The widely recognized shortage of qualified professionals in the blindness field, particularly in Orientation and Mobility, is an issue impacting even the strongest agencies and training centers on a national level. Retaining and investing in strategic professional development of existing staff — people who already provide enormous value to the students they serve and the centers they work for — is a priority for leadership and boards of directors alike. Ensuring that real, observable, documented programmatic and professional advancement is taking place is, all too often, the inflection point that consultative service providers fail to reach in a meaningful way, even with the best of intentions. If vague professional development promises and costly trainings that do not align with your goals have ever left you or your staff feeling as though you may be only just able to look each other in the eye on the way out of the room, keep reading.
A Track Record of Trainings Across the Country
For nearly a decade I provided both professional development and professional field supervision to instructors from all over the United States. As part of my work signing off on both NOMC candidates from Louisiana Tech University’s graduate programs and the National Blindness Professional Certification Board’s apprenticeship programs in Orientation and Mobility, I came to realize quickly the impact that quality supervision has on new instructors entering a field where experience matters. I also demonstrated the application of Structured Discovery methodology to, and trained, instructors already substantially experienced — because truly confident instructors and programs seek out opportunities to build upon and enhance their existing knowledge.
The exponential impact that proper, truly experienced supervision can have is hard to overstate. It helps instructors become more intentional and deliberate and avoid unnecessary trial and error. The ripple effect can be felt in the beliefs and trust of students in the program, in employees observing and learning from one another, and in the retention of everyone surrounding your programs. The mere act of bringing in an outsider to observe, someone people know will be providing feedback, strengthens your team before any feedback is given.
Throughout my professional life I have seen that instructors who want to progress crave opportunities to discuss strategy and run ideas by another. My approach toward supervision, and indeed my own private direct instruction of students in New York City and across the country, is to build trust and respect. A part of this respect is having honest conversations, but the critical component I have seen work with even the proudest instructors is asking the right questions. I know from experience that professional judgment can be developed, but that starts with high expectations and respecting the autonomy of the instructor.
Interacting with internship participants, established professionals, and administrative supervisors wanting to learn more about Structured Discovery Learning has allowed me to develop answers to questions that I had never thought of until the supervisee asked me. And it would not be an exaggeration to state that I was fortunate to provide this supervision far more consistently and systematically throughout my time at the Louisiana Center for the Blind than most people supervising around the country are at present — evidence of this shows in the results: people truly entering and impacting the field. When I first started, professionals with decades of unmatched experience trained me and articulated how I should be providing this supervision; as I gained supervisory experience, those relationships grew collaborative, solving problems and bouncing ideas off of each other. This was true at one of the model training centers in the U.S., so I know firsthand that experience matters when providing scaffolding, especially for developing professional judgment. I communicate my own experiences as an emerging, and continually developing, instructor, and doing so benefits everyone involved. People are often more open to listening to a story of me talking about my experience rather than being told every day for two months straight what they should be doing better. Feedback and healthy confrontation are an essential and irreplaceable part of any growth process done in an efficient manner — but the feedback fails to land, and the confrontation rings out as judgment rather than constructive criticism, if the priorities of the supervisor are not where they should be.
My Approach to Training and Professional Supervision
As is the case with the students we teach, the way in which we interact is often equally as important as the content of what we are saying. The process for me often starts with observation and one-on-one discussions before and after each lesson with the instructor. NOMC candidates are given the opportunity to observe my teaching and ask questions before and after lessons. Newly certified instructors will be observed initially. Based on professional judgment, I may co-teach, have instructors observe my teaching, or observe and step in with permission from the instructor, as appropriate to the needs of the student and the professional.
As a part of both the professional development and supervision processes, instructors in Orientation and Mobility, directors of training centers, rehabilitation professionals from across the blindness field, and vocational rehabilitation counselors and administrators would routinely observe and discuss the application of SD methodology in my work with students. I have also provided travel skills training to professionals themselves, both experienced and new to the field, should there be a desire or need for personal Orientation and Mobility as a part of professional confidence building. Above all, I help professionals recognize and grow the areas they are naturally gifted in as instructors.
What Traverse Instruction Provides
Professional supervision is ongoing, individualized development of an instructor’s skills, approaches, and judgment: structured debriefs, guided skill development, and the path to certification sign-off. Extensive metacognitive training centers on assimilating knowledge surrounding the thinking and decision-making process of the professional. Professional supervision requires a substantial commitment on the part of everyone involved, and the evidence that that commitment was worthwhile will continue to accumulate as professionals are taught in a cognitive and metacognitive process that focuses on problem-solving and agency. This process is established across professions, and my current scholarship focuses on training professionals in Orientation and Mobility to utilize existing frameworks in the literature to think through problems. Contracts for professional supervision include documentation of supervision and formal written reports. Contracts and the supervisory plan are constructed on a case-by-case basis and include lodging, travel, and per diem. Fees are based on the premium nature and scope of services and the limited availability of professionals with this breadth and depth of experience and measurable results. Engagements can be scoped to fit needs consistent with your program and the inherent ongoing nature of supervision.
Professional development is training delivered to your team. This training is group-based and can be scoped to fit the needs of training centers or agencies in alignment with your specific situation. Trainings are tailored to individual groups in every case. Some examples of trainings I have provided in the past include:
- Structured Discovery Learning Methodology: An Introductory View of a Strengths-Based Approach
- General Cognitive Education: Bias, Cognitive Distortions, and Recognizing Patterns in Cognition
- Self-Assessment vs. Instructor Reliance: Building Knowledge of Results in Students
- Blocking Out Elements of Confidence-Building Activities: How Instructor Actions Shape Student Buy-In
- Essential Tools: Trainings on Sleepshades and the Long White Cane (evidence-based support backing the physical, psychological, and educational benefits, with brief illustrative examples from professional and lived experience)
- High Expectations and Healthy Confrontation in Adjustment-to-Blindness Training: Effective Training for Professionals to Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
- Professional Documentation: Adding to the “Why” Behind Making It Happen
- Sensation and Perception: Cognitive and Affective Solutions from Applied Instruction
- The Post-Lesson Debriefing: A Thinking Man’s Game (an introduction to metacognitive knowledge)
More training topics are available upon request. Completely unique, novel topics can be created to address specific organizational needs.
In-Person Demonstrations of Structured Discovery Methods
Contingent upon student agreement. Professionals will be expected to agree to conditions and terms. Case-by-case debriefing is provided before and after each lesson, or in time set outside of class time when needed.
Virtual or In-Person Consultation
Included only as an additive part of ongoing professional supervision when safe and appropriate, this service provides individualized consultation in a cost-effective manner. Safety and ethical considerations may limit what can be done virtually, and Traverse Instruction retains final judgment on when remote consultation is appropriate; see contract and terms for details. Virtual consultation is never a substitute for direct instruction, formal or informal Orientation and Mobility assessment, or any supervision experience contractually required. Virtual services add to, and do not replace or eliminate, the need for high-quality, intensive, in-person instruction.
Professionally Prepared Reports, Documentation, and Certificates of Completion
Traverse Instruction offers Certificates of Completion for trainings. Additionally, Traverse Instruction offers documentation including formal written reports on instructor progress. Regulatory bodies, human resources departments, funders, and state agencies may ask for proof of completed staff training in order to approve contracts. Staff and leadership also benefit from submitting training records to NBPCB for CEUs where appropriate. Reports tracking ongoing progress and summarizing, in long-form narrative, the results observed and professional recommendations — based on the independent evaluation and judgment of Traverse Instruction — are available upon request, and are a required part of the professional supervision process.
Starting the Conversation
Traverse Instruction prioritizes engagement with training centers because of the exponential impact across the field that trainings and supervision provide. Programs looking to pursue Structured Discovery certification can benefit heavily from seeking out training and supervision provided by Traverse Instruction. Programs wanting to learn more, or to equip instructors with a foundational understanding of what Structured Discovery Learning is, are encouraged to reach out. Additional professional references available upon request.
Excited to talk through what you are building!
info@traverseinstruction.com
(770) 490-4991