As such, professional development is not separate from student instruction. It is an extension of learning throughout the school. Success for all students depends upon both the learning of the individual school employees and improvement of the capacity of the school to solve problems and renew itself. Building the knowledge and skill necessary to carry out a school's improvement goals requires an array of professional development experiences. Teachers in all eight schools learn in a variety of ways, both formally and informally, from outside experts, building trainers, and from each other.
All forms are necessary for continuous growth.
Formal learning is often the place schools start, in order to focus on specific content or to benefit from a well-established learning structure. But in our interviews, teachers repeatedly stressed that while formal training sets the stage, it's really through more informal modes that new ideas take root, spread, and become part of daily practice, and that the crucial habits of collegial sharing become ingrained. These usually involve a defined learning group, such as a team, department, or grade level, and have pre-determined outcomes and prescribed learning processes, each designed and facilitated by an expert. As part of their plan to improve student literacy, teachers at Ganado Intermediate attended Northern Arizona Writing Project summer institutes. Teachers at Woodrow Wilson attended workshops to gain more instructional strategies to teach problem solving in mathematics.