Key Tests for Effective Professional Development
Adapted from “Professional Community and Professional Development in the Learning Centered School,”
by Judith Warren Little
Does it make headway on school goals and problems? “A key test of professional development lies in
its capacity to mount a strong, collective response to schoolwide problems or goals.” (p 2) Is the
professional development focus informed by observation and data about student growth and student
needs within the school? “Professional development is more effective in changing teachers’ classroom
practice when it has collective participation of teachers from the same school, department, or grade; and
active learning opportunities, such as reviewing student work or obtaining feedback on teaching; and
coherence, for example, linking to other activities, (school goals or problems) or building on teachers’
previous knowledge.” (p 8)
Does it increase teachers’ capacity to make skilled, intentional decisions about teaching and
learning in their classrooms? “The quality of a school’s teaching staff can be judged by the depth and
breadth of knowledge, skill and judgment that teachers bring to their work…One test of professional
development is whether teachers …come to know more over time about their subjects, students, and
practice and make informed use of what they know” (p. 2).
Does it build knowledge and understanding around the “instructional triangle?”
Pedagogical content knowledge “The first relationship centers on teachers’ understanding of subject
domains for purposes of teaching…. Teachers benefit from in-depth understanding of subject-specific
concepts and from an understanding of how to help students learn them.” (p 3) “Teachers must find a
way to connect the subjects they teach to students’ ideas and experience in ways that build deep
conceptual understanding and build skill and competence…. Pedagogical content knowledge is the
practical knowledge that enables teachers to transform the content and epistemology of a subject
discipline for purposes of teaching.” (p 7) This implies that teachers need to deeply understand their
subject content and how their students think and process.
Student thinking and learning The second relationship “centers on teachers’ grasp of student thinking
and learning. This relationship puts students’ interactions with the content of the curriculum into the
foreground… It involves close, collective examination of students’ thinking by means of what students say
and do and the work they produce.” It prioritizes “systematic attention to student learning – and to
students’ responses to the instructional activities intended to promote that learning.” (p 6) “Effective
teachers know much more than their subjects, and more than ‘good pedagogy.’ They know how students
tend to understand (and misunderstand) their subjects; they know how to anticipate and diagnose such
misunderstandings and they know how to deal with them when they arise.” (pgs. 8-9)
Understanding and responding to student diversity “The third relationship focuses on teachers’
understanding of and responsiveness to the students they teach, with special emphasis on
understanding the nature and significance of student diversity…this relationship represents the broadest
terrain by encompassing the many sources of student diversity – cultural, linguistic, cognitive and more –
that present resources and challenges for teaching and learning.” (p 6). Effective professional
