Sustainability at Scale: Evidence based recommendations for Teacher Professional Development

Abstract

Sustainability of teacher professional development (TPD) efforts is difficult to measure due to various contextual and operational issues. The problem is compounded when TPDs are implemented at scale. This paper describes the design and implementation of one such large-scale teacher professional development program – Educational Technology for Engineering Teachers (ET4ET). Two considerations used in the program design, immersivity and pertinency, help in identification of substitute indicators towards sustainability. Results of measurements show that ET4ET training environment is highly active and participants found the content relevant for their immediate practice, thereby ensuring immersivity and pertinency. Thematic analysis of a post-workshop open-ended survey response by 60 participants, after a semester of their instruction, showed that they had experienced positive changes at three distinct levels – teachers’ own level, students’ level and institution level. Such positive changes have been known to be good predictors of sustainability. The design and implementation experience along with the evidence helps us to conclude that sustainability has to be a continuous driver for large-scale TPD programs, and the design considerations of immersivity and pertinency will help in sequencing the teaching-learning activities within such large-scale programs.