Have you ever walked out of a professional learning workshop that you either attended or delivered feeling inspired, only to realize days later that nothing has changed in the classroom? You’re not alone. Professional learning may be great at encouraging, but it often falls short of transforming practice.
Microcredentials offer a new way forward: turning learning into action. They build educator capacity and require evidence of application, helping to bridge the gap between learning and classroom practice.
Recent research highlights ongoing challenges in translating professional learning into classroom practice. Findings in a 2023 published RAND study revealed challenges between participation in professional learning and classroom application. This gap highlights a critical issue today: little professional learning actually results in classroom application or changes within the classroom. To succeed in changing professional practice, professional learning must require practical implementation as part of the learning process.
This article builds on my previous microcredential article, incorporating a deeper exploration of the benefits of using microcredentials for meaningful professional growth, the systemic impact of microcredentials on schools and districts and the future of educational microcredentials.
Educator microcredentials: A pathway to meaningful professional growth
In recent years, microcredentialing has emerged as a new, innovative and competency-based approach to professional learning. Microcredentials offer educators a self-paced, personalized, performance-based learning experience. Teachers work on a focused skill at their own pace within the classroom, like facilitating collaborative classroom discussions. Then, the teachers upload artifacts (like classroom videos, student work, reflections, etc.) as skill evidence for an evaluator to review. The evaluator reviews the submitted evidence, provides focused feedback and awards the educator the microcredential or encourages the educator to resubmit the microcredential with changes.
Unlike most professional learning, which does not address the diverse needs of educators, microcredentials offer a unique solution. Instead of the one-size-fits-all approach of workshops and training, microcredentials allow teachers to progress at their own pace and access the professional learning they need. They can create and submit skill evidence as they go and demonstrate competency in various ways as long as their evidence meets the assessment rubric requirements.
Also, microcredentials foster teacher agency. Unlike top-down professional learning mandates, microcredentialing allows teachers to choose skills most relevant to their immediate instructional challenges and shifts from passive to active learning with professional growth connected to classroom outcomes.
School microcredentials: The systemic impact of microcredentials
Due to their education and experience, teachers in a school system have different content and instructional areas of expertise. When a school creates a professional learning ecosystem of purchased or school-created microcredentials, it creates a pathway for a shared mastery of specific content or instructional strategies throughout the school or district.
One example is the Richardson Independent School District (ISD) in Texas, which enrolls approximately 36,000 students in 50 schools and offers multiple microcredentials on various topics. Some of Richardson’s ISD microcredentials were developed in-house, and others were outsourced from other companies. These microcredentials are tied to teacher compensation and supported by the district. Not only do these educators bring new skills into their classrooms immediately as they work on these microcredentials, but the district benefits from staff members whose expertise in targeted areas is continually expanding.
Another example comes from Brooklyn College, where Katharine Pace Miles, Ph.D., received Heckscher funding to launch a pilot program for a microcredential in literacy instruction around the Science of Reading for rising New York City teachers. The success of this program resulted in plans to offer more microcredentials targeting other areas of instructional practice.
These examples demonstrate how schools and districts can strategically employ microcredentialing to achieve district-wide goals and meet individual teacher needs. Microcredentialing is about educator growth and enhancing instructional practices across entire schools and districts in line with broader educational objectives.
The future of microcredentials in education
Schools and districts are uniquely positioned to create tailored microcredential pathways that align with the school’s specific goals, needs, and challenges. In addition, schools can provide ongoing, meaningful professional learning opportunities to their teachers throughout their careers, leading to sustainable improvements in instructional practices, student outcomes, and teacher retention.
Also, colleges and universities can integrate microcredentials into the design of their teaching programs, allowing rising teachers to leave their collegiate teaching programs with demonstrated skills.
As educators and districts seek more personalized and impactful methods of professional learning that translate into classroom application, microcredentials allow educators to access professional learning content that meets their learning needs and receive recognition for demonstrated classroom skills. This recognition might involve taking on leadership roles, earning additional compensation, mentoring peers, and sharing their expertise, strengthening a school-wide system of documented skills and a culture of continuous improvement. Microcredentials represent a professional learning option and a powerful tool for transforming teaching and learning.
As educators and districts seek more personalized and impactful methods of professional learning that translate into classroom application, microcredentials allow educators to access professional learning content that meets their learning needs and receive recognition (i.e., taking on leadership roles, receiving additional compensation, mentoring peers, sharing expertise, etc.) to reimagine individual and school-wide professional learning.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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