An edcamp is a participant-driven professional learning event often described as an unconference. Rather than following a fully predetermined agenda, participants help identify topics they want to discuss, and sessions are organized around those interests. Sessions generally emphasize discussion and shared expertise rather than a traditional presenter-led format, and participants are typically encouraged to move between sessions when another conversation better meets their needs.

5 Teacher Professional Development Trends From a Principal

Q: Where does instructional coaching fit into these trends?

Instructional coaching can support more personalized and collaborative professional learning, although coaching models vary considerably. Coaching may be teacher-directed, collaborative, or guided by goals established by a coach, school, district, or instructional initiative. When teachers help determine the focus, coaching can complement professional learning communities by helping educators apply shared priorities to their individual classrooms.

Q: How has technology changed teacher professional development since this was written?

Technology has expanded the ways professional development can be delivered beyond the options commonly discussed in 2016. Current approaches can include asynchronous online modules, virtual coaching, recorded classroom video for reflection or feedback, online professional communities, and AI-assisted tools for planning, reflection, or feedback. Adoption varies by school and district, and educators should follow applicable policies concerning student privacy, data security, approved technology, and the use of AI tools.

Q: How do you start shifting PD toward a bottom-up model?

A school can start by asking teachers what they want or need to learn and using that information to shape part of the existing professional development schedule. One approach is to dedicate an existing PD block to teacher-selected topics and evaluate how well the format meets staff needs before expanding it. Using already scheduled professional learning time may limit additional expenses, although staff time, facilities, technology, materials, substitutes, and other implementation needs can still create costs. Schools should also ensure that professional development meets any applicable state, district, contractual, or credential-renewal requirements.

By Jon Konen, Last Updated: September 4, 2026

Smiling woman in glasses holding a tablet in front of a blue chalkboard with chalk-drawn flexed arms behind her

Principal Jon Konen identifies five teacher professional development trends from his own schools: bottom-up edcamps, teacher leaders, school culture, problem-solving, and multiple delivery formats. Each one, in his experience, shifts some control toward the staff doing the learning rather than the office scheduling it.

Featured Programs:

Trend	What it looked like in Konen's schools	Who drives it
Bottom-up approach	Edcamp format: participants post the topics they want, form groups on the spot, and move between groups freely	Teachers in the field
Teacher leaders	Staff take on leadership and share expertise with colleagues. In Konen's schools, this often happened without extra pay or release time, though compensation for these roles varies by district, employer, and contract	Teachers, with the principal stepping back
Attention to culture	A "212 degrees" service standard applied to students, parents, community members, and colleagues alike	The whole staff, modeled by leadership
Problem solving	Weekly PLC time for strategy discussion, plus Customized Learning Plans for individual students	Staff teams
Multi-delivery methods	In-person, online, mixed media, team-taught, and project-based options offered side by side	The PD provider, matched to what staff find useful

Bottom-Up Approach / EdCamps

The "unconference" or "edcamps" have led the way with new bottom-up approaches or grassroots professional development opportunities. Teachers in the field are deciding what they want to learn about, and then the information they garner is tailored to their needs. An "edcamp" starts out with several people coming together in a common location, hopefully with internet capability and other possible tools for success. The participants come up with topics in education that they want to learn more about. Some "edcamps" have a theme, and some are wide-open to be determined. Participants put their ideas on a large board or wall, and a facilitator determines the trends in what people want. Then manageable groups are devised pertaining to a certain topic, and participants are led to that location. The beauty of a true "edcamp" is that if you are not getting what you want in that group or it isn't meeting your needs, you are allowed to get up and go to another group. While in a group, there is no real leader. There might be someone who helps start discussions but does not present or lead the group…they also might help moderate to keep people on the chosen topic (to an extent). Another great quality of this format is that people can bring with them anything that pertains to the topic: books, pictures, videos, etc.… They can also use BYOD bring your own device) to research the topic while in the group. After a set amount of time, participants can chose to stay and continue the conversations on this topic, or they may choose to move to another group. I believe this is the ultimate bottom-up approach to professional development that is definitely empowering to the participants.

Teacher Leaders

In the schools I have led, the healthiest teaching staff have also been the ones with the most teachers acting as leaders. The ability for an administrator to build leaders within the school is important to the culture of learning. I believe I don't have all the answers, and I am not an expert on all topics…I believe others on staff can support me and do a better job by empowering them to lead. In our school, teachers stepped up many times without extra pay or compensation, and felt a sense of service and urgency. They wanted to make sure our school was the best place to work and learn, and spreading their expertise is how they could support us. Arrangements like these depend on district policy, contracts, collective bargaining agreements, and the specific assignment, so what worked for us will not be the arrangement everywhere. Some administrators have a hard time giving up power and control. That is not how I choose to lead, because I would rather see what a staff does with room to move. My job as principal is to make sure all students are thinking and being responsible. If I start with that premise, I also would want my teachers to do the same. They can glean so much from each other in our school, and truly my only job is to model professionalism, cultivate school culture, promote a growth mindset…and get the heck out of the way!

Culture

Cultivating culture through professional development is all about putting an emphasis on relationships. I believe a school struggles when it stops paying attention to how it treats students, parents, community members, and colleagues. From day one, we preach 212 degrees of customer service. At 100 degrees, we support each other, seem positive, greet others occasionally, and help our customers…kids and parents. But, at 212 degrees, we are going out of our way to support kids, parents, and community members. We are making connections to all these people and putting relationships first. When anyone enters our school, we are saying hello and asking them if they need support. We go out of our way to make sure the needs of all stakeholders are met. We treat each other with a high level of respect. We greet each other everywhere in the school; we even set up times to meet outside of the school day to create even stronger bonds with the people we work with. What we are aiming for is a place where people want to work and learn, and where we "go to solution" daily!

Problem Solving

The number of decisions a teacher or principal makes in one day is unfathomable! Teachers and school leaders make many instructional, behavioral, and operational decisions throughout the day. Professional development focusing on problem solving must be required! We constantly make decisions about students on curriculum, instruction, assessment, and behavior. In addition, we are watching for students whose basic needs are not being met, and connecting those students and families with school or community resources that can help with food, clothing, and housing. At our school, we devote time to developing personal learning plans for many students, which we call Customized Learning Plans. We also meet as a staff weekly to discuss problem-solving strategies in our professional learning community (PLC) time. We believe the faster we "go to solution," and not "sniff the turd," the healthier we are as a learning team.

Multi-Delivery Methods / Technology

The last facet that I see as changing for teachers with professional development is the aspect of offering multiple delivery methods. We know learning isn't always synchronous, and we need to change our professional development offerings to mirror that. Students can take classes in person, online, with mixed media, in a team environment, and these tasks can even be project-based. Teachers may benefit from the same range. Reading and implementing suits some sessions; watching a strategy modeled or team teaching suits others, and some topics need more time than the hour we have devoted to PLC that week. Differentiated delivery does happen for students, and where it is required it comes through a student's IEP or 504 plan, state requirements, or local instructional policy rather than any universal federal mandate. Why shouldn't teachers get some of that same flexibility?

As you may be able to tell, I am a professional development junkie. I read books, attend workshops, follow education leaders on Twitter, conduct research as a hobby, and even write a couple of weekly blogs. The five trends above are something that we pride ourselves on trying to offer to our school, and we are constantly reflective in our practices, as well as looking forward to the trends in professional development. The tools available to us keep changing, and so does what good professional development looks like. How will these trends affect your school?

RECOMMENDED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT READINGS -

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an edcamp?

An edcamp is an unconference: there's no set agenda before people arrive. Participants write the topics they want to discuss on a board, a facilitator groups the overlapping ones, and everyone picks a room. Sessions have a discussion starter rather than a presenter, and you're free to walk out and join a different group mid-session.

Where does instructional coaching fit into these trends?

Instructional coaching can support the same idea, though coaching models vary widely. Some are one-to-one and teacher-directed, while in others the goals are set by the coach, the school, the district, or a specific instructional initiative. Where the teacher does help set the focus, coaching can pair well with PLC time, carrying a group's priority into individual classrooms.

How has technology changed teacher professional development since this was written?

The delivery question Konen raises in 2016 has only gotten broader. Asynchronous modules, virtual coaching, recorded classroom video for self-review, and AI tools for planning and feedback all now appear in PD conversations, though how widely each is actually used varies by school and district. Konen's own framework would ask whether the teacher gets a say in what they're learning.

How do you start shifting PD toward a bottom-up model?

Start small and ask. Survey your staff on what they actually want to learn, then hand one existing PD block over to a teacher-chosen agenda and see what happens. A session like this can often be folded into PD time you have already scheduled with relatively little added expense, though staff time, facilities, technology, materials, and substitutes can still carry real costs.

Teacher choice is Konen's common thread - Across all five approaches, he moves some part of the agenda to the staff doing the learning.
Edcamps are the clearest example - No agenda before arrival, no presenter, and permission to change groups mid-session.
Konen counts culture as PD - He treats the "212 degrees" service standard as staff development rather than as a separate initiative.
Problem-solving gets dedicated time - Weekly PLC time goes to strategy because instructional, behavioral, and operational decisions come at staff all day.
Offering more than one format is worth considering - Konen recommends giving staff several ways to engage with the same professional learning.

If reading this made you want more than a workshop can give you, a degree program is a longer-term form of professional development, and the sponsored programs on this page include MEd and education administration options built for teachers already working a full schedule. Administrator certification/licensure requirements vary by state and may include an approved preparation program, specified degree/coursework, teaching or leadership experience, internship/fieldwork, and state-required assessments. Verify that a program meets your state's requirements before enrolling.

Featured Programs: