What Are The Elements of a Good Professional Development Plan (PDP)?

Six elements of a good Professional Development Plan (PDP) for teachers are:

A good plan must have a clear description of the learning needs of both teacher and students.
Identifying student needs involves evaluating student performance and assessing other information that may have a bearing on student learning, such as disciplinary actions, attendance information, test scores, and so on. Once the students’ needs are identified, the next step is to identify and assess teachers’ knowledge and ability to address the learning needs of the students.

A good plan specifies which teachers must participate in the professional development and benefit from it.
Teachers may be asked to share their own insights about the various learning activities that would be beneficial to them, through formal methods like surveys, focus groups, and workshops, or more casually as part of the continuous learning in classroom situations. Principals, supervisors, colleagues, and other teaching staff may also contribute to identifying professional needs of the teachers based on their interactions with them.

A good plan must establish the indicators and expected outcomes of the professional development.
The professional learning needs must be transformed into expectations in order to decipher the indicators and learning outcomes of the teacher. Teachers may use indicators (tools) such as protocols and rubrics in order to assess if the expected outcomes have been attained and to rate their learning abilities.

A good plan must identify the learning activities and follow-up to be incorporated in the professional development.
While identifying learning activities, the committee should keep in mind that the most effective activities are those that portray teachers as problem solvers and dynamic learners. The principal of the school and other leadership staff have an important role in encouraging teachers to participate in professional development. Activities for individual professional development are extended to incorporate other professional development programs to make learning more effective.

A good plan explains how the professional development will be evaluated.
The details of the evaluation process must be established early in the planning stage and the evaluating team should also be included in the planning committee from the beginning.

A good plan must incorporate the resources needed for learning and follow-up activities and the evaluation process.
In order for a professional development program to have the greatest impact, a great many resources such as, people, facilities, time, money, and equipment are required.

Discuss here:  Why do you think teachers need a Professional Development Plan (PDP)?

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