If you are in education, there is a good chance you have had some experience with professional development. If you don't know what I am talking about, basically these are workshops and classes that current teachers take to make themselves better teachers. Seems simple, right? Well, it doesn't quite work that way.
Let me start with a great example. This is a post by Bill Ferriter regarding his experience with professional development. Basically, his district requires a certain amount of professional development (this is common). The only options for approved courses were two basic computer courses. Here is his dialogue with administrators in charge of professional development.
Sad really. Having done professional development, I have also seen the other side. I have seen teachers come to a professional development course and do nothing. They just need the hours, they don't really need to learn anything. Of course, there were also some awesome teachers in the course that clearly were making the most of the learning opportunity.
The Cargo Cult Problem
If you haven't heard of cargo cult, let me summarize super quick. In the Pacific, after World War II, some natives attempted to bring back the wealth of materials that the Japanese and U.S.Aians (Americans) brought to the islands. After the war, this influx of materials stopped. So, the natives built wooden versions of airports and airplanes and stuff to bring back the goods.
Essentially, the natives thought that if you had things that looked like an air base, you would get stuff like they did during the war.
Here is the professional development version. Administrators think: what do excellent teachers do? Ah ha! Excellent teachers are continually trying to make themselves better. They are continually trying to learn. Well, then we can make all the teachers better by requiring them to learn more.
And here is the fundamental problem. Confusing correlation with causation. Guess, what? How is this much different than graded homework. The idea being that good students will work on the material outside of class - so let's force them to work outside of class. I have to admit that my analogy does break down at some level. My kids don't always want to go to bed on time or to eat right. However, I make them do the right thing.
College is different though. The students are older and they have chosen to go to college. I make the assumption that they are past the age where I need to make them eat their vegetables.
Ok. One last note. This cargo cult mentality doesn't stop. It goes even beyond the college level. In Louisiana, we have the LA Grad Act. Other states have similar dumb things, but this one in particular sets a university's funding based on things like the graduation rate. They must be thinking something like "well, a good university would have a high graduation rate so just make a high graduation rate." If only it were that simple.
