Effective Learning Models and Frameworks to Design Professional Development

A variety of conceptual frameworks can be useful in planning and designing professional development. These frameworks help ensure that a plan relates to individual and organizational development and to systemic change.

The following frameworks, considered together, provide guidance in planning comprehensive, systemic professional development:

• The five phases of staff development, developed by the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (n.d.), is a framework that describes a professional growth continuum.
• The five models of professional development, developed by Sparks and Loucks-Horsley (1989), is a framework that ensures variety in professional development. It also links model purposes(s) with particular professional and personal learning goals.
• The learning cycle by Loucks-Horsley (1995), adapted from the National Center for Improving Science Education (1991), is a helpful tool that enhances learning in any context.
• The systemic planning process provides guidance by presenting questions in three general phases: initiation and readiness, implementation, and institutionalization. To ensure attention is given to all phases of professional development, these questions can be used as a guide for planning and supporting change initiatives.
• The framework for designing effective professional development, developed by Cook and Rasmussen (1994), leads schools through the process of identifying, understanding, planning, carrying out, and evaluating change.
• The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (Hall & Loucks, 1979) is a conceptual framework of seven stages of concern or feelings that teachers and administrators experience as they become aware of and implement new practices.

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