Too often, we make staff development decisions without carefully considering its purpose, intended outcomes, design, and support required to implement the learning. For staff development to be effective, we must view it as an innovation itself, even when it is part of a larger or broader innovation. We must apply what we know about systems, organizational, and individual change to planning, designing, implementing, and institutionalizing the staff development. Research on change in education abounds, yet too often when we plan and implement staff development, we don't apply what we know about change to our work in staff development. In considering staff development as an innovation, designers must look both at the individual and organization change literature.
Staff development is a powerful vehicle for implementing innovation.
Change requires new skills, new knowledge, and often new attitudes and beliefs. To acquire these, people must have learning opportunities designed to prepare and support them as they engage in the change. So, I asked the superintendent a few questions and decided that if he could answer my questions, I would help him. I wanted to know his intended outcomes for the district's two-hour Friday afternoon inservice. Then, he surprised me.