Case Study 07 · August 2023
Designing Professional Learning That Gets Implemented
LLL 503 · Collegial Conversations
Context
Professional learning can be thoughtful, relevant, and well received—and still fail to change practice. This collegial-conversation project asked what helps new knowledge capture teachers’ interest, respond to their actual needs, and move from a presentation into sustained classroom implementation.
The artifact
I designed Left on Read as a proposal for a year-long professional-learning sequence focused on structured writing across content areas. The plan combines a teacher needs assessment, Joyce and Showers’ stages of professional development, six optional Lunch & Learn sessions, practical resources, peer collaboration, follow-up, and measures of engagement. It was a leadership design proposal, not a sequence I subsequently delivered.
Inside the work
From one conversation to a year of supported implementation
Rather than treating professional development as a single event, the proposal builds time for teachers to understand the rationale, try strategies in their own contexts, discuss what happened, refine their practice, and sustain the work together.
Evidence from the artifact
The sequence progresses from an introduction to structured writing into subject-specific integration, assessment and feedback, differentiation, writing for different purposes and audiences, and long-term collaboration. Implementation supports include classroom-ready tools, a digital resource library, site-use data, follow-up sessions, peer mentorship, observation, cross-school networking, and periodic check-ins.
What this demonstrates
- 01Professional-learning design grounded in adult needs and real implementation conditions
- 02Application of Joyce and Showers’ stages of teacher development
- 03Year-long sequencing rather than one-off professional development
- 04Connection of structured writing with disciplinary literacy across content areas
- 05Planning for assessment, differentiation, collaboration, and sustainability
- 06Use of multiple forms of evidence to make knowledge mobilization observable
- 07Facilitation grounded in collegial inquiry rather than assumed expertise
Reflection
The final slide names the imposter syndrome I felt entering a collegial conversation with experienced educators. I no longer read that admission as weakness. The project’s best instinct was to ask teachers what they needed, what structures already existed, and what would make new learning possible in their own schools.
Because the Lunch & Learn sequence was proposed rather than delivered, its value lies in the quality of the leadership thinking—not in an outcome I cannot claim. A next iteration would begin with an actual needs assessment, co-design the sequence with participating teachers, define a small number of observable implementation measures, and revise the plan in response to what educators and students experienced.