations using the PDAs in the classroom and the tablet PC in the classroom, but neither of these workshops allowed us any hands on experience with the technology. It was just presented and showed to us, allowing us to see and view its capabilities. I find these presentations interesting, but I believe that is partially due to the fact that I like technology and seeing how technology can improve my teaching. A majority of the faculty are not interested in these presentations and find that their time could be better spent elsewhere. I believe that if these presentations could be individualized so they could be used in each of our subject areas might help make the presentation more interesting and helpful to many.
My activity log for the week of March 5th - March 11th:
Monday, March 5th: downloaded podcast and transcribed notes. Wrote this blog posting.
Tuesday, March 6th: work on proposal for project 3. Hopefully upload this project and link it to my website.
Wednesday, March 7th: read classmates blog postings and make comments.
Thursday, March 8th: read classmates blog postings and make comments.
Friday, March 9th: have time to finalize project 3 if necessary.
Saturday, March 10th: read classmates blog postings and make comments.
Sunday, March 11th: read classmates blog postings and make comments.
A link to my project 3 proposal: Project 3
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9 comments:
Hi James,
You have some good examples. In the military we do a lot of semi annual and annual training in different areas. Some of the annually required training sessions are Sexual Harassment and Drunk Driving workshops. The best ones I have attended and the ones I have seen people get the most benefit from, are the workshops that include creativity and hands on experience. The skits you mentioned are great to get a point across. There are situations that can be better explain by a story told in action rather than just by reading it. The Drunk Driving workshops sometimes include simulating machines that are like roller coasters. anointeresting gadget is the “drunk glasses.”
James,
Nice articulation of what works and what does not. The situation here at CSUSB is essentially the same. We have a group of trainers for the staff that do a good job, are good teachers and draw a crowd. Then on the flip side we have those mandated trainings that no one really wants to go to. We often chalk up our lack of desire to go to these trainings because they are mandatory, but the reality is the the proof is probably in the presentation. When a presentor is doing something because they have to they often lose their fire and light.
Davena
Hi James,
Many of the professional development sessions we have at MSJC I think are waste of time too. Some of the mandatory ones I must go and some of them I go one time to check them out. Many of these sessions have nothing to do with vocational education, and I have no interest in.
As we all know that our schedule is always full, it is very hard to find time to attend most of the meetings and training sessions unless it is absolutely necessary. This takes me back to the podcast “training to specific needs”. I noticed that when I have “specific needs in training” such as attending the CAT Conference or something in that nature, it is extremely hard for me to get the approval.
I think just about everywhere, people spend too much time in meetings and trainings which are not actually satisfy the “specific needs” and very few practice the “following-up”. Most of the time I hear: “Yes, I went to that training.” and some more of the memory of that event. That’s it. Rarely, I hear the result of the training.
James,
Do you find that when attendance is mandatory that it actually eliminates the presenters obligation to provide engaging and meaningful content? Does this make a bad situation worse?
Great points. It seems that in every field the mandatory trainings are those that we find a waste of time, and the ones we really enjoy are not always labeled a priority.
Hello James,
You bring up very good points: Often when a meeting is mandatory, staff will assume that it will be the same old stuff, but when offered choices, many will try to make a correlation of how they would use something new in a classroom.
Hi James,
I bet staff developments are very different than that of teachers at the public level. You defiently gave me some insight into how things are in the college level. Great post and I like you project- very detailed and interesting. Great job.
Hello James,
You have provided excellent examples of good and bad professional development training. I find it interesting that the bi-annual meetings are not as interesting as the regular ones routinely offered at your school. Perhaps the administration should attend these. They might learn something positive to carry over to their training.
Just as you and your fellow teachers, I find it not very constructive to be told that I must attend a training that I know will not make a positive contribution to my teaching to the students. Overall, I stil have a positive opinion of your school. I suppose the world is not perfect.
I too have to attend meetings where we "go around the table and introduce ourselves" and it amuses me that we continue to do it each time without anyone stopping and saying "Hey, we know each other already", instead we behave like cattle and respond...For adult learners we need to have an interest or immediate need to focus on learning, which is not always considered.
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