Using Quizzes for Teacher Professional Development

The PD Problem

Most professional development is ineffective. Research by Thomas Guskey and others consistently shows that one-time workshops produce minimal lasting change in teacher practice. Teachers attend, nod, leave, and return to doing exactly what they were doing before.

The reasons are structural:

Quizzes don't fix all of these, but they fix several.

Where Quizzes Fit in the PD Cycle

Before the PD Session: Needs Assessment

A 10-question pre-session quiz establishes baseline knowledge. This serves two purposes:

Prompt: "Generate 10 questions that assess a teacher's knowledge of [PD topic: formative assessment / differentiated instruction / trauma-informed teaching / etc.]. Mix foundational knowledge with application scenarios."

During the PD Session: Comprehension Checks

Every 20–30 minutes, pause for a 3-question comprehension check. Display a QR code. Participants scan and respond. Review results together.

This does three things:

After the PD Session: Transfer Assessment

Two weeks after the session, send participants a 5-question application quiz. Questions should require applying what was taught to realistic classroom scenarios.

"You're teaching a mixed-ability class and notice three students are significantly ahead of the others. Based on the differentiated instruction strategies from our PD session, what's the most appropriate immediate response?"

This is not punitive — it's a learning nudge. The act of attempting the quiz reactivates the PD content, combating the forgetting curve.

Coaching Follow-Up: Evidence Collection

Instructional coaches can generate scenario-based questions that map directly to classroom observations. When reviewing a coach's observation notes, a teacher answering "What alternative strategy could you have used at the 15-minute mark when 40% of students appeared confused?" is doing the same reflective work as a coaching conversation — but in a format that's documentable.

Building a PD Question Bank

Over time, build a question bank organized by:

When you administer the same question bank in September and May, you can measure PD impact — actual documented learning, not satisfaction surveys.

Making It Non-Threatening

The single biggest barrier to assessment in PD is adult defensiveness. Educators who assess others all day resist being assessed themselves. Strategies:

Anonymous responses: Aggregate class data only. "As a group, we scored 72% on application questions — which tells me we need more practice with this."

Growth framing: "This pre-quiz is our baseline. We'll revisit these same questions at the end of the year to measure our growth."

Celebrate wrong answers: "This question got 40% correct — that's our growth opportunity. Let's dig into why the other options seem attractive."

Model vulnerability: Facilitator takes the quiz alongside participants and shares results: "I got this one wrong too when I first learned this."

Scaling Across a District

District instructional leaders can:

This turns PD from an activity ("we held workshops") to a measurable outcome ("teacher knowledge of formative assessment improved by X%").

Frequently Asked Questions

Can quiz results be used in teacher evaluations?

Consult your union contract and district policy. Generally, formative PD quizzes should not be tied to evaluations — they're for learning, not rating. Using them evaluatively would destroy the psychological safety needed for honest participation.

How long should PD quizzes be?

Pre-session: 10 questions (5 minutes). Mid-session checks: 3 questions (2 minutes). Post-session transfer: 5 questions (5 minutes). Keep them short — adults resist feeling like students.

What if experienced teachers score poorly?

That's valuable data. Low scores on application questions often indicate that best-practice knowledge hasn't been translated into practice. This is the coaching conversation starter: "You know the concept — what barriers make it hard to apply in your classroom?"

Related reading: [Quiz Analytics: A Teacher's Guide](/blog/quiz-analytics-teacher-guide) · [Formative vs Summative Assessment](/blog/formative-vs-summative-assessment) · [How to Grade Quizzes Faster](/blog/how-to-grade-quizzes-faster)