S6 E7 - Is Your PL Transformative or Transactional?

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Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Structured Literacy podcast. I'm Jocelyn, I'm so pleased that you've joined me for this episode, recorded here in Tasmania, the lands of the Palawa people.

Today we're diving into a topic that I know will resonate with every single listener: the difference between professional learning that actually transforms practice and professional learning that's just... well, a tick a box exercise.

I can't tell you how many PLs I've sat through that were nothing but a waste of time. Someone would turn up and give a presentation that I felt had nothing to do with the work I was doing in the classroom. Even when it did relate, we'd ask questions about classroom practicalities that very often the person couldn't answer. Now, I'm not here to criticise anyone. It was just that what they had to say didn't connect with MY job and the problems that I was trying to solve. And this most often happened when someone from outside the school asked (or, in some cases, demanded) to address the staff. This was very often someone from regional office. 

And it's not just regional visitors that see us trying to look polite while we are secretly planning tomorrow's lessons as we pretend to take notes. We can have an informed consultant or guest engage with us and it's the same. We've all spent days of our lives at system-imposed, or even highly anticipated, PL or conferences, and, while we may have had a good time, we saw the same outcome as the mismatched session. Time spent with no outcome seen.

The Problem with Transactional Professional Learning

And here's the thing. Whether the PL is imposed by someone else because they think we need to hear it, or we've asked to do the PL, the positive benefits of the time and money investment often don't last beyond that day. We do the thing, and then we go back to business as usual.

No measurable outcomes anywhere.

No development of professional knowledge.

No visible adjustment to our practice.

The problem with most PL is not that it was imposed on us or that it was off site or that it was connected to a commercial program. The problem is that it's transactional. Transactional PL is an exchange. Your time and/or money for some knowledge or strategy and then everyone goes home feeling good that they've done a thing.

And, before you send me emails, I am well aware of the irony of this discussion. I make a living, partly, through providing professional learning. Aren't I a part of this problem of transactional PL? Well, yes, sometimes that's true, and moreso in the past than now. Not intentionally, of course, but the nature of my work, particularly online courses and public workshops means that there will be a proportion of people who do the day or the course and then go back to business as usual, and much of that comes down to things that I can't control.

But equally, there are people who take what was shared and use it to transform their practice. They send me emails saying things like "I've regained my love of teaching" or "I've totally changed my practice and now I'm getting outcomes that I never thought were possible."

So what's the difference between those who had a transactional experience and those who had a transformational one?

The Conditions for Transformational Professional Learning

Well the main differences is that those who transformed practice engaged over the long-term and they knew what problems they were trying to solve. And it's no accident that my teach along courses have been 12 weeks long. It's no accident that they've been focused on practical application of research findings around reading and writing. The most impactful professional learning that I facilitate has lasted longer than a term and has focused on action. The people who get the most out of professional learning experiences are those who do things in their school or work as a team to adjust or try practices.

This brings us to the first condition for professional learning to be transformational. Transformational PL reflects the very nature of professional capacity - that is, that we learn by doing. Of course, we need theory and knowledge of frameworks, that's a must, but real learning, deep learning, happens when we ourselves take action, predict what we think will happen and then evaluate. It's this learning by action that helps us really understand the why of our role. Seeing really is believing.

As I discuss in my book Reading Success in the Early Primary Years, understanding the 'why' behind our instructional decisions is crucial. When teachers understand cognitive load theory and how students actually learn to read, they make fundamentally different decisions about their practice (Seamer, 2023). This deep understanding can't be developed in a one-and-done session.

The Importance of Knowing Your 'Why'

The next factor in transformational professional learning is still about the why, but not the instructional why: it’s about our why. And this too relates to the nature of professional knowledge. The building of professional knowledge doesn't begin with the first slide of a powerpoint. It starts with knowing what the problem is that we are trying to solve. Because that's the hook, the motivator, the relevance. To be a reflective and professional learner, we need to be able to define the problems in front of us.

For a time, as we're learning our craft, we don't know what we don't know. We don't know the instructional landscape well enough to know what is and isn't working, so we don't know how to define those problems. And here's where leadership and skilled coaching comes in. The schools who have engaged in the most transformative experiences are those where the principal or head of school was close to curriculum, passionate about instruction and committed to taking decisive action.

Leaders in my Leading Learning Success program tell me that the lack of understanding of the why behind instruction is one of the biggest barriers to getting everyone on the same page and getting real outcomes. When team members understand not just what they're supposed to do, but why they're doing it; when they can connect their actions with outcomes of their students, everything changes.

The Role of Leadership in Transformational Professional Learning

The best leaders also know that change is hard; that slow and steady wins the race and that we don't change for the better unless we have an unapologetic focus on excellence. Great leaders also see PL as a mechanism for achieving existing strategic priorities, not ticking compliance boxes. The best PL isn't an extra burden, it meets us right where we are in the classroom. The goals of transformational professional learning align with our existing, well-defined problems of practice and clearly articulated priorities.

Research consistently shows us that professional learning is most effective when it's sustained, collaborative, and focused on specific student learning outcomes (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). One-off sessions, no matter how engaging, simply cannot create the conditions necessary for deep learning and lasting change.

How This Understanding Has Changed My Practice

Developing my own understanding of the nature of professional knowledge: what it is, how we get it and what practices get us where we want to go to develop it, has changed how I show up for leaders and schools. I've learned to ask better questions, be more direct in my discussions with school leaders about what it takes to get results. I'm also much more selective about what I say yes to. I no longer say yes to, "We have a professional learning day planned, can you come and run a workshop?" because I know that that doesn't sit within my professional integrity, because I'm here to help people get real transformative outcomes.

So my consultancy and PL work has shifted to longer-term relationships that help teachers grow confidence through understanding why their strengths actually are their strengths so that they can grow and transfer their knowledge, have deeper conversations with their colleagues, and have enough safety to be vulnerable about their problems of practice so that they can deeply engage with the action and real development that makes transformational change a reality.

Leaders often tell me how important shared language and vision of instruction is, and again, one-off PL doesn't do that. Because it takes time, sustained effort, and a commitment to going deeper than surface-level implementation to get where we want to go.

Making the Shift: Practical Steps Forward

So how do we move from transactional to transformational professional development undertakings? Here are key elements that need to be in place:

Long-term commitment: This professional learning needs to happen over months, if not years, not hours. Real change takes time to embed.

Problem-focused approach: Start with the problems you're actually trying to solve that relate to teachers’ real, everyday work, not with what someone else thinks you need to know.

Action-oriented: Professional development happens through doing. We have to have the opportunity to try things out, reflect, adjust, and try again.

Collaboration: Teachers learn best when they can discuss, question, and work through their challenges together. And for that to be effective, we need to equip our teachers with the tools, techniques and strategies for high quality collaborative discussion.

Leadership support (the journey and themselves): Without leaders who understand the vision and can support the journey, transformation is nearly impossible. But we also have to acknowledge that leaders are very often new into this structured, explicit teaching space and that many leaders have never had the opportunity for high quality professional development themselves about how to get the best out of their teams. So leaders need to support. But leaders also need support. Everyone needs to get what they need. No one's just thrown in the deep end.

Connection to practice: Everything must connect back to what happens in the classroom with students and we have to know how to measure our impact. 

The Deep Satisfaction of Transformational Work

There is nothing more deeply satisfying than helping another human grow in confidence and capacity. You know this, you do it every day with students. And me? I get to do that with you. I feel truly blessed to do this work. I believe in education. I believe we can achieve our goals of having every student leave primary school a confident reader and writer. I believe in teachers and leaders. And yes, that includes you.

This goal of transformational professional learning is precisely why I've created Leading Learning Success, my 12-month whole school professional development program that builds an understanding of the 'why' of instruction through quality learning about cognition and how this connects to literacy. This also aims to build great conversation, build leadership and coaching capacity and to help everybody get what they need to achieve the goals they're already working on in their school.

Wrapping Up

I know that leaders know that this work is important, I also know that they just need a little help to make it happen.

So as you reflect on the professional learning activties in your school, in your system, or even in your own classroom, ask yourself: Is this transactional? Are we trading time and money for someone to tell us about techniques and share some knowledge? Or is it transformational? Is it helping us to take the action we need to in the classroom to ensure that we are going to get these outcomes, that we're not hoping for the best, we're actually going to get the best?

Are we just ticking boxes, or are we genuinely growing our capacity to serve students better?

When you're making your choices, choose professional learning that honours your professionalism, builds your capacity, and connects to the real work you do every day.

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Structured Literacy podcast. It has been a pleasure to be with you here today. I will see you next week. Until then, happy teaching, bye. 

References

Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development. Learning Policy Institute.

Seamer, J. (2023). Reading success in the early primary years: A teacher's guide to implementing systematic instruction. Routledge.

Show Notes

Leading Learning Success

Reading Success in the Early Primary Years

If you'd like to find out more about how we can help you and your school in Leading Learning Success, click here.