Anchored in Instructional Learning: My Experience With Two Effective Training Strategies

If you are an educator, you have probably sat through many professional development sessions. These sessions are designed to enhance your teaching skills, update you on the latest educational trends, and equip you with new strategies to engage your students. My experiences with professional development sessions have included a variety of training strategies, ranging from interactive workshops to lecture-style presentations. Each session has offered unique insights and tools, some more effective than others. Most have shaped my approach to teaching in meaningful ways. In this blog post, I highlight two impactful strategies and provide tips on how to use each in a professional development setting. Both strategies reflect Community-Centered Environments, which uses common interests and goals to build connections between instructional settings and the real world (Brown & Green, 2024). Whether you're a seasoned educator or new to the field, I hope my experiences will offer valuable perspectives and inspire you to view professional development as a vital part of your teaching journey.

Gallery Walks 

At my former school, faculty met once a month for what most teachers would call a faculty meeting. The administration carefully crafted these meetings into something they called a faculty workshop. It included the traditional schedule of school updates, but most of the time was protected for professional learning experiences. My most memorable faculty workshop experiences involve gallery walks. 

What is a Gallery Walk?

                                                   (Educational Partners International, 2020).

According to Facing History and Ourselves (2017), a gallery walk involves students being up and engaged as they explore documents, images, or student work. In a professional training session, a gallery walk can be an effective method to engage participants, encouraging them to explore and reflect on the materials presented. Research has shown that gallery walks can expand professional competencies, and deepen reflective practices. (Lopez & Cruz, 2020).

 Lopez and Cruz (2020), note that three important things can happen during a gallery walk:

1. Participants show engagement with the material during the rotation process

2. Participants engage in discussions and activities

3. Participants collaborate as a team to accomplish the assigned task

(Facing History and Ourselves, 2017). 

Here’s how gallery walks can be utilized in professional training sessions:

1. Showcase Best Practices

Participants can move around the room to view displays of best practices from different areas of the school. Each station could feature posters, multimedia presentations, or printed materials detailing successful strategies, projects, or initiatives. Participants can gather ideas and insights that they can adapt to their own work.

2. Brainstorm and Problem-Solve 

Set up stations with different challenges or problems relevant to the professional field. Participants can visit each station, discuss the issues, and brainstorm potential solutions. They record ideas on sticky notes or digital platforms at each station, creating a collection of solutions. 

3. Explore New Tools 

Each station can feature a different tool, technology, or resource relevant to the participants’ field. Interactive demonstrations and hands-on activities can help participants understand how to integrate these tools into their work effectively. 

Question-Formulation Technique 

In the summer of 2023, I assisted two Alabama professors in starting a summer camp in an underserved area. The criteria for becoming a teacher at this summer camp was to be trained on, and later implement the Question-Formulation Technique (QFT). I had zero knowledge of this training technique, but I found it very beneficial for helping my students learn how to ask questions and build their knowledge. 

What is the QFT?

According to the Right Question Institute (n.d.), the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is "a structured method for generating and improving questions"(para. 1). This technique encourages participants to generate questions about a topic and determine which questions will lead to deep learning about the subject matter. The QFT allows participants to articulate their thoughts, listen to others, and build on each other's insights. According to Brown and Green (2024), this type of strategy helps participants recall prior knowledge and prepare for new information.

        (Right Question Institute, 2020)

My QFT Experience in the Classroom

        Question Focus: Eggs                      Student Questions                       Student  Learning

Imagine the QFT in Professional Training

One example of how the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) might be used in a professional training session is in the context of developing a new strategic plan for an organization. Here’s a detailed scenario that relates to an ongoing topic in my current school district:

Scenario: Strategic Planning Workshop

1. Introduction to QFT: The facilitator begins by introducing the QFT to the participants and explains its purpose. They emphasize how generating and improving questions can lead to deep understanding of a topic.

2. Question Focus (QFocus): The facilitator presents a QFocus related to the strategic planning process. For example, the QFocus could be:

   • “Hospitality”

3. Generate Questions: Participants are divided into small groups to generate as many questions as possible about the QFocus. They are encouraged to ask both broad and specific questions without worrying about whether they are “good” or “bad” questions. Examples might include:

   • What are some examples of hospitality?
   • How can we show hospitality as educators?
   • How are we already showing hospitality to students and families? 

4. Improve Questions: After generating their initial list of questions, participants work to improve them. They categorize the questions as open-ended or closed-ended and practice converting one type to the other. This helps in refining questions to be more precise and thought-provoking. For example:

   • Closed to open: “Is hospitality seen as a priority in the district?” to “How can our school district make hospitality a priority?

5. Prioritize Questions: Each group selects 3-5 of the most important questions that they believe will provide significant insights on the topic. They consider factors such as relevance, impact, and alignment.

6. Share and Discuss: Groups share their top questions with the entire workshop. The facilitator leads a discussion on these questions, encouraging input from all participants. This collaborative discussion helps provide diverse perspectives and ideas.

7. Action Planning: The final set of prioritized questions is used to guide the next steps in the learning process. Participants may break into new groups to develop detailed action plans, conduct research, or design initiatives based on the key questions identified.

Which Would You Implement?

Using gallery walks in professional training sessions can transform passive learning into an active, engaging, and collaborative experience. This method not only increases engagement, but also builds a sense of community and shared purpose among participants. Similarly, the QFT can lead to more effective and targeted learning. By identifying the most important and thought-provoking questions, learners can focus their research and inquiry on areas that will provide the most significant understanding and insight. This approach maximizes the efficiency of the learning process and ensures that participants invest in the most crucial aspects of the topic. Whether you choose gallery walks or the QFT, both techniques offer effective ways to enrich professional training sessions and promote meaningful engagement.

 References

Brown, A. B., & Green, T. D. (2024). The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice. (5th ed.). Routledge.

Educational Partners International (2020, 1, September). Gallery walk- Classroom strategy. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJTi51JXiRU&t=23s

Facing History and Ourselves. (2017). Gallery walk. Facing History and Ourselves. https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/gallery-walk-0

Facing History and Ourselves. (2017). [Students participating in a gallery walk]. [Photograph]. Facing History and Ourselves. https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/gallery-walk-0

Lopez, M.K.R.R., & Ortego-Dela Cruz, R.A. (2022). Gallery Walk technique in enhancing reading comprehension and oral English language proficiency of junior high school students. Waikato Journal of Education, 27(3), 57–71. https://doi.org/10.15663/wje.v27i3.813

Right Question Institute. (n.d.). What is the qft? Right Question Institute. https://rightquestion.org/what-is-the-qft/

Right Question Institute. (2020, 28, January). QFT in action. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6rKiGgc1v0&t=401s

Smith, T. (2024). [Student and teacher with eggs]. [Photograph]. 

Smith, T. (2024). [Our new learning on chart paper]. [Photograph]. 

Smith, T. (2024). [Student questions on chart paper]. [Photograph].