Teacher Professional Learning That Actually Sticks

A two-hour PD session that ends with “Now you’re all trauma-informed teachers!” isn’t just annoying — it’s expensive.

Not “expensive” in the budget-line sense (though it often is). Expensive in the way workforce development is expensive: every hour teachers spend in compliance-based professional development is an hour not spent building real instructional skill, supporting students, or recovering energy needed to stay in the job. And in December — when stamina is low, absences rise, and schools are trying to hold the line until winter break — bad professional learning hits harder than usual.

Ryan Burns’ story of cafeteria PD and slide-deck endurance isn’t an outlier. It’s a design pattern many districts still default to: seat time, one-size-fits-all content, minimal practice, minimal follow-through. The result is predictable: low transfer to classrooms, teacher cynicism, and a weaker education workforce.

This post is part of our Education, Skills, and Workforce Development series, and I’m going to take a stance: if your professional learning doesn’t change teacher behavior in the next two weeks, it’s not professional learning — it’s a meeting.

Why traditional teacher PD fails (and why it’s a workforce problem)

Traditional professional development fails because it treats teacher learning as a checkbox instead of a skills system.

Most districts wouldn’t accept “sit and listen for 150 minutes” as a student learning plan. Yet teachers regularly get exactly that: lectures, generic handouts, and a tidy list of “next steps” that never land because there’s no time, no coaching, and no accountability that feels supportive.

The hidden cost: compliance PD accelerates attrition

When PD is done to teachers, it sends a clear message: “Your expertise doesn’t matter, and your time is negotiable.” That message fuels the quiet resignation Burns describes — the moment teachers stop expecting learning experiences to help them.

From a workforce development lens, that’s a retention issue. Teachers don’t just leave because the work is hard; they leave because the system stops investing in their growth in a way that feels real. If schools want a stable, skilled educator pipeline, professional learning has to be treated like ongoing job training — not an occasional assembly.

Skills shortages show up in classrooms first

Districts are facing persistent gaps in:

• Literacy instruction (especially structured literacy and intervention systems)
• Inclusive practices and co-teaching
• Student mental health supports and trauma-responsive routines
• AI and digital learning tools (and the policies that keep them safe and useful)
• Effective feedback and grading practices

These aren’t “nice-to-have” topics. They’re core job skills. And if PD doesn’t build those skills, the shortage gets worse — because fewer teachers feel effective, and fewer stay.

What “real” teacher learning looks like (and why it works)

Real professional learning is built on the same principles we expect teachers to use with students: relevance, choice, practice, feedback, and reflection.

Burns points to formats like Edcamp and teacher-led institutes (such as writing project models) because they flip the power dynamic. Teachers aren’t passive recipients. They’re contributors.

The non-negotiables: four conditions for adult learning transfer

If your goal is teacher behavior change, four conditions matter more than the topic or the presenter:

1. A clear problem of practice

   • “Improve engagement” is vague.
   • “Increase the percentage of students who revise writing after feedback from 30% to 70% by February” is actionable.

2. Practice during the session

   • Teachers must rehearse: plan a mini-lesson, script prompts, role-play a conference, test a digital tool.

3. Feedback within 48–72 hours

   • Not evaluative “gotcha” feedback.
   • Coaching feedback tied to the new skill.

4. A second attempt within two weeks

   • Skills stick when teachers try, reflect, adjust, and try again — quickly.

If a PD session doesn’t create a second attempt, it creates a memory — not a habit.

Choice isn’t a perk; it’s a design requirement

Edcamp works because teachers can move. That simple “vote with your feet” rule forces relevance. In workforce development terms, it increases learner agency, which is strongly correlated with persistence.

You don’t need to replicate an unconference every time. You can build choice into a district PD day by offering:

• Multiple pathways (new teachers vs. veterans)
• Role-alike sessions (SPED teams, grade-level teams, content teams)
• “Bring-a-lesson” labs where teachers work on their real materials

Designing a professional learning system (not a calendar of events)

A strong professional learning system is a year-round structure that builds skills in cycles.

One reason PD fails is that districts plan it like a series of episodes: September training, October training, January training. But skills don’t grow episodically — they grow through repetition with support.

A practical model: the 6-week inquiry-and-coaching cycle

Here’s a cycle I’ve seen work across grade levels because it respects time and produces measurable change.

Week 1: Identify a shared problem of practice

• Use student work, observation trends, assessment data, or attendance/behavior patterns.
• Keep the scope narrow.

Week 2: Learn one high-impact strategy

• 20–30 minutes of input max.
• Then teachers adapt it to their classrooms.

Week 3: Implement + collect evidence

• Evidence can be student work samples, short video clips, exit tickets, or quick tallies.

Week 4: Debrief in teams

• What happened? What surprised you?
• What will you tweak?

Week 5: Coaching support and targeted practice

• Coaches (or teacher leaders) run short modeling, co-teaching, or feedback sessions.

Week 6: Measure + decide the next cycle

• Decide: scale, refine, or switch strategies.

This model works because it creates tight loops between learning and doing — the missing ingredient in most teacher professional development.

Job-embedded learning beats “after school” learning

If professional learning always happens after the final bell, it becomes a tax on teacher energy.

The districts making real progress are building structures that protect learning time inside the workday:

• Common planning time that isn’t constantly repurposed for announcements
• Instructional coaching with clear schedules and manageable caseloads
• Peer observation routines (short, frequent, specific)
• Cross-district collaboration for small departments (world languages, arts, CTE)

The headline: professional learning needs a place to live. Otherwise it gets crowded out by everything else.

Digital learning transformation: use tech to support practice, not presentations

Digital learning transformation in PD isn’t about swapping a live lecture for a webinar. It’s about supporting practice, evidence, and feedback.

If your district is investing in AI tools, learning platforms, or new instructional materials, your professional learning should reflect how adults actually learn skills: in small chunks, close to the moment of use.

Better uses of tech in teacher learning

• Microlearning libraries (5–8 minutes) tied to a single classroom move
• Short screen recordings that demonstrate how to set up a tool or routine
• Coaching notes and action plans captured in shared systems
• Video reflection (teacher records a 10-minute segment, tags it to a focus skill)
• AI-supported planning with guardrails (templates for lesson design, accommodations, feedback stems)

A strong rule: If the technology doesn’t reduce planning friction or improve feedback quality, it’s noise.

Don’t digitize the worst version of PD

If the old model is “talk at teachers for two hours,” the digital version becomes “talk at teachers for two hours, but on a tiny laptop after dinner.” That’s not innovation. It’s just more isolating.

Digital PD should increase:

• Personalization (different pathways)
• Access (on-demand when needed)
• Coaching capacity (faster feedback loops)
• Evidence of learning (artifacts, classroom data)

“People also ask”: common questions leaders have about better PD

How do we prove professional learning is working?

Use leading indicators and lagging indicators.

• Leading: percentage of teachers attempting the new strategy within two weeks; number of coaching touchpoints; team artifact completion.
• Lagging: changes in student work quality, assessment results, attendance, behavior referrals, course pass rates.

If you can’t point to teacher-created artifacts (lesson plans, student work analysis, reflection notes), your PD probably isn’t producing learning.

What if teachers are skeptical?

Assume skepticism is rational. Many teachers have been trained to expect low-quality PD.

Win trust with:

• Choice
• Practicality (work on real materials)
• Short cycles that show visible improvement
• Teacher-led facilitation (not just outside experts)

Do we need outside consultants?

Sometimes — especially for specialized areas.

But consultants should be used to build internal capacity, not to run one-off events. If there’s no plan for coaching, follow-up, and teacher leadership, the impact fades fast.

The leadership move that matters most: stop rewarding seat time

Seat time is easy to track and easy to schedule. It’s also the wrong metric.

If you’re serious about education workforce development, professional learning should be measured by:

• Skill adoption (Are teachers trying the practice?)
• Skill quality (Are they getting better with feedback?)
• Student impact (Is learning improving in observable ways?)

Burns’ observation about uneven access is also worth confronting: administrators often get the most thoughtful learning design, while classroom teachers get the thinnest version. That’s backwards. The closer you are to students, the more support you should have — not less.

The next PD day on your calendar is an opportunity to change that pattern. Redesign one session using tight practice, teacher choice, and a two-week follow-up plan. Then do it again.

Professional learning is how a school system grows skills. And skills are how you keep people.

What would change in your district if every PD event had to answer one question before it got approved: “How will this show up in classrooms within 14 days?”