Professional development can introduce educators to new ideas, strategies, and approaches. The real value, though, comes from what happens after the course, workshop, or training session ends.
For teachers, the challenge is turning new information into something practical. Once lesson planning, grading, meetings, and daily classroom responsibilities take over, even a great session can fade into the background.
A few simple strategies can help educators turn what they learn into meaningful changes in their practice. (School leaders looking at this from the other side may also find 5 Common Mistakes Schools Make in Teacher Professional Development and How to Fix Them useful.)
1) Start With a Specific Goal
Before beginning a professional development course, think about what you want to get out of it. Instead of a broad goal such as “become a better teacher,” identify something specific you would like to improve. For example:
- Improve classroom discussions
- Strengthen formative assessment
- Better support multilingual learners
- Introduce more student choice
- Improve classroom routines
- Learn how to use a new instructional tool
A clear goal makes it easier to focus on the ideas most relevant to your classroom. It also makes choosing a course easier. Browsing by focus area, such as Teaching & Learning or Student Support & Wellbeing, can help you match your goal to the right learning opportunity.
2) Choose One Idea to Try
Professional development often includes more ideas than you can realistically implement at once. Rather than trying to change everything immediately, choose one strategy to test with a lesson, unit, or group of students, and pay attention to what happens.
- Did students respond differently?
- Did the strategy save time?
- Did it improve engagement or understanding?
Small experiments are often easier to sustain than large-scale changes.
3) Connect Learning to Your Current Students
Professional learning becomes more useful when you think about it through the lens of the students you teach right now. As you participate in a course or workshop, ask yourself:
- Which students might benefit most from this approach?
- How could I adapt this idea for my grade level or subject?
- What challenges might I encounter?
- What would success look like in my classroom?
Making these connections while you learn makes it much easier to apply new ideas later.
4) Learn With Other Educators
Professional development does not have to be an individual activity. Talking with colleagues can help you process new ideas, hear different perspectives, and find ways to apply what you learned.
You might share one takeaway during a department meeting, plan a lesson with a colleague, or discuss a strategy with another teacher who completed the same course. If your school offers School-Wide ISS EDUlearn® Passport access, colleagues across departments can take the same course and compare notes.
Professional learning can become especially valuable when it starts conversations across a school.
5) Revisit What You Learned
One of the easiest ways to lose the value of professional development is to complete it and never return to it. A few weeks after a course or workshop, take a few minutes to reflect:
- What have you tried?
- What worked, and what did not?
- What would you like to explore next?
On-demand courses make this easier, since you can go back to materials when a question comes up in your classroom.
Professional growth is rarely the result of a single course. It happens over time as educators continue learning, experimenting, reflecting, and adjusting.
Make Professional Learning Work for You
The most useful professional development is not simply something educators complete. It is something they can apply.
By setting clear goals, trying new strategies, collaborating with colleagues, and reflecting on what works, teachers can turn professional learning into practical improvements in the classroom.
ISS EDUlearn® offers professional learning designed for international educators. It includes over 300 courses, on-demand and live options, and captions in more than 230 languages, so you can learn in your own time zone and at your own pace.
