II. Step in: participant choice

Creating space for autonomy to make the learning individually meaningful.

Questions to consider

1. How is the aspect of participant choice built into ways the material can be engaged?

2. Through what methods can participants relate and adapt the learning for their own work contexts?

3. How will the PD structure create opportunities to give participants autonomy to engage in ways that are relevant to their learning needs?

transfer tip

When giving participants options, be explicit about the intentionality behind doing so to increase engagement.

We know that giving kids choice is important for learning

Adults learners in PD are just like student learners in classrooms— the best learning occurs when they can exercise agency.

Each choice a learner makes

is an opportunity for the abstract to become personal. When we get to decide how we learn, we become more invested in the outcome.

Knowledge flows through participants' choices and gains personal relevance. By creating opportunities for autonomy and self-direction in the meaning-making process, instructors help learners draw knowledge into their "inner circles."

A continuum of options

“Instead of thinking of student choice as an on-off switch...think about student choice as a continuum of options, from no student choice (all teacher assignment) to structured choice that includes some assignment and some student choice, to all student choice.”

—Larry Ferlazzo, Edweek: 'Why Do I Have To Learn This?'

"Giving children choices helps them feel like they have some power and control over what they do."

—Giving Children Choices, PennState Extension, 2016

where can you build in choice?

The ways you enable participants to exercise choice can vary or follow a theme throughout the learning session. Choices can be more than either/or, and can be offered in diverse ways to learners. As you would not overwhelm students with options, aim to balance the choices with the complexity of the task. Below are ideas for offering two choices in common elements of a PD session.

Learning Tasks: Offer multiple content options so participants can choose to read, watch, or listen to content.
Areas of Investigation: Identify various aspects of a topic and give participants choices of which to dive into.
Implementation: Provide participants autonomy to decide how best to complete the work.
Collaboration: Give participants autonomy to choose the who and how of working with others.
Performance Assessment: Provide participants choice in how to demonstrate understanding.
Reflection Topics: Give participants autonomy to choose what aspects of the learning they want to reflect on.

“Support for autonomy allows individuals to actively transform values into their own.”

– Ryan & Deci, “Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being” (2000)

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