What To Do After Training

In the previous two posts I’ve written about the top three impacts on transfer of training in professional development for teachers and trainers. Strategies for what to do before the training were shared last time.
Here now, adapted from an article by Martha Ann Stallings, Ed.D and Brad E. Bizzell, Ed.S. out of the Virginia Tech Training and Technical Assistance Center, are the recommendations (based on the research of Broad & Newstrom, 1992) for what supervisors, training directors, or administrators should do AFTER training to support transfer of new learning to the training room.

Provide structured opportunities for reflecting on new learning.

1. During the implementation of new learning, provide the necessary materials, coaching, and support to help trainers be successful. This may include co-teaching with a more experienced trainer followed by debrief sessions, newsletters, email, shared blackboard or electronic work space, or phone calls that link the professional development trainer with trainees for ongoing support and problem solving.
2. Provide classroom or training room observations and feedback; or even modeling in that trainer's classroom with his/her students.
3. Understand and communicate to trainers that success requires ongoing effort and patience over a sustained period of time.
4. Evaluate the effectiveness of the professional development transfer of learning by looking at outcomes of the students of the trainer.

My experience working as the professional development trainer of a team of trainers on a research study that examined the effectiveness of a parenting curriculum on inmate learners, their children and caregivers verified for me that all the before and after steps are critical. Because the study depended on fidelity to the curriculum, I spent lots of time in classrooms modeling the curriculum, observing the delivery of the curriculum, and giving oral and written feedback. I also called trainers weekly and was available to them via email and additional phone calls they initiated as they prepared their lessons or needed to process the delivery of those lessons afterwards. Additionally, other staff (not the trainers) took on the responsibility of making sure handouts were ready and that supplies were ordered and delivered. Each trainer had an inmate classroom assistant ( a graduate of the program) to help with daily classroom setup, distribution of handouts, and general material preparation. I also brought the team together as a group for monthly staff trainings based on the challenges I saw as I made classroom observations. This allowed not only on-going training targeted at areas needing improvement, but gave trainers the opportunity to get support and problem-solve with their peers.

As a check on student outcomes, data was collected from students in the study after each class session, both around content learned and the emotional experience of being in the class with the trainer that day. I reviewed those weekly and while they were primarily for the use of the research study, I utilized them as a tool to follow up with trainers whose students expressed distress either in learning the content or because of classroom climate.

While it would be nice to think that professional development training can be covered in a few days in a training room, it is much like the rest of life; it requires thoughtful preparation and attention to motivation before and follow up in the way of ongoing support afterward.