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.

PD Finder What it is & Why YOU need it!

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 15:28:23 -0500

It’s 12:30 pm. The children have eaten lunch and are settling in for nap time. A quiet hush cascades over the center as staff quietly move about over the steady hum of little ones sleeping. As you are on a break you think this would be a perfect time to sign up for training, but where should you look? You don’t have a lot of time to scour a bunch of different websites for training that counts. Oh, if only there was a place you could go to find what you need…….If you have ever found yourself in this situation, then you know just how frustrating it can be. The good news is such a place does exist.

Allow me to introduce you to the New York State Training Calendar. In actuality, it operates less like a calendar and more like a really helpful search tool, such that here at New York Works for Children we refer to it as the Professional Development (PD) Finder.

The PD Finder allows the user to search for upcoming professional development training and/or search for specific trainers through a variety of ways. Looking for a session related to COVID-19 Guidance Requirements? Just type the word “COVID” into the keyword search and a list of training populates the bottom of your screen. Searching for trainers who speak Spanish or Coaches located in Buffalo? Just type in your search parameters and off to the races (or training) you go – all within a matter of minutes.

There are many options with which to search for professional development and the best part is that all listed sessions are Quality Assured or PDP approved. You might be reading this asking yourself what Quality Assured means and why it’s important. Well, I am so glad you asked! Quality Assured training sessions have gone through the Aspire Course/Event review process AND are facilitated by a credentialed trainer(s). This means that you will not only find training that counts but training that is high quality.

High Quality is a term that we use a lot around here and for good reason. More often than not when staff and directors are searching for training they are usually focused on checking a box for compliance sake- that is ensuring that the number of training hours are fulfilled during the licensing term to avoid regulatory violations. The problem with this type of thinking is that it is short term at best and neglectful at worst. Imagine going to a training that not only teaches you what you should do and how but actually empowers you as a professional to identify strategies that could take your classroom to the next level. The kind of level that would make you excited to come to work because you get to do new things that really work with the children instead of being taught the same information year after year that is neither relevant to your work, practical nor helpful. When training merely focuses on compliance it feels like drudgery, but when executed correctly, professional development can be absolutely life changing growing an early childhood or school-age educator into a highly effective, highly skilled practitioner putting their gifts and talents to use for the benefit of the children and families they serve.

As the resident Professional Development Quality Assurance Specialist at New York Works for Children, I am a strong proponent and advocate for high quality professional development because I have seen what it can do. The truth is anyone who actively takes responsibility for their professional development is a hero. This fact can’t be overstated. So from our vantage point you deserve a tool that will support you in locating professional development that is relevant and meets your needs. To that end that is why we have doubled down on our efforts to build up the training calendar and want to include your sessions. If you are a credentialed trainer offering high quality professional development then we want your sessions in the calendar. If you know of really good trainers in your county or region whose stuff needs to be in Aspire, then let us know. We will reach out to them. Even better, if you have never used the PD Finder, click here to access it.

In this political climate, there are so many issues being put before us. At a time like this what greater opportunity is there than supporting an early childhood workforce? It is our honor to support the development of the workforce’s knowledge, skills and dispositions in a way that sets them up for success so that they can effectively serve the future leaders of tomorrow. From my vantage point there is none greater. My name is Tinnycua Williams, your Professional Development Quality Improvement Specialist and I approve this message. Have Feedback? Let’s talk about it. Send all comments and feedback to PDblog@nyworksforchildren.org.