Professional Learning Resources

AFT Professional Learning Course Catalog

This catalog describes our professional development offerings and includes the recommended audience and duration of each course, as well as how to contact us to schedule an event or training. All courses can be customized to meet the unique needs of your local union.

Strategies for Student Success

This high-quality, research-based professional development program consists of three-hour and fifteen-minute long modules that create a manageable way to connect with educators. The modules address teaching and learning in a way that benefits both new and veteran teachers. The content in the modules can be tailored to benefit individuals, groups and the whole school, and can be offered in a virtual setting as well. (2025)

Professional Learning & You

When you become a member of the AFT, you help protect our kids and communities. And we help you by offering educator-designed programs and resources that will enhance your professional growth and ensure children thrive. This brochure highlights many of these opportunities.

A Guide to Engaging Members Through Professional Development and Learning

This guide offers recommendations and advice for states and locals interested in building and sustaining a successful professional development program. These recommendations provide a framework as we collectively strive to shape a culture of professional unionism that retains the principles on which the AFT was founded. (2025)

Social Context of the Classroom

What are the best approaches for implementing nonacademic supports and assessing student performance and school success? Two simple approaches would be to ask a student through the use of surveys and to enlist the expertise of those who spend the most time with our youth in schools every day. There is also a growing body of evidence-based research that decision-makers can draw upon to build the right systems of support. This research brief discusses these findings to help inform and support teaching quality and student learning as it relates to nonacademic competencies. (2017)

Guide to Planning Family Science Nights

With the release of new science standards and a shift toward taking a more integrated approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), the time is ripe for amplifying STEM education in your school. Hosting a family science or STEM night is one way to do this and has been practiced in schools for generations. This guide is designed to bring new ideas to an age-old practice and to help educators design a plan for their first extravaganza! (2017)

How to Run a Professional Learning Community in Science

A professional learning community, or PLC, is a group of educators who get together to collaborate on student learning. This brochure goes through the basics of setting up a PLC, including establishing group norms, setting SMART goals, developing essential questions to lead PLC discussions, creating benchmarks to monitor student performance and analyzing data. (2017)

Teaching with Project-Based Learning

This brochure describes the benefits of PBL, some ways to go about it, and resources for incorporating PBL into your classroom. (2017)

Questions to Promote Scientific Inquiry and Engineering Design

Questions similar to the ones presented in this brochure should be considered as teachers implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and individual state science standards. (2017)