This guide to effective staff development planning draws extensively on the literature to discuss the concepts crucial at each stage of the planning process. An introductory section reviews the characteristics of adult learners (including what they want to learn and how they prefer to learn it), touching on adult development, learning and personality styles, and adult learning and learning projects. The next five chapters cover the five stages of the staff development or staff renewal process: readiness, planning, training, implementation, and evaluation. The readiness stage involves establishing an organizational climate supportive of the renewal process, and requires an understanding of school climate, coupling theory, and organizational theory. The conversion of adult learners' needs into staff development objectives is the focus of the planning stage. Programs relating to knowledge, skills, and attitudes must be incorporated into the training stage, which should include five frequently neglected components: theory presentation, modeling, practice, feedback, and coaching. Aspects of commitment and organizational change theory underlie the success of the implementation stage. The final stage, evaluation, depends on personalized, quantitative methods and careful data collection. The document concludes with a discussion of the interrelationships among the five stages and urges development of a self-renewing program. (Author/PGD)