Let's talk about Professional Development!

Communities of Practice: Fostering Quality Care

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 14:56:18 -0400

Communities of Practice (CoP) are one way to provide a space for reflection and individualized learning and supplement traditional large-group training sessions.

According to NAEYC's Early Childhood Education Professional Development: Training and Technical Assistance Glossary, Communities of Practice (CoPs) are " groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." CoPs are not meant to replace coaching, topic-driven professional development training, act as a committee for a project/event, or provide quick fixes to systematic concerns. Rather, CoPs are tailored to suit the needs and desires of the participating individuals and are centered around shared goals, values, beliefs, and similar interests among participants. They promote personal reflection and growth to improve teaching practice.

Communities of Practice in Action

During CoP meetings, like-minded individuals discuss a challenge and share feedback and strategies with the group based on their experiences. CoPs are structured with a cooperative approach to learning so that people of all expertise and experience can participate.

Communities of Practice are relationship-based models intended to foster an intimate learning environment. To set the stage, a leader builds a team of participants focused on one overarching goal, such as infant teachers striving to use a curriculum to fidelity while meeting the individualized needs of children or ''floater'' teacher assistants learning to navigate different daily schedules and match the effect of multiple rooms.

When creating a CoP in a center-based program, fostering staff buy-in and collaboration is crucial to ensure it will be meaningful to their work. Leaders should engage staff in determining the purpose, topic, and timing of the CoP.

The first time the group meets, facilitators guide participants in establishing community agreements to create a brave space for their work together. Facilitators may guide the meeting, but all participants are viewed as equal contributors. Meetings have an agenda that includes learning objectives and allow time for sharing, topic discussion, problem-solving, and individual reflection. It is important to review the community agreements and reflect on their intention each time the group meets.

"A professional learning community is a delicate recipe of ingredients that never cooks the same way twice." -K12 Blueprint

Below are two unique examples of Communities of Practice in New York early childhood settings:

Centers Engaging Families in the Finger Lakes

QUALITYstarsNY Quality Improvement Specialists in the Finger Lakes Region gather center-based program leaders monthly on Zoom to discuss various aspects of leadership and early childhood education, concentrating on the Quality Standards. Leaders complete an annual survey to determine topics of interest and areas where they wish to focus their quality improvement efforts.

Each meeting begins by reviewing the agenda, community agreements, and learning objectives. Facilitators then present information about the chosen Quality Standard and its intention. Participants have an opportunity to share their experience with the topic as panelists or facilitators of a small group breakout session. Small groups use various online tools to record information for future use, including Jamboard, Whiteboard, and Google Slides.

Most recently, the group concentrated on Family Involvement and Support by building family surveys for their programs and developing methods for creating and disseminating the surveys and, later, the results. A member who created a family survey last year offered to share her journey in pursuing this goal. Participants then worked in small groups to create questions for their family survey. They created project plans for completing the survey in their program and discussed potential action plans based on the survey's results.

Each leader left this Learning Community with a relevant example of the family survey process and sample questions to choose from when creating a survey for their program.

Past Center-based Learning Community topics included:

Using a cultural competence self-assessment
Preparing for Environmental Rating Scale assessments
Implementing a continuity of care model
Transition strategies

Family Child Care Providers Building Community in New York City

In New York City, QUALITYstarsNY Quality Improvement Specialists gather with family child care providers to share and learn together. This group started to provide extra support to group family/family child care providers during the pandemic; however, because of the rich relationships that developed, the group continues to meet regularly. Similarly to the Finger Lakes Learning Community described above, the providers vote on topics they want to explore together. The small group size has allowed the participants to form strong connections and friendships with one another over the years, and the participants carry on the Learning Community without the facilitator at times. Some connect outside of the group as a support system. Together, the learning community has watched webinars, discussed upcoming workshops, and shared existing resources. During the last year, the learning community worked on several quality improvement standards, goals, and systems for support. Examples include:

Reviewing and self-assessing on the NYS Core Body of Knowledge
Reviewing curriculum options
Hearing from city agencies and resources to further support the provider's practice and needs
Learning about various grants available to providers at this time

Closing

Implementing CoPs within your program can create more learning and leadership opportunities for your staff or community. There is no right or wrong way to form this collaborative community. Participants appreciate attending CoPs, where they can learn from and grow with other professionals in the field. CoPs can foster leadership and highlight strengths, building confidence in your staff.

Think Win/Win - Training Approval & Quality Assurance (QA) Pt II: Trainers & Training Organizations

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 09:12:57 -0400

I often support program leaders with their individual and organizational professional development tracking during my workday. In one particular instance, I assisted the Education Director of a relatively large Head Start program. With roughly 35 classrooms, they frequently offered many in-service trainings for their staff. Imagine how overwhelmed this director felt as she contemplated the various ways of documenting such trainings within The Aspire Registry; the sheer amount of time and energy needed to accomplish the task seemed daunting. Now imagine how liberated this director must’ve felt when I told her there was actually a more beneficial and easier way to use The Aspire Registry through Training Approval.

In my previous blogs, I’ve emphasized the importance of high-quality trainings for the professional growth of educators, how early childhood and school-age educators can locate them, and the significant impact of these opportunities on the entire field. In this edition, let’s talk about professional development from the vantage point of trainers and training organizations.

We know that high-quality professional development builds educators’ capacity to provide engaging and meaningful interactions that will promote learning among children. This process must be both fluid and sustainable. As a trainer, I used to think that if I did my job well, participants would be able to apply what they’d learned almost instantaneously. In light of what I know now, I recognize that it’s not that simple. In reality, high-quality professional development – the kind that elevates program practice – requires time and relationship-based support. Effective support includes mentorship, learning communities, training series, and college-level courses. These types of professional development provide robust learning opportunities which allow for reflection and inquiry – key elements to change in practice. To maximize this, internal or external trainers must draw from their knowledge and experience while creating just the right amount of engagement to keep the training interesting.

Now, before you think this doesn’t apply to you or feel that you don’t have any trainers on staff, please allow me to offer a different perspective. Let’s suppose you are a Director, Assistant Director, or Head Start teacher who provides in-service professional development to staff. In that case, you’re already familiar with your staff’s strengths and the opportunities available to foster their growth. You’re probably already coaching and guiding them toward best practices to better serve your community. By our definition, you’re a trainer. You should register as such and be sure to document all of those in-service professional development events within The Aspire Registry. If you’ve already done all of that, excellent job!

There’s a tremendous benefit to training your staff and acknowledging it in The Aspire Registry, but this also comes with immense responsibility. According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) position statement on Developmentally Appropriate Practice, “…educators have a professional responsibility to be life-long learners who are able to foster life-long learning in children; in this, they must keep abreast of research developments, while also learning continuously from families and communities they serve.” Being a life-long learner also means seeking professional development experiences to expand one’s knowledge and skills. One could argue that the same applies to trainers. As a trainer, you cannot support early childhood and school-age professionals in their work if you do not practice the same disciplined approach to learning yourself. You’ll need to keep up with the latest trends, actively participate in prominent organizations like NAEYC, and partake in various training opportunities to obtain and maintain professional credentials. This will improve your practice as a professional and set you apart from others.

For seasoned trainers, one option to consider is the Training and Technical Assistance Program (T-TAP) credential. The T-TAP provides an opportunity to showcase yourself as a professional and allows you to reflect on your practice. For many T-TAP credentialed trainers, the bonus of being eligible to accept payment for training via the state’s Educational Incentive Program scholarship is a significant value for financially strapped programs. Another plus is that The Aspire Registry promotes trainings facilitated by T-TAP credentialed trainers in the PD Finder as Quality Assured trainings that members can register and pay for directly. In essence, the Training Approval process is straightforward, and we are here to help. Please check out our help center articles and instruction guides. Our friendly staff is also available to provide support.

So, you may be wondering what happened with the Head Start director I mentioned at the beginning of this blog. Well, I did what any trainer would do! I provided training on how to register as a trainer and enter professional development sessions into The Aspire Registry. I am proud to report that this Head Start program ultimately became an approved Training organization in The Aspire Registry. Now, all of their trainers create Aspire profiles and can submit their in-service trainings into our system for regulatory training credit. What’s more, every time one of their programs holds an in-service training, their trainers can upload sign-in sheets and update the attendance portal for participants. Through this process, attending staff members and directors can breathe a collective sigh of relief because now training credits will automatically appear on individual profiles - one less thing for teachers and program leaders to do.

All that said, what’s the moral of the story? Whether you consider yourself a seasoned trainer or provide in-service sessions every so often, it’s imperative to register as a trainer and submit your events into The Aspire Registry. What’s more, when your training events are complete, do yourself and your staff a favor by uploading sign-in sheets and updating the rosters. By doing so, trainings automatically appear on staff profiles, saving everyone time to do what they do best: provide nurturing, supportive high-quality educational experiences for the youngest among us. Now that is what I like to call a Win/Win.

Have Feedback? Let’s talk about it. Send all comments and feedback to Pdblog@nyworksforchildren.org.

Think Win/Win – Training Approval & Quality Assurance (QA)

Tue, 05 Jan 2021 15:31:11 -0500

Does this sound familiar?

You are the director of a QUALITYstarsNY program and are reviewing your Aspire Staff Training Summary Report, only to notice that many of your staff members have not received training credit in key QUALITYstarsNY standards. As you consider what to do next, the program phone rings. You pick up the phone, making a mental note to follow up with your Quality Improvement Specialist later.

All too often we see this scene play out. Directors set up site-based training with the intention that applicable QUALITYstarsNY training standards will be applied. This is clear. What may not be so clear is why training certificates alone do not provide an adequate amount of information needed to accurately assess the full content of a professional development (PD) session, including relevant domain areas. When staff upload training certificates to their profiles for verification, key critical elements are usually missing, such as the session description, goals, objectives, etc.

Ultimately, the best way to avoid this issue is for professional development courses to go through the Aspire review process before the PD takes place. During the Aspire review process, all the essential information is pre-loaded into the system, providing a full picture of the content. This allows the Registry to accurately determine applicable NYS Core Competencies and QUALITYstarsNY standards, ensuring that educators receive credit in the appropriate domains. Submitting courses for review to the Registry allows programs to track all of their trainings in one convenient location. Another benefit of course approval is access to approved attendance sign-in sheet and training certificate templates. Once the training is over, the trainer simply enters each attendee’s Aspire ID number into a roster and – voila! – all the training information transfers to participant files automatically, without the participant ever having to upload one training certificate. It’s that easy. You can also use the Aspire Registry app to scan Aspire member QR codes as another easy way to take attendance. One side note- this process can also work for in-service PD for program staff. I will be covering this topic in greater detail in my next blog post.

It wasn’t that long ago that one of the more popular catchphrases heard by certain fans of a particular television series was “Winter is coming.” The meaning behind this phrase was meant to invoke warning as well as vigilance. In this same context, we too must be vigilant in the promotion of high quality professional development. Given that we are moving into the colder months, it is only appropriate to note that like winter, training approval is on the horizon, coming soon to QUALITYstarsNY and DOHMH-licensed programs. The difference is that the implication behind this pronouncement is more hopeful than ominous. As we build out New York’s early childhood workforce system, training approval is one of the next best steps.

So what does training approval mean for your program? It means that in order for training to meet DOHMH and/or QUALITYstarsNY standards, they must be Quality Assured. To be Quality Assured (QA) means that professional development sessions have gone through the Aspire Course/Event review process AND are facilitated by a credentialed trainer(s). The Quality Assured designation is a stamp of approval that highlights premier professional development while supporting educators to advance and improve their knowledge, skills and disposition in the field. In essence, you will not only find professional development that counts, but sessions that are facilitated by trainers who have met a higher standard based on their education and qualifications. I discussed this very issue in my last blog: PD Finder: What it is & Why you need it.

Once training approval goes into effect, only Quality Assured training events will count toward the five QUALITYstarsNY training standards. Similarly, only QA training will be accepted by DOHMH licensors in New York City. There may be some exceptions to this (i.e. NAEYC training, OCFS-approved distance learning, etc.), but this will mean that early childhood educators in NYC center-based programs and QUALITYstarsNY programs across the state will no longer (except in a few select cases) be responsible for uploading training certificates to the Aspire Registry. Instead it will be the responsibility of trainers and training organizations.

So by now you are probably wondering where you can go to find QA training. The place to go is the PD Finder. Utilizing search parameters such as key words, title, OCFS topic, and course type (including virtual training), PD Finder allows you to search for upcoming professional development training as well as the trainers who provide it. The best part is you can typically locate what you are looking for within a matter of minutes.As always, I am personally looking for your feedback and suggestions to make the PD Finder the premier professional development search tool in New York. Training approval is coming and we want to be ready. Have feedback? Let’s talk about it. Please post your comments below or send feedback to PDblog@nyworksforchildren.org.