Four Key Practices
Study groups, peer coaching, professional book talks, and analysis of classroom audio- and videotape are four key professional development practices. What follows offers an overview and further reading for each.
 Study Groups
A study group is a collection of people who gather to examine an agreed-upon topic. It is also:
• A forum that allows colleagues opportunities for an ongoing examination of factors influencing classroom practice and student learning as well as for sharing diverse perspectives.
• A collaborative commitment among learners with a common vision.
• A learning opportunity promoting participants’ construction of knowledge through research and interaction with selected materials and collegial discourse.
A study group is important because it:
• Promotes professionalism creatively.
• Offers a means to address the integral components of daily school life: classroom practice, student outcomes and the school as an organization.
• Develops a respectful, mutually supportive environment in which each staff member’s expertise and learning is acknowledged and encourages development of meaningful dialogue among staff.
A study group is useful, for example, when educators want:
• To learn and apply new teaching techniques.
• To study research on effective schools as a school-wide community.
The way study groups work is that all participants:
• Agree upon and commit to the purpose of the group.
• Select the content for study.
• Develop a schedule and meeting places.
• Establish group norms.
• Make an action plan.
• Identify group leadership.
Further Reading Gusky, T., Huberman, M. (1995). Professional Development in Education: New Paradigms and Practices. New York: Teachers College Press.
 Peer coaching
Peer coaching is:
• An ongoing, cyclical process of observation, collaboration and conferencing that includes shared planning of goals and materials
• Voluntary, reflective practice to implement instructional change.
• Supportive.
In peer coaching feedback is nonjudgmental and supportive, its purpose to help partners think through specific skill practice. More than observation and conferencing, peer coaching is the collaborative process of learning from one another while planing instruction, developing materials and thinking together about how instructional practice impacts student learning.
Peer coaching is important because it:
• Builds a safe, supportive environment for the practice of new skills.
• Builds a community of educators who continuously engage in a study of their craft.
• Encourages the development of the shared language and common understanding that are essential for the collegial study of knowledge and skills.
Peer coaching is a useful process for:
• Supporting change in instructional practice and implementation of curriculum innovation.
• Providing the follow-up structure so essential in skill acquisition.
How peer coaching is practiced:
• Both the rationale for and the purpose of the skill to be acquired are studied.
• New skills are both modeled for and practiced by the person receiving coaching.
• Observation and accurate, specific and non-evaluative feedback about the new skill are provided.
• Coaching proceeds in a cycle, a process that enables the person being coached to apply learning in a particular context over time.
• Coaching takes on the nature of collaborative problem solving.
Further Reading Showers, B., Joyce, B. (1996, March). The Evolution of Peer Coaching. Educational Leadership, 53, 17-20. Arlington, VA: ASCD. Online: www.ascd.org.
Professional Book Talks
Professional book talks are opportunities for educators to engage in professional discourse around a specific teaching and learning topic. Individuals are committed to reading and discussing a selected book and are guided by the question “How will this book influence professional practice at the classroom and school levels?”
 Professional book talks are important because:
• They initiate examination of and discussion on a professional topic selected by peers.
• They encourage a school-wide community dialogue on diverse educational issues impacting student achievement.
• They maintain staff interest in contemporary issues, topics, programs and educational theories.
• They offer the opportunity for staff to contribute constructively to schoolidentified areas of interest.
• They contribute to an environment for staff members that is supportive of engaging in job-embedded practices for personal and professional growth.
Professional book talks are useful when:
• A group of educators wish to explore a topic of common interest.
• There is a need for discussion and examination of a school-wide issue leading to changing a practice or implementing a new instructional focus.
• There is a need to bring staff together for examination and study of a topic from different perspectives.
The way the professional book talk process works includes:
• Identification of the topic and reviewing and selecting a book for study.
• Engaging in formal and informal conversations about the book’s specifics.
• Participants, working as partners or in small groups, present information from particular perspectives.
• Study that results in recommendations that will impact student achievement.
Further Reading Donohue, Z., Van Tassel, M., Patterson, L. (1996). Research in the Classroom: Talk, Texts, and Inquiry. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Analysis of Classroom Videotape and Audiotape
What is it?
 Videotapes and audiotapes of classroom practices can extend the dimensions available for educators to view, note and analyze their practice or practices in a classroom over time and space. This can inform them about professional development practice in ways that that can positively impact student achievement.
It is important because:
• Educators can view, hear and then reflect on their own instruction and teaching practices, clarifying an area or areas of strength and indicating possibilities for a change in instruction.
• Videotapes and audiotapes can provide a baseline against which change can be measured.
It is useful:
• To enable educators to focus intently on one area or concern.
• To enable educators to see how they teach to, interact with and respond to students’ behavior and learning.
• To record newly acquired instructional strategies for the purpose of analyzing what works or what needs to be adapted to support student achievement.
How is it used?
• Independently, with a colleague or with a staff developer.
• Repeatedly over time to observe progress in mastering implementation of a strategy.
• To capture demonstrations of exemplary teaching for professional development purposes.
Further Reading Theme Issue. (1997, November). Educational Leadership, 55, (3). Arlington, VA: ASCD. Online: www.ascd.org. Analysis of Classroom
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