Why We Don’t Need Less PD—We Need Better PD

Three years ago The PD Book made its official debut 🥳. 

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“How did you decide to…?”  

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For about a decade, this was the question I received over and over after each workshop I facilitated. And so, I finally decided to write a book on how to design and facilitate PD that results in sustained changes to practice, that people are eager to attend, and that builds resilient and thriving organizations. 

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Recently I’ve heard rumblings of an “anti-PD” movement–a desire to replace group development with individual planning time. 

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On one hand, I understand the sentiment. If PD is transactional sit-and-get, teachers can definitely make better use of the time. On the other hand, this argument represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what PD can and should be. 

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As I write in The PD Book, professional development isn’t a transactional process in which learners are passive subjects who are asked to change behaviors. That’s a poorly designed meeting. 

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We don’t need less PD, we need better. 

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