Individual Impact Leads to Systemic Change: Lessons from Professional Learning
“I’ve been teaching for 13 years, and just 2 terms in, I realize what I thought was good teaching wasn’t that good.” This is just one of the countless stories we’ve heard over the years of facilitating professional learning for educators and leaders. Since 2020, 2Revolutions has partnered with Spalding University to support educators through an M.Ed in Teacher Leadership and now an M.Ed in Learner-Centered Practices. 98% of our learners agree or strongly agree that our programs leverage the following research-based 2Rev design principles that we will unpack below:
As much of a competency-based learning experience as possible in a non-competency-based program
Models learner-centered strategies while building knowledge about learner-centered strategies
Authentic and relevant learning with job-embedded tasks
Leverages the power of both collaborative and individual learning and doing
Strengths of this Approach
Through our experience and reflection, we have learned there are a number of strengths to this approach to professional learning that we have heard echoed from educators of varying experience levels:
Modeling the experience for educators that they will implement with their own learners leads them to a valuable perspective shift. One educator noted: “The courses were designed to immerse us in CBE [Competency-Based Education], so being that I was able to experience the program as a learner, I can understand what our students will be experiencing and will be able to design my modules more effectively.” This gives educators greater empathy when approaching students with new strategies that may look different than what learning has looked like in their other classes. It also helps them internalize misconceptions and pitfalls much more efficiently, thereby flattening the learning curve between the knowledge they have gained and the implementation of that knowledge.
There is a greater benefit to doing professional learning as a group rather than as “singletons” (as we affectionately call folks who join a program as the only ones from their school building). Educators have shared that “being the only one in my building makes it challenging. If there were multiple trained people that would help.” and “Although I was in this program alone most of the time, I found support in my colleagues.” One of our goals is for our professional learning experiences to be levers in broad change efforts in building educator capacity. Therefore, collaborative learning is essential to finding your co-conspirators to effect real change.
By building in many points of reflection, this program shifts mindsets as well as educator practice. A learner shared: “This program has shifted my thinking and has made me a better teacher. I have found better ways to reach my learners and increase student engagement.” When educators (and all learners, for that matter) are in constant “doing” mode, they do not get the chance to celebrate their wins and digest the highest leverage shifts they need to make for student success. These moments of pause not only build motivation but also are vital for continuous improvement.
Through this program’s design, learning has not felt “othered.” The majority of tasks are created to be used within an educator’s context, and the folks in the program deeply appreciate the relevance, many of them sharing feedback such as “I was able to use what I learned in the program in the classroom.” Professional learning should be immediately useful to increase the chances of implementation.
Challenges to this Approach
Of course, along with the strengths of this design come the challenges, especially since the incredible educators and leaders in these programs are working full-time while completing their M.Ed:
Educators are busy and often burnt out from all of the competing priorities they face on a daily basis. One piece of feedback that is always elevated during the program’s Town Halls is the challenge of work-life-learning balance. Even with the intentional design of this program to have relevant tasks and choose-your-own-adventure resources, the time commitment of an M.Ed program is not easy to navigate, given other responsibilities.
Collaboration can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, getting to benefit from the perspective of others has led to many valuable “aha” moments for educators. On the other hand, one learner notes that “collaborating as adults is difficult because we all have way too many other things going on outside of our work life.” It can be hard to find time within an individual’s schedule to work on assignments, so triangulating availability within a group's schedule can be frustrating. To help with this issue, we design Teach-Ins with adjuncts to allow lots of breakout room collaboration. In some cases, learners have decided to dedicate a couple of Saturdays a month to get together in person if their colleagues are nearby. Creativity and flexibility are key, and the extra effort for collaboration yields valuable results.
The biggest piece of feedback we receive from educators is the tension between the learner-centered practices they are asked to apply in this program and the reality of their building or district priorities that they are required to navigate. One learner shared, “It will still be difficult to implement CBE in a system that doesn’t fully support it.” Learners often hit a glass ceiling when building or district policies don’t create the conditions to enable these practices to succeed. That is why our work is not just focused on individual shifts in practice but also on supporting the creation of enabling conditions at the systemic level through our professional learning offerings.
Conditions for Success
2Revolutions has led learner-centered work in more than 40 states across the United States for the past 15 years. Aside from the challenges we shared above, most of the challenges to implementing shifts in educator practice arise from factors that are usually outside of educators’ control. We have learned from experience that the following conditions are necessary for the successful implementation of the learner-centered practices taught in this program:
Start with small practice changes. As the old adage goes: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” It can be overwhelming and frustrating to make big sweeping changes all at once, and often the quality of those changes is lacking. The most successful educators we have seen have chosen to focus on implementing one or two new shifts at a time within their usual practices and gradually refine and scale those practices in response to student feedback and data.
Create more opportunities for peer-to-peer leadership and collaboration. As we shared above, educators are busy individuals, and often the ones who are the best in their field go above and beyond their duties to collaborate with their peers, whether to build interdisciplinary opportunities for students or to seek new resources. The most supportive schools and districts do not expect educators to create these opportunities on their own. Instead, they build in PLC structures and time within educators' and leaders’ schedules to signify the importance of professional collaboration.
Provide professional learning opportunities on a continuum from light to deeper commitment. A full M.Ed program may not be the right fit for everyone’s schedule or financial situation, even though we purposely partner with Spalding University in part due to their low-cost programs. 2Revolutions offers a continuum of offerings designed to meet the needs of educators regardless of the time commitment they are able to make to further their learning. Every child deserves an educator who seeks to continuously improve their practice, and every educator deserves the opportunity to learn about new strategies and further their career.
Ensure school leadership understands and supports the new learning. One learner spoke for many when they shared, “We have discussed that the biggest areas for growth and for change is to involve the administration of buildings and/or [district] leadership.” There have been times within the program when the feedback that educators received from their adjuncts conflicted with the feedback they received from their building leaders. For this reason, we highly recommend that administrators attend the program’s Capstone events in order to gain a greater understanding of the work their educators have done and how to best support these shifts in practice moving forward.
Key Takeaways from Learners
Regardless of whether or not every condition for success was met, 100% of educators and leaders who have completed this program agreed or strongly agreed that they now had the knowledge, skills, mindsets, and external support to become a lever of change in their context. Here a few quotes from our learners:
“My students have been greatly impacted from the shifts I have made from this program.”
“I was given tools and skills to make an impact in my school and classroom.”
“I feel prepared to be a leader and lead change in my school.”
“This has given me the confidence to make big changes in my classroom and big changes with my school. I’ve learned a lot and it will be utilized. “
“I have positively influenced my colleagues and AP about the need for student agency and advocacy”
We feel honored to be able to facilitate experiences that have such an impact on educators and, ultimately, their students. If you are interested in learning more about this graduate program, visit the Graduate Programs page on our website.
