"In early childhood classrooms we readily embrace the importance of individualizing instruction, but when it comes to the supervision, professional development, and performance appraisal of teachers, many programs rely on a one-size-fits all approach," observe Paula Jorde Bloom, Ann Hentschel, and Jill Bella in their book, Inspiring Peak Performance: Competence, Commitment and Collaboration.
"They use the same forms and protocols for individuals throughout the center, even if staff work in different age group settings and have different levels of experience or career goals. This cookie-cutter approach misses the mark. Being serious about creating a professional learning community means seriously considering the unique interests, strengths and needs of your staff and individualizing your approach based on those differences."
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Displaying 1 CommentSanta Monica College
Carlsbad, California, United States
I have to say that I agree that the Cookie Cutter approach just does not work in terms of most things that we do. Just as we individualize what we do for children is really how we need to approach the mentoring and support of the teachers and even the parents as how we learn, process and grow can be very different for the adults as well.
As a former director and current director mentor and college instructor who teaches the admin courses as part of her load,I hear so much from my students, many already degreed and working in admin, who feel like they are not sure just how to approach things so have done what was done for them- often what Bloom and others has been trying to move them away from.
We need to be just as gracious and flexible in how we treat the adult learners as we are with our children!
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