A Project-Based Approach to Professional Development

Kolk, Melinda, and Wagner, David. (2008). A Project-Based Approach to Professional Development. Creative Educator, 1, 4, 7-9.

“A Project-Based Approach to Professional Development,” by Kolk and Wagner, is about effective professional development. It promotes a project-based approach, which according to the authors, will improved teaching, learning, and technology skills. This project-based approach will accomplish this by modeling the teacher’s effective implementation in the classroom. Most people know what project-based learning looks like in the classroom, but as a staff development model it is something new. In this example, teachers participating in the technology staff development were first told about project based learning and then asked to choose a unit they currently teach, determine the essential questions, and write an authentic task related to technology that students could complete. This article is incredibly useful, as it provides educators with an alternative and more effective way to teach their peers new technology. It gives many options, discusses the benefits, and show how well the model works. The method can be used across all grade levels, without limitations. The authors of the article are the CEO and Director of Professional Development for Tech4Learning. They both have a lot of experience and expertise in their field. I loved this article and the model it shared. It is such a great alternative to teaching new technology to my peers. I am constantly sharing something new with other teachers at my site and see this as a much more effective way to get the point across.