6 Ways to Personalize Your Own PD

TL;DR (transcript and prompts below)

In this video, we look at ways teachers can use AI to enhance their own professional learning, not just student learning. It outlines six AI prompt strategies using cognitive load theory as an example:

  1. Simple Explanations:
    Ask AI to explain a concept “as if I were a first-year teacher” to get a practical, classroom-focused overview.
  2. Top 10 Key Points:
    Request “the top 10 things I should know about [topic]” for a quick summary that reduces overload.
  3. Personalized Relevance:
    Use prompts like “I am an 8th grade math teacher. Why should I know about [topic]?” to make PD specific to your context.
  4. Analogies & Examples:
    Ask for “real-world classroom examples or analogies” to connect theory to practice.
  5. Scenario Stories:
    Request “a short story about a student struggling with [topic] and how the teacher solved it” to see theory in action.
  6. Recent Research:
    Ask AI to “summarize recent research studies on [topic] and key takeaways for classroom teachers” to stay current efficiently.

These six prompt strategies make AI a practical, customized tool for teacher professional development, helping educators prepare, understand, and apply new ideas effectively.

Full Transcript

On this YouTube channel and Ed Aai now in general, we talk a lot about how do we use AI to improve student learning, but we also need to talk about the teachers.

I mean, teachers go to a lot of professional development and conferences and meetings, and some of it’s great, and some of it’s kind of a chore to get through. So, what if we could use AI to help us understand these new concepts and new strategies in a way that makes sense to us?

And that’s what we’re going to look at in the next few minutes.

Part 1: Simple, Practical Explanations for Education Terms

Let’s start with prompt number one.

Now, all the way through, I’m going to use “cognitive load theory” as my example, but you would obviously put in whatever topic you’ve got. And frankly, if I were going to a workshop or a training session or something like that, I would do these things first just to prepare my brain to receive this new information and be able to analyze it and evaluate it.

This isn’t really a replacement, but it’s certainly a good way to support all these other types of professional learning activities.

Prompt 1

Explain [topic] as if I were a first-year teacher.

So, let’s go: Explain cognitive load theory, and here’s the important part, as if I were a first-year teacher.

We want to apply it to the teaching situation. And we want it to be very simple as if I’d never really heard about it before because I’m brand-spanking new. So, what is it?

“Helps teachers understand how students learn and why sometimes they struggle even when they’re trying hard.”

So, here we’ve got the basic idea. We’ve got details about this concept. In this case, different types of cognitive load. And because I asked for it as a teacher, a first-year teacher, what the AI gives me is also how do we take this concept and apply it to the classroom.

That becomes a very good prompt with that extra piece on there about first-year teachers. It really brings it to my experience. So let’s move on to the next one.

Part 2: Top 10 Things to Know about Education Topics

Sometimes all that’s too much. Just what am I supposed to know? Give me the quick and dirty information about this particular topic. Give me the top 10 things to learn about the topic or the concept.

Prompt

What are the top 10 things I should know about [cognitive load theory]?

And one, two, three, four, five, six, seven… Because, as we know from cognitive load theory, sometimes we can’t remember everything at once. So just whittle it down to the most important things for me.

And that’s really what this particular prompt strategy does for us.

All right, good, good, good.

Part 3: Differentiating PD for Your Needs

Let’s take another approach at this. And now let’s really take these concepts and ideas and tailor fit them to your experience in the classroom.

Prompt

I am a 8th grade math teacher. Why should I know about [cognitive load theory]?

You’re going to replace this part right here. So here I’m using eighth grade math teacher. You would put in your grade or your subject that you’re teaching so we can see how this concept, how these ideas relate to what you actually do in the classroom.

The nice thing about this compared to a lot of professional development, a lot of it’s like “Here’s the average teacher” and so forth and so forth. Okay, great. What about me as the teacher? What do I do with this?

This prompt strategy lets you put in your specific experience, who are you, and what do you actually do, and show how these concepts apply to what you do.

And as you see from this, I put in eighth grade math as an example.

And now it’s applying the concept directly to that grade and that content and what I can do with it, etc., etc.

That is a very nice strategy for, frankly, differentiating the professional development to your learner needs.

Part 4: Analogies and Real-world Examples

Number four. All right.

Still a little tricky for you? Well, give me some analogies to understand it.

Prompt

Provide real-world classroom examples or analogies to help me understand [cognitive load].

This is identical to what we do with students when we’re teaching them new concepts, as well. Let’s give it a real-world example, or an analogy, and that will help you to understand more broadly what these concepts are about and what they look like.

The backpack analogy: too many steps at once.

So you’ve got this. You’ve got both the analogy and some direct applications at the classroom level, and now it’s applying it to the teaching experience. What do you do with the information?

A very nice way to take concepts and to look to help understand them, deepen your understanding of them, and your understanding of how they apply, as well.

Part 5: Scenarios to Study

Number five coming up.

Well, not everybody learns the same way. Sometimes we want to see things in action, right? Show it to me.

Well, it’s not going to create a whole video to show it to us, but what it can do is give you a short story to demonstrate the student.

Prompt 5

Tell me a short story to demonstrate a student who is [having difficulty with cognitive load] and how the teacher solved it.

And now, here is where you’re going to put in the specific issue relative to the core concept or the training or whatnot, right?

A short story to demonstrate a student who is [blank] and how the teacher solved it using the concept. Go.

And it’s going to give me a little story so I can see the concept in action. “The fractions fiasco.”

And there’s my short story and the Too-long-Didn’t-read version. He didn’t need to try harder, etc., etc., etc. So, there’s kind of the moral of our story there.

Part 6: Exploring Recent Research

And finally, number six.

So, if we look at all of this (I have citations coming up), these citations are a little old: 1988, 2006.

And frankly, that’s probably okay. People’s brains haven’t changed that much. So, when we’re talking about concepts and learning theory and all of that stuff, the old stuff probably still applies, but is there any new information? What’s new out there?

Let’s force our AI to go out there on the web, look at the new stuff about the topic, and summarize the takeaways that I need to know. And we do that with this.

Prompt 6

Summarize recent research studies on [cognitive load theory], and summarize key take-aways for classroom teachers.

Summarize recent research studies on topic and summarize the key takeaways for classroom teachers.

Now, this is probably going to take just a little bit longer because it’s got to go out there and get new stuff. Same thing that we would have to do if we’re working on our own without AI.

Let’s see if the AI is it just a little bit faster for doing that than we might be. And kind of neat, we see where it’s looking. Just spot checking what I’m looking at here, it’s looking at the right places. All right.

Oh, 18 seconds! I was about to say, “Gosh, that seems so slow,” but that 18 seconds is an hour for me.

So, what’s the new stuff? Recent studies and the sources. Oh, look. 2024. That’s a recent study. 2023, 2025. Not too bad. And so forth and so forth.

Okay, so there’s the new stuff. And what I should have now, here it is, key takeaways for the classroom teacher.

Conclusion

So there you go. Six ways to use AI as your personal, individualized, applicable professional development provider.

Take care.