How does SkillsForce improve professional learning outcomes for educators?

Q: As a school or district leader, how can I ensure professional learning for educators has context and relevance to daily work?

A: Educators may find that PD sessions are not tailored to their specific needs or are not aligned with their teaching context. Generic or one-size-fits-all approaches may not address the unique challenges they face in their classrooms.

○ SkillsForce Helps You >> To ensure professional learning has context and relevance, it must be in a system. Design your professional learning in a system designed to offer personalized learning. Educators learn, implement, and master the skills important to them in the system. When set correctly, SkillsForce automatically provides authentic evidence that professional learning is working and where it may be improved.

Q: What are the best ways to provide follow-up and support to ensure learning is retained and leveraged in the classroom?

A: Many educators express dissatisfaction with the lack of ongoing support and follow-up after a PD session. Effective learning often requires continuous reinforcement, mentoring, and opportunities for application in real-world teaching situations.

○ SkillsForce Helps You >> Provide a way for educators to show they mastered skills. Then give them a way to share how they did it and what they do so others can master the skill as well.

Q: Between various duties, meetings, and routine assignments, there needs to be more time allocated to attend day-long PD sessions. How can I ensure professional development is time well spent?

A: Educators learn at different rates. Delivering the training in a system ensures the allocated time in PD sessions is well spent. Those who get it right away can move on or share their knowledge with others. Those needing more time can extend their learning in the days to follow until they gain the skill.

○ SkillsForce Helps You >> Share experiences, best practices, and challenges to create a supportive network to sustain the work and ensure time is well spent on professional learning throughout the year. Best of all, educators can package clock hours and proof of learning to easily submit documentation for recertification.

Q: Stand and deliver PD doesn’t exactly entice my faculty to dedicate their attention to the content being presented. How can I enhance the faculty experience?

A: Traditional lecture-style presentations may not be the most engaging or effective way for educators to learn. Interactive, hands-on, and technology-enhanced methods are often preferred, but not always implemented.

○ SkillsForce Helps You >> SkillsForce provides real-time feedback on IF the knowledge is absorbed by the educators and IF NOT, then the presenter adjusts in real-time to ensure effective PD. Then the presenter can create targeted follow-up training/activities to support individual learning on the content.

Q: I want to recognize efforts to enhance teacher practice using skills and knowledge from professional learning. How might I acknowledge new skills systematically and tangibly?

A: Some educators feel that the impact of PD is not adequately assessed, and there may be a lack of recognition for their professional growth. Clear criteria for assessing the effectiveness of PD and providing tangible recognition can be lacking.

○ SkillsForce Helps You >> Honor the educator and value their time. Automatically record the work they do on a My Professional Learning portfolio that they own and control. Allow them to show their success based on the skills they have and develop over time. Provide them a way to easily share with others.

Q: As the school leader most responsible for effective PD, I need to easily create personalized professional learning for new teachers, tenured teachers, vertically aligned teams, and grade-level teams. How might I do this for my faculty that doesn’t require weeks of planning?

A: You need a platform to do this—One that allows you to design, build, and refine learning asset(s) to then be applied in an infinite number of ways over an infinite amount of time. Tailor PD programs to the specific needs and context of educators. Offering customized learning paths and resources can make the experience more relevant and effective.

○ SkillsForce Helps You >> Utilize interactive and technology-enhanced content delivery methods to ensure educators remain engaged. Incorporating simulations, case studies, and collaborative activities enhances the learning experience.