By Educational Leadership Desk Published: June 2026
Main Facts
School districts and educational institutions across the globe invest billions of dollars annually into professional development (PD). Yet, despite the heavy allocation of financial resources and instructional time, the return on investment remains stubbornly mixed. While some sessions inspire long-term pedagogical shifts, many others devolve into passive, forgettable lectures that fail to engage modern educators.
Enter Jenn White and Josh Kurzweil, educational consultants and co-founders of Berkeley LTC. Drawing from their extensive background in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and cognitive science, White and Kurzweil recently demonstrated how intentional event design can completely alter the teacher training experience. By prioritizing cognitive processing, active participation, and modeled instruction over passive listening, they have introduced a streamlined framework—anchored by three core strategies: Pre-During-Post (PDP), Curated Q&A, and Interactive Poster Sessions.
Rather than relying on flashy, expensive technologies or complex structural overhauls, these three methodologies utilize low-cost, high-impact interventions to foster genuine collaboration, critical reflection, and actionable classroom implementation.
Chronology
The evolution of these professional development strategies stems from years of classroom practice and teacher training. However, their recent implementation gained widespread industry attention following a major regional event held in the fall.
Foundation Years: White and Kurzweil ground their consulting philosophy in "loop input"—a concept coined by educator Tessa Woodward where participants learn pedagogical techniques by directly experiencing them as learners. Over years of practice, they synthesized cognitive research (including principles from cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham) into sixteen foundational Principles of Learning.
The Fall Landmark Event: Brought in to present before a massive gathering of instructors belonging to one of the largest local unions in the United States, White and Kurzweil applied their framework to a large-scale audience of over 200 educators.
The Itinerary Structure:
Morning: A localized Pre-Keynote discussion followed by a 40-minute keynote address framed through the PDP structure.
Mid-Day: Small-group breakouts facilitated by trained instructor coaches, index-card question generation, lunch, and workshop sessions.
Afternoon: Curated Q&A sessions, followed by peer-led poster sessions showcasing instructor coach expertise.
Present Day: The framework has been codified and shared broadly across educational networks—notably featured on the Cult of Pedagogy podcast—inspiring K-12 districts and higher education institutions to re-evaluate how they structure in-service training days.
Supporting Data & Conceptual Framework
To understand why these strategies yield superior outcomes, one must examine the cognitive science underpinning Berkeley LTC’s model. Traditional professional development typically follows a "sage-on-the-stage" model where information is broadcasted to passive recipients. According to learning science, this violates basic principles of cognitive load and long-term memory encoding.
The Role of "Loop Input"
In TESOL training, loop input bridges the gap between theory and practice. When workshop designers tell teachers to use collaborative learning, yet force them to sit in rows listening to a three-hour monologue, a hypocritical disconnect occurs. White and Kurzweil insist that every structural element of a PD day must mirror the best practices of modern instruction:
Activating prior schema before consuming new material.
Providing scaffolded note-taking and structured guidance during delivery.
Mandating collaborative processing immediately following information intake.
Strategy Breakdown: The Three Pillars
1. Pre-During-Post (PDP)
The Pre-Phase: Before the content delivery even begins, participants engage in table-talk discussions to activate prior knowledge and review basic presentation outlines. This primes the brain for incoming data.
The During-Phase: Attendees are equipped with guiding frameworks and outlines, allowing them to anchor their attention purposefully without mindlessly transcribing slides.
The Post-Phase: Immediately following the session, participants disperse into breakout rooms. Crucially, these sessions are kept on-site (preventing the drop-off associated with "homework" reflections) and are guided by trained instructor coaches who prevent groups from drifting off-topic.
2. Curated Q&A
Instead of opening the floor to an unmoderated, unstructured microphone scramble—which often results in rambling anecdotes or hijacked agendas—the Curated Q&A leverages index cards distributed during breakout discussions. Instructor coaches filter, group, and sequence these questions. This ensures that the final query segment addresses high-yield, universally relevant inquiries, maximizing the utility of the allotted time.
3. Poster Sessions
Capitalizing on the hidden expertise already present within the room, the afternoon features poster sessions hosted by the instructor coaches themselves. Rather than importing external authorities to deliver top-down wisdom, this decentralized model highlights internal practitioners, turning participants into active evaluators and contributors of peer knowledge.
Official Responses and Expert Insights
Industry observers and workshop presenters have noted a dramatic shift in energy when professional development moves away from administrative obligation toward intentional human connection.
Reflecting on her experience presenting under the Berkeley LTC framework, keynote speaker and educator advocates noted:
"When you present to a room of 200+ educators, you often worry about the energy fading. But because Jenn and Josh built in that pre-session priming and post-session processing, the audience wasn’t just sitting there—they were primed, invested, and actively building mental models from the moment they walked in."
Josh Kurzweil addressed the common trap of professional development fatigue during a recent joint interview:
"You can experience something, but then kind of yadda yadda yadda it and not really understand what just happened and how you felt. The ideas described here slow things down just enough to make that processing possible."
Jenn White emphasized the ethical and pedagogical necessity of modeling what is preached:
"Everything that we’re asking our instructors to do, we also want to model in the design and the delivery of our professional development."
Implications for K-12 and Higher Education
The broader implications of adopting White and Kurzweil’s design choices extend far beyond single-day union events or standalone workshops. As school districts face chronic teacher burnout, shrinking budgets, and mounting pressure to improve student achievement, the quality of teacher training is under unprecedented scrutiny.
1. Maximizing Return on Investment (ROI)
School systems routinely spend thousands of dollars bringing in keynote speakers or purchasing curriculum packages, only to see zero implementation in actual classrooms. By embedding the Pre-During-Post framework and utilizing instructor coaches, districts can ensure accountability. The presence of trained facilitators guarantees that processing time is optimized rather than wasted.
2. Combating Adult Learner Fatigue
Teachers are professional learners who spend their days managing complex cognitive environments. Subjecting them to archaic, passive professional development breeds resentment and disengagement. Low-cost interventions—such as index-card question curation and structured peer discussions—respect the professionalism of educators by honoring adult learning theories (andragogy).
3. Scalability Across Settings
Perhaps the most compelling implication of these strategies is their radical accessibility. None of the methods require expensive software, proprietary learning management systems, or multi-thousand-dollar consulting packages. Any school principal, department chair, or district administrator can implement index-card Q&As, structured PDP timelines, and internal poster sessions starting tomorrow.
Ultimately, transforming teacher professional development does not require a reinvention of the wheel. As demonstrated by Berkeley LTC’s model, it simply requires slowing down the learning process just enough to let deep thought, meaningful dialogue, and authentic growth take root.
