RETENTION & TRANSFER OF LEARNING

Distinguish Business Orientation from Pedagogical Orientation Business Orientation Information on how to be an employee with the program Blend of expectations with personnel policies Consider orientation to organizational culture (how will new employees contribute to the relationships with your program, how do we acknowledge life events for staff, what are meetings like?) Pedagogical Orientation Variety of ways to explore your program’s vision, values and image of children (mentoring relationship)

Consider this…. “ For teachers to be reflective practitioners and not just technicians, they need and deserve ongoing support for their learning about teaching.” “ An orientation should not be limited to lengthy explanations: it should include a variety of ways to explore your program’s vision, values and image of children.” “We want to make sure that staff are given the time they deserve to become members of our learning community.”

What are the barriers?

Orientation Strategies To begin developing a useful staff orientation, develop a strategy to assess staff views (ask questions such as: If you could tell a new hire the 3 most important things about working here, what would they be? What were you most nervous about your first few days? What role did the program and staff play in dealing with those worries? What role do you, as a co-teacher, play in orienting a new member to your teaching team?) Consider how to plan an orientation process which helps a new teacher understand your organizational culture (what is important to you)

Pre-service orientation (business versus pedagogical orientation) What mechanisms do we have to ensure that the new team member feels a part of our community? Pair new teacher with other teacher (mentoring relationship) rather than merely offering a handbook to read Orientation workshops (reflective of your vision & values) New staff member observations and reflections in other program rooms Practice documentation Self-guided reading of articles/videos (collect materials that reflect your program’s approach with children and families) Mentoring sessions with Supervisor or mentor (self- evaluation and observation reflections – see examples – being available to support)

Retention Interviews Many programs do exit interviews but few do retention interviews Find out what your staff like/dislike before they decide to leave than when they have already decided to leave Asking them is the first step in enhancing retention What makes them stay and what would make them consider leaving….

Ask them the following: 1.If you could change one thing in your program, what would it be? 2.Would you recommend your job to a friend? Why or why not? 3.What motivates / inspires you? 4.If you left, what would you miss? 5.Other questions ?

How to retain – Keep them engaged! In your group develop a working definition of professional development Now discuss the barriers to professional development

Typical Learning Investment

This practice does not result in any change! Very little learning happens actually at the training event

Where Learning Takes Place

Learning only connects when there is meaning to it for the learner! On the job is where the connections happen!

Cause of Training Failure

What can we conclude? We need to do more pre work to ensure people understand the goals for training (performance evaluations, personal goal setting) – match training to the learner’s skill set, ability and motivation and program philosophy, values and vision More time needs to be invested in the application of learning after training (opportunities for discussion and practice) Engagement and motivation (how do we engage staff exercise) Need to instill both external and internal professional development into our program (pedagogical practice)

Learning Transfer Design 1.Goal Setting Aligning staff member’s learning to their future goals or performance – link training to performance objectives Have to be ready to learn! Have to feel like they own it! (not top down driven – you have to do it!) Do they have a plan to use the information?

2. Practice and Modelling Ideas to implement information (they drive the transfer of learning) Peer support (provide them the opportunity to be the leader to share the information) Development of mentoring relationships Coaching Learning culture of program (we are in this together – constant self-reflection and conversation)

3. Application Review Talk about how we are doing – reinforce the learning Are we starting to implement things? Do we see a change? Are there any other plans for practice?