{"id":272,"date":"2025-10-14T21:41:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T21:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mssqlguide.com\/?p=272"},"modified":"2026-01-22T09:53:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T09:53:44","slug":"how-do-teachers-learn-best-heres-what-they-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mssqlguide.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/14\/how-do-teachers-learn-best-heres-what-they-say\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do Teachers Learn Best? Here’s What They Say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Like it or loathe it, professional development is part of most every teacher\u2019s job.<\/p>\n

State laws might mandate training to prepare for new curricula. Districts often require attendance at \u201cin-service\u201d days for professional development. Contracts sometimes attach a requisite number of professional development hours before teachers can receive salary bumps<\/a>. In these ways, teachers don\u2019t really have a say in their professional development.<\/p>\n

But if the end goal of these learning experiences is to grow teachers\u2019 knowledge and skills\u2014and, in turn, improve student success\u2014then giving teachers a say in their professional development matters. So, what do teachers want from professional development?<\/p>\n

Above all else, they want the opportunity to collaborate with their colleagues, according to multiple sources: a Gallup-Walton Family Foundation survey on U.S. public school K-12 teachers released last month, an interview with a researcher from a nonprofit that studies education policy and practice, and a conversation with the most recent recipient of the Council of Chief State School Officers\u2019 National Teacher of the Year award.<\/p>\n

Teachers give collaboration with peers high marks<\/h2>\n

Teachers learn by collaborating, and they collaborate best with their colleagues, according to Teaching for Tomorrow: How Supporting Teachers Today Shapes Classrooms Tomorrow<\/a>, the Gallup-Walton Family Foundation report. (The foundation provides support for Education Week\u2019s coverage of strategies for addressing the opportunities for students most in need. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.)<\/p>\n

Nearly 70% of teachers who responded to the survey ranked collaborative planning meetings as \u201chighly or moderately valuable\u201d to their overall development. An even higher percentage of teachers surveyed, 71%, agreed that the most effective meetings are those led by teaching colleagues\u2014or without an appointed leader.<\/p>\n

Notably, teachers surveyed ranked peer observation and mentorship as more effective than traditional coaching practices\u2014but only one in three teachers surveyed report having the opportunity to experience those practices.<\/p>\n

Why collaboration works, and what gets in the way<\/h2>\n

That teachers find collaborating with colleagues beneficial comes as no surprise to Maria Hyler, a senior researcher at the Learning Policy Institute, a nonprofit that conducts research to improve education policy and practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a space where teachers can focus specifically on their student needs and focus on their teaching practices. And their peers are working with the same student population in the same communities,\u201d Hyler said. \u201cWhen you think about that, that\u2019s a really powerful space of knowledge coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the high regard teachers have for collaborating with colleagues, the majority of districts don\u2019t carve out time for teachers to engage in it, according to the Gallup-Walton Family Foundation survey results. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes we get so busy that we often go with the \u2018least resistance\u2019 route. That contributes to professional development that\u2019s not aligned with the professional learning needs of teachers,\u201d Hyler said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere really needs to be some thought put into things like: How are we going to arrange our schedules to ensure that our teachers have the time and space to collaborate in meaningful ways?\u201d<\/p>\n

What can happen when teachers take the initiative to collaborate<\/h2>\n

Some teachers carve out the time to collaborate in meaningful ways with colleagues. Ashlie Crosson, an English teacher at Mifflin County High School in Lewistown, Pa., and the 2025 Council of Chief State School Officers\u2019 National Teacher of the Year, is one of them. <\/p>\n

Crosson has been teaching for 15 years and says, at this point in her career, if she needs to find new course content or other information related to instruction, she knows which resources to tap. But for ways to truly grow as a professional, she turns to colleagues. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf I want to consistently grow within this profession, I need to be working with other colleagues. I need to be brainstorming ideas with them, I need to be bouncing ideas off of them and their experience and what\u2019s going on in their classrooms, because that makes me more dynamic as a teacher in my English classroom,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s even ventured into cross-discipline collaboration in an effort to meet her students where she believes the future will take them\u2014to a world that blurs the lines between college and career readiness and traditional academics. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery teacher\u2019s responsibility at this point is: How do you make your class \u2018career and future ready,\u2019 which isn\u2019t a natural part of [AP English Language and Composition],,\u201d Crosson observed.<\/p>\n

To help her students transfer what they learn in her literature class to skills they will likely use in future jobs in growing fields such as mass communication and marketing, she reached out to the school\u2019s technology education teacher. An informal conversation evolved into a project now in its 5th year.<\/p>\n

The teachers brainstormed how their students could work together on a \u201creal-world\u201d project to design a coffee cup that would be displayed in a local coffee shop during the holidays. Crosson\u2019s literature students examined motifs and themes of the holiday and traditions of the local community and ultimately created the coffee cups\u2019 look, and the students in the technology class figured out how to mass-produce \u201csleeves\u201d for the cups. Both groups of students applied classroom knowledge to a real-world project, thanks to their respective teachers\u2019 collaborative brainstorming. <\/p>\n

Crosson would like to see this sort of classroom-oriented, collaborative professional development gain more traction. She likens it to \u201cgenius hour,\u201d a term for inquiry-based learning adopted by some schools as well as some highly successful startup companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re basically giving people time, space, and resources to pursue something that is of interest to them,\u201d Crosson said. \u201cThat\u2019s making them more productive workers, because it\u2019s about bringing them a sense of fulfillment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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