Teacher professional development (PD) programs are only effective if teachers actually adopt the strategies advocated by the programs. Research shows that traditional teacher PD does not support enactment, i.e. teachers' transfer of new skills and strategies into classroom practice.

Teachers say that these workshops leave them ill-equipped to enact what they learned. Research confirms teachers' impressions. Joyce & Showers (2002) found that enactment is minimal for what is often considered high-powered teacher professional development, where presentations, discussion, demonstrations, and practice sessions are included.

Only when classroom-based coaching is added to professional development experiences is there significant enactment. The implication of this body of research is clear: classroom-based coaching is necessary for teachers to enact new knowledge and skills.

Without enactment of research-based reading strategies, for instance, there is no logical reason to expect that student reading achievement will increase as a result of professional development activities.

Using IRIS Connect to make teacher professional development effective

IRIS Connect enables a "cognitive apprenticeship" approach to coaching. This approach involves three activities: (1) observation, (2) demonstration / modeling, and (3) conversation / feedback.

Observation: An IRIS Connect camera device is placed in a teacher's classroom. Then, an authorized outside observer with secure login credentials uses the web-based software to access the camera device and observe the classroom. The observer can pan, tilt, and zoom the camera using their mouse or keyboard. The camera's pan and tilt features allow the observer to see the entire classroom from wall to wall and from floor to ceiling. The camera offers up to 48x zoom: enough to enable the observer to easily read text on a bulletin board across the room.

Demonstration / modeling: An IRIS Connect camera is placed in an expert teacher or coach's classroom. Teachers who wish to learn from the expert or coach and who have been given secure login credentials use the web-based software to access the camera and watch the expert or coach teach live. Alternately, the expert teacher or coach uses the system's recording capabilities to record a lesson during which they model a skill; teachers then view this recording later.

Conversation / feedback | There are two options for conversations and feedback:

(A) The teacher attaches a wireless "bug-in-the-ear" device so the observer can give short verbal cues to the teacher throughout a lesson. Coaches give more extensive immediate feedback to teachers using the in-ear device during natural breaks in a lesson. (Researchers have found such devices to be effective in educational settings [Scheeler, Ferko, & Lee, 2002; Scheeler, 2006].)

(B) The web-based software allows users (both teachers and observers) to "mark up" recorded observations with comments by imbedding text or audio notes in the recordings for later review. For example, a coach can note important points in a lesson they have recorded as an example for a teacher. The coach and teacher can review and discuss an observation, explaining what they were thinking and intending when they made a given instructional decision during a lesson.