Professional Development Facilitation Guide
Professional Development Facilitation Guide
To help educational developers, instructional coaches, and teacher leaders make the most of the Instructional Moves resources, we have created templates and examples of four types of professional development experiences that you can modify for use with instructors at your institution.
Type 1: Website Content as Pre-Work
Instructional Moves resources can be a powerful way to flip content, having individuals engage with select IM resources in advance and then coming together to explore them collectively. You can assign a single move for a particular purpose or you can use entire IM pathways to serve as a multimedia textbook of sorts. Two main advantages: infusing high-quality content into your professional learning, and freeing up valuable synchronous time for discussion rather than presentation. A challenge: getting participants to actually do the pre-work and/or planning for how to deal with the likelihood that some participants will not have done so.
Type 2: “Raw Video” as Text
This type of session uses one or more select portions of unedited class footage to give instructors a common experience to explore and discuss, providing the opportunity for participants to more actively construct meaning and contribute their expertise. Two main advantages: significant value to making meaning together, and a dynamic way to tap into expertise in the room. A challenge: participants are often quite critical of teaching viewed in videos, so be thoughtful about constructing the protocol and framing the process to participants.
Type 3: Demonstrating “Moves” Live
Rather than have the in-session activities closely tied to the website itself, this type of session demonstrates the instructional moves live, building in opportunities to deconstruct and reflect on them in real time. The web resources can then be used as “flipped content” to support the session goals. Two main advantages: leverages the benefits of direct experience and extends learning through “flipped” content. A challenge: the facilitator needs to skillfully replicate moves through the use of interesting and accessible content.
Type 4: Recommending Moves as Part of a Consult
A lot of powerful faculty learning happens during individual consults with a trained instructional coach. In these conversations, coaches draw heavily on their knowledge both of compelling practices to inform the conversation and of shareable resources to extend the learning beyond the consult. Instructional Moves content can serve as a source for these valuable practices and ready-made resources, which can be brought in during and/or after the consultation.
