Professional Environment for Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zascerinska, Jelena
2010-01-01
Introduction. Teaching and training are at the heart of the knowledge society where the continuing professional development of teachers and trainers provides the cornerstone for the development of a high quality education and training systems. The Aim of the Study. To identify a design of professional environment for teacher professional…
A Model of Professional Development: Teachers' Perceptions of Their Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Avidov-Ungar, Orit
2016-01-01
This research aims to evaluate the manner in which teachers perceive their professional development process. Forty-three teachers from Israeli schools participated in the study. I used a semi-structured interview to understand the teachers' perceptions about their professional development. The qualitative analysis identified two dimensions that…
Teachers' Professional Development: A Theoretical Review
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Postholm, May Britt
2012-01-01
Background and purpose: The article reviews studies that focus on the professional development of teachers after they have completed their basic teacher training. Teacher professional development is defined as teachers' learning: how they learn to learn and how they apply their knowledge in practice to support pupils' learning. The research…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sobkin, V. S.; Adamchuk, D. V.
2015-01-01
The article examines issues related to the professional development of teachers. The presented material is structured according to four main themes: teacher self-assessment of their professional competence; their attitude toward traditional forms of training; their participation in events organized by the educational community and associations;…
Improving Teachers' Assessment Literacy through Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Koh, Kim H.
2011-01-01
This study examined the effects of professional development on teachers' assessment literacy between two groups of teachers: (1) teachers who were involved in ongoing and sustained professional development in designing authentic classroom assessment and rubrics; and (2) teachers who were given only short-term, one-shot professional development…
Teachers as Researchers: Supporting Professional Development.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gennaoui, Michele; Kretschmer, Robert E.
1996-01-01
Contrasts traditional professional development and a teacher-as-researcher project implemented at the Saint Francis de Sales School for the Deaf. Discusses ways the project influenced the professional development of teachers, the effects on the school community of group collaboration among diverse professional staff, support mechanisms required,…
Fixing Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hill, Heather C.
2009-01-01
The professional development "system" for teachers is, by all accounts, broken. Despite evidence that specific programs can improve teacher knowledge and practice and student outcomes, these programs seldom reach real teachers on a large scale. Typically, reformers address such perceptions of failure by discovering and celebrating new formats and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
King, Fiona
2016-01-01
Teacher professional learning is widely accepted as a mediating factor for enhancing student outcomes. While many teachers across the world engage in professional development (PD) to enhance their professional learning, what is less evident is how to support that learning to result in change following teacher PD. Acknowledging that not all teacher…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Svendsen, Bodil
2016-01-01
The aim of this study was to find out how science teachers who have participated in a one-year school-based collaborative teacher professional development programme, perceive the programme's impact on their professional development. Constant comparative analysis was used on data from three schools to generate the findings in this study. The…
For Teachers, by Teachers: An Exploration of Teacher-Generated Online Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rodesiler, Luke
2017-01-01
Participatory online professional development opportunities created for teachers by teachers have emerged with the proliferation of social media. This article presents an investigation of a voluntary, participant-driven, 5-week online professional development offering in which two high school English teachers invited colleagues at a distance to…
Learning, Motivation, and Transfer: Successful Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McDonald, Lex
2012-01-01
In this article, I am concerned with three key issues of teacher professional development--teacher learning, motivation, and transfer of learning. Each issue has received minimal attention in teacher professional development literature. The three issues are discussed, and a model of an integrative professional development approach is outlined,…
Training Teachers to be Professional Development Leaders.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Leslie, Jessica B.
1982-01-01
A Teacher Corps project conducted by the Edgewood Independent School District and Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas) is described. A classroom teacher at each participating school is trained to lead professional development activities at his or her school. Teacher involvement in designing professional development at each school is emphasized.…
Transformation and Framework of Teacher Professional Development in Taiwan
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Huang, Bo-Ruey
2016-01-01
This article describes the situation of teacher professional development in Taiwan, including the history and the framework of teacher professional development. With diversification of teacher education systems and institutions, teacher professional development in Taiwan is undergoing a gradual governance shift from the model of centralised state…
Teacher Professional Development: Who Is the Learner?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Petrie, Kirsten; McGee, Clive
2012-01-01
One of the challenges in in-service teacher education is how teachers can be given professional development (PD) that enables them to respond to national curriculum and policy change. In recent years primary teachers in New Zealand have been inundated with Ministry of Education-funded professional development programmes to help them implement a…
Pacific CRYSTAL Teacher Professional Development Models: Lessons Learned
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
van der Flier-Keller, E.; Yore, L.
2010-12-01
From 2005 to 2010 Pacific CRYSTAL (Centre for Research in Youth Science Teaching and Learning) has been engaged in community-based research fostering teacher leadership in innovative science education through a variety of approaches to teacher professional development. Pacific CRYSTAL is a University of Victoria based, NSERC funded project founded on a collaborative research model involving scentists, science educators and community members including schools, teachers, community groups and government. Pacific CRYSTAL professional development approaches embrace both in-service teachers and pre-service teachers, and include Lighthouse schools, workshops (ongoing as well as one-time), community-based partnerships in Pacific CRYSTAL research projects, teachers as researchers, and university science courses and workshops for pre-education and education students. A number of common themes, identified through these approaches, should be considered in the development and implementation of future science professional development initiatives. They include; teacher turnover, expanding and adding schools and participating teachers, teacher apprehension, building leadership capacity, further engagement of 'tourist' teachers, continuing professional support for teachers, as well as on-going mentoring.
Critical Friends Group for EFL Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Vo, Long Thanh; Nguyen, Hoa Thi Mai
2010-01-01
For the best student outcomes, teachers need to engage in continuous professional development. As a result, models of teacher professional development have been developed, among which is the Critical Friends Group (CFG) technique. However, whether it works well with EFL teachers in an Asian context like Vietnam, where EFL teachers in particular do…
Teachers Know Best: Teachers' Views on Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2014
2014-01-01
To gain insights into the roadblocks to implementing effective professional development, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation contracted with the Boston Consulting Group in 2014 to reach more than 1,300 teachers, professional development leaders in district and state education agencies, principals, professional development providers, and…
The Investigation of Teachers' Metaphoric Perceptions about Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yurtseven, Nihal
2017-01-01
Professional development is an ongoing process in which teachers review their teaching practices and learn how to respond to their students' needs. To make the professional development process more effective, we need to define the identity of a teacher correctly and clarify the perspective about teachers' professional development. The purpose of…
An analysis of zoo and aquarium provided teacher professional development
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Kubarek-Sandor, Joy
Informal science institutions are a significant provider of science teacher professional development. As pressure continues to critically analyze the work of teachers and their effectiveness in the classroom, it is important to understand how informal science institutions contribute to effective change in teacher science content knowledge and pedagogy. This research study analyzed zoo and aquarium provided teacher professional development to respond to the research questions: How do zoos and aquaria determine and assess their goals for teacher professional development? How do these goals align with effective teacher change for science content knowledge and pedagogy? Theoretical frameworks for high quality teacher professional development, effective evaluation of teacher professional development, and learning in informal science settings guided the research. The sample for the study was AZA accredited zoos and aquariums providing teacher professional development (N=107). Data collection consisted of an online questionnaire, follow-up interviews, and content analysis of teacher professional development artifacts. Analysis revealed that by and large zoos and aquariums are lacking in their provision of science teacher professional development. Most professional development focuses on content or resources, neglecting pedagogy. Assessments mismatch the goals and rely heavily on self-report and satisfaction measures. The results demonstrate a marked difference between those zoos and aquariums that are larger in capacity versus those that are medium to small in size. This may be an area of research for the future, as well as analyzing the education resources produced by zoos and aquariums as these were emphasized heavily as a way they serve teachers.
Foreign Language Teachers' Professional Development in Information Age
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Fan, Xiying; Wu, Gang
Cultivation of students' learning autonomy has raised new challenges to teachers' professional development, dynamic, continuous, lifelong full-scale development, with emphasis on the creativity and constancy of the teachers' quality development. The teachers' professional development can take the following approaches: studying theories about foreign language teaching with the aid of modern information technology; organizing online teaching research activities supported by information technology and carrying peer observation and dialogue -teaching reflection in internet environment and fostering scholarly teachers.
Teacher Professional Development that Makes an Impact
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Borrego, H.; Ellins, K. K.
2012-12-01
Through four years of participation in the TeXas Earth and Space Science (TXESS) Revolution, an NSF-sponsored teacher professional development project, my knowledge of earth science and new pedagogical approaches has improved dramatically. In addition, I have received instructional materials, and learned how to access high quality online resources and use a variety of web-based tools. As a consequence, I have developed the confidence to use the TXESS model to deliver earth science professional development that makes an impact to other teachers in the Rio Grande Valley region of South Texas. In this session, I will share my experiences as an earth science professional development provider and describe how I have used my own learning to help both teachers and students become more earth science literate. Earth science test scores at the elementary and secondary level throughout South Texas are consistently low in comparison to other regional areas in the state. The majority of the teachers lack the content-knowledge, confidence, or experience to teach earth science. My background as teacher combined with the TXESS Revolution experience helped me to understand the needs of these teachers and to identify teaching resources that would be useful to them. Using educational resources provided by the TXESS Revolution I have offered professional development topics such as Energy, Geologic Time and Stratigraphy, Water and the Cryosphere, Plate Tectonics, and Climate to about 125 South Texas elementary and middle school teachers. These trainings have helped improve the content knowledge of South Texas teachers and given them tools that they can use to guide student learning through authentic scientific research. In addition to providing professional development to teachers, I have been recruited to serve as the representative of the Offshore Energy Center for South Texas. This curriculum complements the TXESS Revolution educational resources by expanding the Energy education
Teacher Quality, Professionalism and Professional Development: Findings from a European Project
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hilton, Gillian; Flores, Maria Assunção; Niklasson, Laila
2013-01-01
This paper presents and discusses findings from a European project concerning strengthening the teacher's voice in defining professional quality. In the project tools were developed and evaluated to help teachers reflect on their professional quality. Twelve countries participated and twelve tools were tested with help of student teachers,…
Inquiry identity and science teacher professional development
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Bryce, Nadine; Wilmes, Sara E. D.; Bellino, Marissa
2016-06-01
An effective inquiry-oriented science teacher possesses more than the skills of teaching through investigation. They must address philosophies, and ways of interacting as a member of a group of educators who value and practice science through inquiry. Professional development opportunities can support inquiry identity development, but most often they address teaching practices from limited cognitive perspectives, leaving unexplored the shifts in identity that may accompany teachers along their journey in becoming skilled in inquiry-oriented instruction. In this forum article, we envision Victoria Deneroff's argument that "professional development could be designed to facilitate reflexive transformation of identity within professional learning environments" (2013, p. 33). Instructional coaching, cogenerative dialogues, and online professional communities are discussed as ways to promote inquiry identity formation and collaboration in ways that empower and deepen science teachers' conversations related to personal and professional efficacy in the service of improved science teaching and learning.
Climate Literacy: Supporting Teacher Professional Development
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Haddad, N.; Ledley, T. S.; Dunlap, C.; Bardar, E.; Youngman, B.; Ellins, K. K.; McNeal, K. S.; Libarkin, J.
2012-12-01
Confronting the Challenges of Climate Literacy (CCCL) is an NSF-funded (DRK-12) project that includes curriculum development, teacher professional development, teacher leadership development, and research on student learning, all directed at high school teachers and students. The project's evaluation efforts inform and guide all major components of the project. The research effort addresses the question of what interventions are most effective in helping high school students grasp the complexities of the Earth system and climate processes, which occur over a range of spatial and temporal scales. The curriculum unit includes three distinct but related modules: Climate and the Cryosphere; Climate, Weather, and the Biosphere; and Climate and the Carbon Cycle. Climate-related themes that cut across all three modules include the Earth system, with the complexities of its positive and negative feedback loops; the range of temporal and spatial scales at which climate, weather, and other Earth system processes occur; and the recurring question, "How do we know what we know about Earth's past and present climate?" which addresses proxy data and scientific instrumentation. The professional development component of the project includes online science resources to support the teaching of the curriculum modules, summer workshops for high school teachers, and a support system for developing the teacher leaders who plan and implement those summer workshops. When completed, the project will provide a model high school curriculum with online support for implementing teachers and a cadre of leaders who can continue to introduce new teachers to the resource. This presentation will introduce the curriculum and the university partnerships that are key to the project's success, and describe how the project addresses the challenge of helping teachers develop their understanding of climate science and their ability to convey climate-related concepts articulated in the Next Generation
Vocational Teacher Professional Development. Practice Application Brief No. 11.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Brown, Bettina Lankard
Teacher shortages, new technologies, and vocational certification demands are directing attention to the need for professional development of vocational education (VE) teachers. VE teachers can use various strategies to enhance their performance and effectiveness through professional development. Worksite experiences give VE teachers opportunities…
Applying Constructionist Principles to Online Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ostashewski, Nathaniel; Moisey, Susan; Reid, Doug
2011-01-01
This report explores the first iteration of a teacher professional development courselet grounded in constructionist theory and activities. This online teacher professional development (oTPD) courselet provided opportunities for teachers to engage in just-in-time, ongoing TPD within a social networking site for educators. The topic of the oTPD was…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Armour, Kathleen M.; Yelling, Martin
2004-01-01
This article analyses the career-long continuing professional development (CPD) of 85 experienced physical education (PE) teachers in England. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews (20 teachers) and open-ended profile questionnaires (a further 65 teachers) to find out what forms of professional development these teachers had…
Networked Teacher Professional Development: The Case of Globaloria
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Whitehouse, Pamela
2011-01-01
The purpose of this paper is to explore a teacher professional development program embedded in a networked learning environment, and to offer an emerging model and analytic matrix of 21st century teacher professional development. The Globaloria program is based on theories of learning by design and facilitates teachers and students as they create…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Glover, Todd A.; Nugent, Gwen C.; Chumney, Frances L.; Ihlo, Tanya; Shapiro, Edward S.; Guard, Kirra; Koziol, Natalie; Bovaird, Jim
2016-01-01
Teachers Speak was a national survey study designed to investigate the characteristics of rural elementary school teachers' existing professional development; differences in professional development practices between rural and non-rural settings; and the potential influence of professional development characteristics on rural teachers' knowledge,…
Do less effective teachers choose professional development does it matter?
Barrett, Nathan; Butler, J S; Toma, Eugenia F
2012-10-01
In an ongoing effort to improve teacher quality, most states require continuing education or professional development for their in-service teachers. Studies evaluating the effectiveness of various professional development programs have assumed a normal distribution of quality of teachers participating in the programs. Because participation in many professional development programs is either targeted or voluntary, this article suggests past evaluations of the effectiveness of professional development may be subject to selection bias and policy recommendations may be premature. This article presents an empirical framework for evaluating professional development programs where treatment is potentially nonrandom, and explicitly accounts for the teacher's prior effectiveness in the classroom as a factor that may influence participation in professional development. This article controls for the influence of selection bias on professional development outcomes by generating a matched sample based on propensity scores and then estimating the program's effect. In applying this framework to the professional development program examined in this article, less effective teachers are found to be more likely to participate in the program, and correcting for this selection leads to different conclusions regarding the program's effectiveness than when ignoring teacher selection patterns.
The Factors that Affect Science Teachers' Participation in Professional Development
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Roux, Judi Ann
Scientific literacy for our students and the possibilities for careers available in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) areas are important topics for economic growth as well as global competitiveness. The achievement of students in science learning is dependent upon the science teachers' effectiveness and experienced science teachers depend upon relevant professional development experiences to support their learning. In order to understand how to improve student learning in science, the learning of science teachers must also be understood. Previous research studies on teacher professional development have been conducted in other states, but Minnesota science teachers comprised a new and different population from those previously studied. The purpose of this two-phase mixed methods study was to identify the current types of professional development in which experienced, Minnesota secondary science teachers participated and the factors that affect their participation in professional development activities. The mixed-methods approach s utilized an initial online survey followed by qualitative interviews with five survey respondents. The results of the quantitative survey and the qualitative interviews indicated the quality of professional development experiences and the factors which affected the science teachers' participation in professional development activities. The supporting and inhibiting factors involved the availability of resources such as time and money, external relationships with school administrators, teacher colleagues, and family members, and personal intrinsic attributes such as desires to learn and help students. This study also describes implications for science teachers, school administrators, policymakers, and professional development providers. Recommendations for future research include the following areas: relationships between and among intrinsic and extrinsic factors, science-related professional development activities
Professional development for science teachers.
Wilson, Suzanne M
2013-04-19
The Next Generation Science Standards will require large-scale professional development (PD) for all science teachers. Existing research on effective teacher PD suggests factors that are associated with substantial changes in teacher knowledge and practice, as well as students' science achievement. But the complexity of the U.S. educational system continues to thwart the search for a straightforward answer to the question of how to support teachers. Interventions that take a systemic approach to reform hold promise for improving PD effectiveness.
A Design Framework for Online Teacher Professional Development Communities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Liu, Katrina Yan
2012-01-01
This paper provides a design framework for building online teacher professional development communities for preservice and inservice teachers. The framework is based on a comprehensive literature review on the latest technology and epistemology of online community and teacher professional development, comprising four major design factors and three…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shawer, Saad
2010-01-01
This qualitative study examined the impact of classroom-level teacher professional development (CTPD) and curriculum transmission on teacher professional development and satisfaction. Based on work with English-as-a-foreign-language college teachers and students, data analysis showed that CTPD significantly improved student-teacher subject,…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kostina, Ludmyla
2015-01-01
Teacher in Australia is determined as an active participant of professional community with high level of collaboration, professional development coherent activities and collaborative learning practice. Thus, teacher quality is one of critical factors affecting student outcomes. The article touches upon the issue of the potential to improve…
Teacher Perspectives on Literacy and Mathematics Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Martin, Christie; Polly, Drew; Mraz, Maryann; Algozzine, Robert
2018-01-01
This study examines teacher's perspectives of the most beneficial professional development they have participated in over the last three years in the content areas of literacy and mathematics. It also investigates teachers views on how professional development influences student learning. Specifically, this study is grounded in the following…
Reforming Professional Development: Focusing on Teachers' Practices
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Leach, Laura M.
2012-01-01
The purpose of this position paper was to study professional development, specifically looking at teachers' practices. After problems with a recent charter renewal for a small charter school and conversations with teachers and administration, professional development arose as an area that needed improvement. A model for professional…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bechtel, Pamela A.; O'Sullivan, Mary
2006-01-01
There are many factors that affect the design of effective professional development (PD) programs. This review of literature focuses on some of the theoretical models used to explain teacher change, the contextual factors that impact teacher behaviors and curricular change, and the role of continuous professional development in changing teaching…
MOOCs for Teacher Professional Development: Reflections, and Suggested Actions
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Misra, Pradeep Kumar
2018-01-01
Teacher Professional Development (TPD) has become a major policy priority within education systems worldwide. But keeping teachers professionally up-to-date and providing them professional development opportunities on continuing basis is a big challenge. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can be a cost and resource effective means to complement…
Codification and Validation of Professional Development Questionnaire of Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ayyoobi, Fatemah; Pourshafei, Hadi; Asgari, Ali
2016-01-01
Teacher in the educational system and the teaching-learning process, as a main leading should need to knowledge and professional skills. Therefore, evaluation of professional development is important. This study aims to design and modify Construction and Validation of professional development questionnaire of teachers. This research based on…
Teachers' Beliefs about Using a Professional Development Plan
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Janssen, Sandra; Kreijns, Karel; Bastiaens, Theo J.; Stijnen, Sjef; Vermeulen, Marjan
2013-01-01
Professional development plans (PDPs) have recently been introduced in Dutch schools to support teachers' professional development. However, teachers' beliefs regarding the use of PDPs have not been systematically researched, whereas research on the use of PDPs indicates that the implementation is not always successful and depends on how use is…
Literacy-Related Professional Development Preferences of Secondary Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jones, Shara L.; Lee, Elizabeth A.
2014-01-01
A survey of 100 teachers in one Ontario school board examined their literacy-related professional development preferences. The majority preferred short durations of literacy-related professional development. A small number did not want any literacy-related professional development. The most preferred forms of professional development were shared…
Accountability or Authenticity? The Alignment of Professional Development and Teacher Evaluation
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Su, Yahui; Feng, Liyia; Hsu, Chang-Hui
2017-01-01
The alignment of professional development and teacher evaluation has been a growing concern in teacher professional development practices. The issue of how teacher evaluation can help authentic professional development is important in that teachers only learn what is real, useful and valuable to them. Based on our reflections on current…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Saka, Yavuz
2013-01-01
To address the need to better prepare teachers to enact science education reforms, the National Science Foundation has supported a Research Experience for Teachers (RET's) format for teacher professional development. In these experiences, teachers work closely with practicing scientists to engage in authentic scientific inquiry. Although…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mushayikwa, Emmanuel
2013-01-01
This paper is part of a larger study that was carried out to investigate the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the self-directed professional development on the self-directed professional development (SDPD) of mathematics and science teachers in Zimbabwe. The educational context provides an example of how teachers…
Considering Professional Identity to Enhance Agriculture Teacher Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shoulders, Catherine W.; Myers, Brian E.
2011-01-01
The professional identity secondary agriculture teachers display can affect their receptiveness and interest in different professional development events, yet is often overlooked when designing professional development because it is not included in the consensus of proven methods of professional development design and delivery (Desimone, 2009).…
Teacher Professional Learning: Developing with the Aid of Technology
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kyprianou, Marianna; Nikiforou, Eleni
2016-01-01
Education is a field that constantly changes, which dictates the need for continuing teacher professional learning and development. Teacher professional learning and development can be divided into two categories: formal learning/ development and informal learning/development. This paper focuses on the experience of the presenters as coordinators…
Learning Outcomes of Teacher Professional Development Activities: A Meta-Study
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Thurlings, Marieke; den Brok, Perry
2017-01-01
Former literature reviews suggested that if (student) teachers learn together in their professional development activities, professional development is enhanced. In the present literature review, we explored a variety of peer teacher professional development activities, conceptually divided into coaching, collaborating, and assessing activities.…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hilton, Annette; Hilton, Geoff; Dole, Shelley; Goos, Merrilyn
2015-01-01
Over a two-year period, approximately 70 teachers from 18 schools participated in an on-going professional development program as part of a study to promote the teaching and learning of numeracy. Principals and other school leaders were invited to participate in the professional development program alongside their teachers, which 20 leaders from…
The impact of telecommunications on science teacher professional development
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hatton, Mary E.
National education reform places emphasis on teachers moving towards empowering themselves and accepting responsibility for their own professional growth. Successful teacher in-service programs foster professional development by providing support in the school context (Baird, Ellis and Kuerbis, 1989; Lieberman, 1990). Research on national reform indicates that many teachers rely on communities of networks to sustain the assistance they need (McLaughlin & Talbert, 1993). Communities of teachers develop relationships with one another to enhance their personal and professional development while collaborating with colleagues (Lieberman, 1990). However, teachers within a school or the same district rarely have opportunities for collegial interactions because of schedules, lack of support for such interactions, or lack of interest among colleagues. This research study evaluates teachers interacting as a community via the Internet. Internet technology overcomes geographic barriers and time constraints, which limit the effectiveness of professional development programs (Gal, 1993). The communication opportunities in a network, together with the coordination of program staff, create an environment that provides teachers with support following a summer program (Gal, 1993). This case study examines the structure and change in three groups of science teachers who attended summer institutes and maintained interactions through a commercial network. The activities and interactions among members in the group, and the ways in which the members interacted with one another to create a community were studied. The network provided opportunities to interact with colleagues, both privately and publicly. Dialogue from these interactions were analyzed to determine patterns of teacher discourse that evolved following an in-service program. Teachers requested support for using program materials, shared experiences, shared resources, interacted socially, and reflected on their practice. This
Relational Dynamics in Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Finkelstein, Carla
2013-01-01
Teacher professional development (PD) is considered essential to improving student achievement toward high standards. I argue that while current notions of high quality PD foreground cognitive aspects of learning, they undertheorize the influence of relational dynamics in teacher learning interactions. That is, current conceptions of high quality…
Measuring Characteristics of Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Soine, Karen M.; Lumpe, Andrew
2014-01-01
The primary purpose of the study was to create and psychometrically test an instrument which measured teachers' perceptions of characteristics of professional development. The sample consisted of elementary teachers from five school districts in Washington State participating in a district improvement initiative. Results of exploratory factor…
Teacher Activist Organizations and the Development of Professional Agency
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Quinn, Rand; Carl, Nicole Mittenfelner
2015-01-01
Teacher professional agency refers to the ability of teachers to control their work within structural constraints. In this paper, we show how teacher activist organizations can assist in the development of professional agency. We focus on a teacher activist organization in a large urban district in the United States and identify three…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zein, Mochamad Subhan
2017-01-01
This study investigates the professional development (PD) needs of primary English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers whose professional field has received significant interest at the global level in the past two decades. The study takes a different stance from previous research that exclusively generated data from teachers because it sought the…
How we developed a role-based portfolio for teachers' professional development.
Pyörälä, Eeva
2014-09-01
Faculty development requires practical tools for supporting teachers' professional development. In a modern medical education context, teachers need to adapt to various educational roles. This article describes how a role-based portfolio with a qualitative self-assessment scale was developed. It strives to encourage and support teachers' growth in different educational roles. The portfolio was developed between 2009 and 2012 at the University of Helsinki in dialogue with teachers involved in faculty development. It is based on the role framework presented by Harden and Crosby. Today, it also involves the educational premises of constructive alignment, reflection and a scholarly approach to teaching. The role-based portfolio has led the teachers to discover new educational roles and set goals in their professional development.
Helping Teachers Help Themselves: Professional Development That Makes a Difference
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Patton, Kevin; Parker, Melissa; Tannehill, Deborah
2015-01-01
For school administrators to facilitate impactful teacher professional development, a shift in thinking that goes beyond the acquisition of new skills and knowledge to helping teachers rethink their practice is required. Based on review of the professional development literature and our own continued observations of professional development, this…
Factor Analysis of Teacher Professional Development in Chinese Military Medical Universities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yue, Juan-Juan; Chen, Gang; Wang, Zhen-Wei; Liu, Wei-Dong
2017-01-01
Background and purpose: Teacher professional development potentially enhances teachers' professional morale, knowledge, skills and autonomy, which helps improve the quality of education. The military medical university is an important medical education institution in China; however, studies of teacher professional development within military…
Enabling Adaptive System Leadership: Teachers Leading Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Boylan, Mark
2018-01-01
Internationally, there is increasing emphasis on teacher leadership of professional development. This provides opportunities for teachers to initiate and facilitate professional learning activities beyond their own schools. There is a need for theoretical tools to analyse their leadership activity and how to support it. Constructs from complexity…
Master Teachers as Professional Developers: Managing Conflicting Versions of Professionalism
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Montecinos, Carmen; Pino, Mauricio; Campos-Martinez, Javier; Domínguez, Rosario; Carreño, Claudia
2014-01-01
As education's main workforce, teachers have been the target of policies designed to shape and affirm new versions of professionalism. This paper examines this issue as it is exemplified by the Teachers of Teachers Network (TTN), a program developed by Chile's Ministry of Education. As a program designed to identify and reward high quality…
Professional development and teacher impacts: The NSF GK-12 experience
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Camasta, Susan Fullett
Professional development is a central piece in the continuing education of teachers. The purpose of this study was to examine professional development for teachers, in particular, the impact of one program that has the potential to positively influence educators as their careers evolve. Twenty-seven teachers who served as participants in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Fellows in K-12 Education Program (GK-12) volunteered to be interviewed about their experiences as teacher partners with graduate student Fellows who were considered experts in their content area and research methods. The teachers taught 1st through 12th grades in 22 different schools, and represented nine GK-12 programs in six states. The data collected in this qualitative study indicate enduring impacts on teachers and those included: affective impacts, as well as impacts on their practice, their colleagues and their professional involvement. In addition, Fellow and student impacts were reported. The teacher reports indicate that the design and goals of the GK-12 program---which is meant to impact graduate student Fellows, teachers and students---are consistent with the literature on best-practice professional development including facilitating teacher change. Thus, this program can serve as a model for designing effective professional development. A limitation of this study is that most of the data collected were from teacher reports.
The Arctic Climate Modeling Program: Professional Development for Rural Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bertram, Kathryn Berry
2010-01-01
The Arctic Climate Modeling Program (ACMP) offered yearlong science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professional development to teachers in rural Alaska. Teacher training focused on introducing youth to workforce technologies used in Arctic research. Due to challenges in making professional development accessible to rural teachers, ACMP…
Teachers as Learners: Implications of Adult Education for Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Beavers, Amy
2009-01-01
Effective communication with teachers is a critical element of any successful professional development. Teachers are the foundational component of any educational system. It is vital that adequate attention is focused on appropriate and effective training of these teachers. Ideally, professional development offers a means of collaborative support…
Quality professional development for secondary science teachers
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Mchazlett, Dwight Henry, Jr.
This record of study (ROS) explores the perceptions of three high school biology teachers who implemented a form of the Japanese originated Lesson Study Professional Development (LS PD) model. Additionally, this ROS reports on the perceptions of the internal stakeholders with regard to the model's viability as a potential solution to a proposed problem of practice where there was a lack of quality professional development for secondary biology teachers. The audience of internal stakeholders includes district administrators, high school teachers, and science teachers from the elementary and middle school grade levels. Participants of this study collaboratively explored the problem of practice in the fall semester of 2015, then implemented the LS PD model in the spring semester. The participants completed three cycles of LS that focused on collaboratively designing research-based lessons, teaching the lessons with peer observations, revising and re-teaching the lessons with peer observations, and reflecting on the participants' growth experiences. Four research questions were addressed: (a) What are the perceptions of the participants in regard to their own professional growth as a result of participating in the LS initiative? (b) What improvements to the LS PD model might facilitate future implementation? and (c) What are the perceptions of the LS dissemination audience toward LS as a viable solution to a lack of quality PD for secondary biology teachers? Results of the study suggested that LS PD may be a viable solution to the proposed problem of practice where there is a lack of quality professional development for secondary biology teachers. Long-term implications posit that LS PD can be adapted and scaled up to benefit all content areas and grade levels.
Scientist-Teacher Partnerships as Professional Development: An Action Research Study
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Willcuts, Meredith H.
The overall purpose of this action research study was to explore the experiences of ten middle school science teachers involved in a three-year partnership program between scientists and teachers at a Department of Energy national laboratory, including the impact of the program on their professional development, and to improve the partnership program by developing a set of recommendations based on the study’s findings. This action research study relied on qualitative data including field notes recorded at the summer academies and data from two focus groups with teachers and scientists. Additionally, the participating teachers submitted written reflections in science notebooks, participatedmore » in open-ended telephone interviews that were transcribed verbatim, and wrote journal summaries to the Department of Energy at the end of the summer academy. The analysis of the data, collaboratively examined by the teachers, the scientists, and the science education specialist acting as co-researchers on the project, revealed five elements critical to the success of the professional development of science teachers. First, scientist-teacher partnerships are a unique contribution to the professional development of teachers of science that is not replicated in other forms of teacher training. Second, the role of the science education specialist as a bridge between the scientists and teachers is a unique and vital one, impacting all aspects of the professional development. Third, there is a paradox for classroom teachers as they view the professional development experience from two different lenses – that of learner and that of teacher. Fourth, learning for science teachers must be designed to be constructivist in nature. Fifth, the principles of the nature of science must be explicitly showcased to be seen and understood by the classroom teacher.« less
Teachers Teaching Teachers: The Belen Goals 2000 Professional Development Project.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Norton, Priscilla; Sprague, Debra
Belen Public Schools (New Mexico) received a Goals 2000 grant for teacher education and technology integration. The Belen Goals 2000 professional development project established two three-day teachers-teaching-teachers workshops. The first focused on using an integrated software package and the second focused on using e-mail and the Internet.…
Professional Development and Teacher Change: The Missing Leadership Link
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Whitworth, Brooke A.; Chiu, Jennifer L.
2015-01-01
Professional development in science education aims to support teacher learning with the ultimate goal of improving student achievement. A multitude of factors influence teacher change and the effectiveness of professional development. This review of the literature explores these factors and identifies school and district science leaders as a…
Flipped ESL Teacher Professional Development: Embracing Change to Remain Relevant
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Razak, Rafiza Abdul; Kaur, Dalwinder; Halili, Siti Hajar; Ramlan, Zahri
2016-01-01
Many traditional professional development programs that are initiated to equip ESL teachers with knowledge and skills have been futile for numerous reasons. This paper addresses a gap in the recent research of ESL teachers' professional development. Literature has revealed many shortcomings of the traditional and online professional development…
Mediating Artifact in Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Svendsen, Bodil
2015-01-01
This article focuses on teacher professional development (TPD) in natural science through the 5E model as mediating artifact. The study was conducted in an upper secondary school, grounded in a school-based intervention research project. My contribution to the field of research on TPD is founded on the hypothesis that teachers would be best…
Professional Development: Implications for Illinois Career and Technical Education Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Drage, Karen
2010-01-01
Teacher turnover inhibits student achievement, and professional development can reduce the onset of teachers leaving the profession (The Center for Comprehensive School, 2007). No Child Left Behind and the new Perkins Act have redefined teacher professional development. In Illinois, according to the Illinois State Board of Education (n.d.),…
Professional Development Needs of English Language Teachers in Malaysia
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Khandehroo, Koroush; Mukundan, Jayakaran; Alavi, Zhinoos Kamal
2011-01-01
This study surveyed the professional development (PD) needs of school English language teachers at Melaka State in Malaysia. With close cooperation with the Department of Language at the Ministry of Education, the whole population of English language teachers had been studied on their types of professional development needs in instructional…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Patti, Janet; Holzer, Allison A.; Stern, Robin; Brackett, Marc A.
2012-01-01
This article makes the case for a different approach to the professional development of teachers and school leaders called personal, professional coaching (PPC). Personal, professional coaching is grounded in reflective practices that cultivate self-awareness, emotion management, social awareness, and relationship management. Findings from two…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Lewis, Elizabeth Blake
This study concerns the phenomenon of secondary science teacher learning and enacting instructional strategies learned at the Communication in Science Inquiry Project (CISIP) teacher professional development events, as well as teacher perception of, and relationship to, this year-long professional development program. The CISIP program teaches science teachers how to build scientific classroom discourse communities with their students. Some of the science teachers were previous participants in the professional development, and acted as mentor teachers. The research design employed an integrated conceptual framework of situated learning theory with an analytical lens of teachers' professional, institutional and affinity, identities. A multi-method approach was used to generate data. Throughout the 2007-2008 academic year, the teachers' fidelity to the professional development model was measured using a classroom observation instrument aligned with the professional development model. From these observation data a longitudinal model, using hierarchical linear modeling, was constructed. In addition, surveys and interview data were used to construct both whole group and case studies of two high school science teachers who taught biology at the same school. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between previous and new participants; specifically, the longer teachers had participated in the professional development, and adopted a mentorship role, the greater their fidelity of classroom instruction to the CISIP model. Additionally, the case study teacher who developed a CISIP model-aligned affinity identity implemented more of the instructional strategies than the teacher who maintained his school-based institutional identity.
Professional Development Needs of Online Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Roy, Mamta; Boboc, Marius
2016-01-01
Keeping in mind the rising rate of K-12 enrollment, and the increased demand for online teachers, the need for professional development of online teachers is keenly felt. The skills needed for teaching in face-to-face environments are not always transferable to online settings. There is a pointed change in the way teaching takes place in an online…
Enhancing Teacher Competency through Co-Teaching and Embedded Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shaffer, LaShorage; Thomas-Brown, Karen
2015-01-01
The ongoing professional development of general education and special education teachers is vital to the success of students with disabilities. As more classrooms transition to a co-teaching model, the professional development that teachers engage in must transition to meet the needs of both groups of professionals. This study used a qualitative…
Saudi Arabian Science Teachers and Supervisors' Views of Professional Development Needs
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mansour, Nasser; Alshamrani, Saeed M.; Aldahmash, Abdulwali H.; Alqudah, Basil M.
2013-01-01
Problem Statement: Teacher professional development is a prominent feature in the educational landscapes of both developed and developing countries. Teacher development can be conceptualised as a mechanism for driving change in educational systems and/or as a strategy for empowering teachers to improve their professional knowledge and pedagogy. To…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wermke, Wieland
2011-01-01
This article investigates the continuing professional development (CPD) culture of teachers, and asks how it is influenced by properties of the school system. It reports the results of a questionnaire study with 418 secondary teachers from Sweden and Germany. The results show highly significant differences between Swedish and German teachers'…
Supporting Teachers' Understandings of Function through Online Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Silverman, Jason
2017-01-01
This article explores one segment of an extended research and development project that was conducted to better understand the ways online teacher professional development can support teachers' development of deep and connected mathematical understandings. In particular, this article discusses teachers' understandings of the concept of…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Higgins, Tara Eileen
Professional development is important for improving teacher practice and student learning, particularly in inquiry-oriented and technology-enhanced science instruction. This study examines professional developers' practices and their impact on teachers' classroom instruction and student achievement. It analyzes professional developers designing and implementing a five-year professional development program designed to support middle school science teachers. The professional developers are four university-based researchers who worked with sixteen science teachers over three years, setting program goals, facilitating workshops, providing in-classroom support for teachers, and continually refining the program. The analysis is guided by the knowledge integration perspective, a sociocognitive framework for understanding how teachers and professional developers integrate their ideas about teaching and learning. The study investigates the professional developers' goals and teachers' interpretations of those goals. It documents how professional developers plan teacher learning experiences and explores the connection between professional development activities and teachers' classroom practice. Results are based on two rounds of interviews with professional developers, audio recordings of professional developers' planning meetings and videotaped professional development activities. Data include classroom observations, teacher interviews, teacher reflections during professional development activities, and results from student assessments. The study shows the benefit of a professional development approach that relies on an integrated cycle of setting goals, understanding teachers' interpretations, and refining implementation. The professional developers based their design on making inquiry and technology accessible, situating professional development in teachers' work, supporting collaboration, and sustaining learning. The findings reflect alignment of the design goals with the
RE Student Teachers' Professional Development: Results, Reflections and Implications
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ubani, Martin
2016-01-01
This article discusses some issues related to the professional development of Religious Education (RE) student teachers in initial teacher education based on empirical results on the development of the pedagogical thinking of Finnish RE student teachers during their teacher education. The article begins by describing the concept of professionalism…
Self-Directed Professional Development--Hope for Teachers Working in Deprived Environments?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mushayikwa, Emmanuel; Lubben, Fred
2009-01-01
Self-direction has been identified as a potential key to the success of professional development of teachers, especially those working in deprived environments. This paper develops a model for self-directed professional development using interview data from 55 Zimbabwean A-level Science and Mathematics teachers. It focuses on teachers' decisions…
Teachers' Professional Lives and Continuing Professional Development in Changing Times
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tang, Sylvia Yee Fan; Choi, Pik Lin
2009-01-01
This paper presents a qualitative study about how teachers entering the profession at different times over the last five decades made sense of their professional lives and continuing professional development (CPD) experiences against the backdrop of the CPD policy infrastructure and wider educational context in Hong Kong. The life history method…
Teachers Learning: Professional Development and Education. Cambridge Education Research Series
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McLaughlin, Colleen, Ed.
2012-01-01
"Teachers Learning: Professional Development and Education" is part of The Cambridge Education Research series, edited by senior colleagues at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, which has a longstanding tradition of involvement in high quality, innovative teacher education and continuing professional development.…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nasser, Ilham; Kidd, Julie K.; Burns, M. Susan; Campbell, Trina
2015-01-01
This study investigates early childhood education teachers' and assistant teachers' views about a year-long professional development model that focuses on developing intentional teaching. The study shares the results of interviews conducted with the teachers at the end of the implementation of a one-year experimental professional model in Head…
A Space Science Teacher Professional Development Program
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Limaye, Sanjay S.; Pertzborn, Rosalyn A.
Recent adoption of state/national science education standards by school districts in the US has created a need for effective teacher professional development in space science at elementary middle and high school level. Particularly at the elementary and middle school levels majority of teachers teaching the Astronomy/Space Science content have had little education in the area regardless of when they obtained their certification. To meet this growing need the Office of Space Science Education has developed a program to offer teachers background content knowledge through summer workshops and periodic school year meetings for a small number of teachers from Wisconsin and Illinois. The program has included lectures by experts tours of observatories (professional and amateur) science museums and planetariums and on-line learning. A highlight of the program has been introducing teachers to hands-on observing through remotely accessible telescopes. Another aspect has been to make them aware of the many resources available to them through NASA missions. The most significant benefit for the teachers however has been the creation of a peer group and the support it offers in sharing curriculum and lesson plans. This effort has been supported by a NASA/IDEAS grant
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Koellner, Karen; Jacobs, Jennifer; Borko, Hilda
2011-01-01
This article focuses on three features of professional development (PD) programs that play an important role in developing leadership skills and building teachers' capacity: (1) fostering a professional learning community, (2) developing teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching, and (3) adapting PD to support local needs and interests. We…
Professional Development Urban Schools: What Do Teachers Say?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Green, Tanya R.; Allen, Mishaleen
2015-01-01
This quantitative causal-comparative study compared perceptions of professional development opportunities between high-achieving and low-achieving elementary-middle school teachers in an urban school district using the Standards Assessment Inventory (SAI). A total of 271 teachers participated including 134 (n = 134) teachers from high-achieving…
Interactive and Collaborative Professional Development for In-Service History Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Callahan, Cory; Saye, John; Brush, Thomas
2016-01-01
This article advances a continuing line of inquiry into an innovative teacher-support program intended to help in-service history teachers develop professional teaching knowledge for inquiry-based history instruction. Two prior iterations informed our design and use of professional development materials; they also informed the implementation…
Professional Development for Rural and Remote Teachers Using Video Conferencing
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Maher, Damian; Prescott, Anne
2017-01-01
Teachers in rural and remote schools face many challenges including those relating to distance, isolation and lack of professional development opportunities. This article examines a project where mathematics and science teachers were provided with professional development opportunities via video conferencing to help them use syllabus documents to…
Teachers' Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sanders, Deborah
2014-01-01
Professional development is a recognized approach to improving the quality of instruction in schools. The goal of professional development is to increase teachers' knowledge and improve their practices, which lead to enhanced student learning. The problem with providing staff development is the high cost incurred by presenters' fees, and…
PBS TeacherLine National Survey of Teacher Professional Development, 2005-2006
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hezel Associates (NJ1), 2007
2007-01-01
PBS TeacherLine, an initiative funded under the U.S. Department of Education's Ready To Teach program, is designed to provide high-quality online professional development for K-12 teachers. Through the first five-year grant cycle, ending in 2005, PBS TeacherLine produced approximately 100 online facilitated courses in reading, mathematics,…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tack, Hanne; Valcke, Martin; Rots, Isabel; Struyven, Katrien; Vanderlinde, Ruben
2018-01-01
Taking into account the pressing need to understand more about what teacher educators' professional development characterises, this article adopts a mixed method approach to explore Flemish (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) teacher educators' professional development needs and opportunities. Analysis results of a large-scale survey study with 611…
Reflective Engagement as Professional Development in the Lives of University Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lyons, Nona
2006-01-01
This paper takes up two important issues in the professional development of university teachers: the controversy surrounding reflective inquiry and its purported benefits for professional development and the lack of research on what teachers learn from reflective inquiry and how that affects and/or changes their professional practice.…
Re-Conceptualizing Teachers' Narrative Inquiry as Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Golombek, Paula R.; Johnson, Karen E.
2017-01-01
We offer a more nuanced characterization of teachers' narrative inquiry as professional development (Johnson & Golombek, 2002) by grounding our definition of and empirical research on teachers' narrative inquiry from a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical perspective. Our goal is to reaffirm our belief in the educational value of teachers'…
Professional development by scientists and teachers' understanding of the nature of science
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Schuster, Dwight A.
The educational literature suggests that the success of professional development is contingent upon both a professional developer's presentation of the curriculum and his/her comprehension of the complex interactions that occur between instructor and the adult learner. While these suggestions appear forthright and logical, very little research has been conducted to demarcate how professional development approaches defined by these notions impact teacher knowledge. This study investigates the effects of scientist-delivered teacher professional development on teachers' understanding of the nature of science. Using a mixed-method comparative case study, my goal was to build theory focusing specifically on two dimensions of professional development: the pedagogical approaches used by the scientist-instructors and their views/treatment of teachers as professionals or as technicians. Seven credit-bearing summer courses from multiple scientific disciplines were studied, and each course shared a number of important features (duration, general format, teacher recruitment and admission, location, number of participants, etc.); consequently, they comprise a unique dataset for comparative research on science teacher professional development. A wide variety of data collection approaches were used, including interviews, questionnaires, a VNOS instrument, and systematic classroom observation by ten trained observers (each course was continuously observed by at least two observers). Analysis shows that teachers were more likely to experience change in their views about the nature of science in courses in which they were treated as professionals, compared to courses in which they were treated as technicians. It also shows that syllabi and participant reports tend to overstate the use of inquiry methods when reviewed in the light of close classroom observation. By recognizing and defining professional development contexts that build teachers' knowledge, this study suggests how
Conceptualising Self-Generating Online Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Prestridge, Sarah
2017-01-01
In 2012, a research project was implemented to investigate the possibility and effectiveness of instituting a personalised and virtually networked mode of professional development to promote teacher confidence and competence with information and communications technology and its use as a key component of teachers' pedagogy. The aim of the project…
Teacher Research as Professional Development for P-12 Music Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Conway, Colleen; Edgar, Scott; Hansen, Erin; Palmer, C. Michael
2014-01-01
The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of seven music educators who conducted teacher research in their classrooms and to document whether the teachers and the local school district considered the project as professional development. Research questions included: (1) How do these music educators describe the experience of planning…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Soleimani, Hassan; Khaliliyan, Monir
2012-01-01
Professional Development is a critical necessity in today's educational environment. The present research was based on the idea that teachers are professionals and they need professional development consisting of various processes of ongoing growth. We examined university teachers' attitude to professional development in a type of distance…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Garner, Arthur L., Jr.
2011-01-01
This ethnographic study utilized the theoretical frameworks of constructivism, cognitivism, and socio-cultural theories to examine how professional learning communities influenced the professional development of mathematics teacher knowledge and student achievement. This study sought to comprehend and interpret the behaviors, beliefs and values of…
The Teachers' Perspective on Teacher Professional Development Evaluation
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chen, Yu-Fen
2013-01-01
This study constructs indicators and weights that can be used in the professional development evaluation (PDE) of elementary school teachers. The indicators were constructed using data collected from literature reviews, interviews with experts, and questionnaire surveys. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAPH) was used to analyze the collected…
Evaluating Mathematics Teachers' Professional Development Motivations and Needs
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Caddle, Mary C.; Bautista, Alfredo; Brizuela, Bárbara M.; Sharpe, Sheree T.
2016-01-01
While there is widespread agreement that one-size-fits-all professional development (PD) initiatives have limited potential to foster teacher learning, much existing PD is still designed without attention to teachers' motivations and needs. This paper shows that the strengths and weaknesses of middle school mathematics teachers that engage in PD…
Lebanese Teachers' Views on "Continuing Professional Development"
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nabhani, Mona; Bahous, Rima
2010-01-01
This study elicits Lebanese teachers' views on Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Seven hundred and thirty-nine teachers from across Lebanon responded to semi-structured questions about personal and school efforts to help stay up to date. They expressed their views on what constitutes effective CPD, why this is needed and how this…
Teacher Research as a Robust and Reflective Path to Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Roberts, Sherron Killingsworth; Crawford, Patricia A.; Hickmann, Rosemary
2010-01-01
This article explores the role of teacher research as part of a robust program of professional development. Teacher research offers teachers at every stage of development a recursive and reflective means of bridging the gap between current practice and potential professional growth. The purpose of this dual level inquiry was to probe the concept…
Modeling Teacher Professional Development Through a Telescope Making Workshop
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Meredith, J. T.; Schleigh, S. P.; Lee, T. D.
2010-08-01
The International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) provides a springboard to develop innovative enduring educational programming directed toward astronomy education. We examine current professional development models focusing on astronomy and discuss the need for improvement. We propose a professional development design that follows the medical field philosophy using a low cost telescope making workshop as a vehicle to test and modify the model. The workshop promotes teacher content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and develops skills and confidence in an inquiry, integrative lesson. This model can be shared with professional development leaders, coordinators and teachers in any topic or level of education. Professional development designs such as the proposed promote excitement and interest in astronomy and makes it possible for underserved and economically depressed regions to have opportunities to promote the values of scientific investigation, STEM education, and public awareness of astronomy.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Molle, Daniella
2010-01-01
The lack of empirical scholarship on professional development initiatives for teachers of English language learners (ELLs) in US schools has been repeatedly documented in educational research. The present dissertation project examines a professional development course specifically designed for K-12 teachers of ELLs. The course aims to foster the…
The effects of a STEM professional development intervention on elementary teachers
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Dailey, Deborah D.
To improve and sustain science teaching and learning in the elementary grades, experts recommended school districts afford time in the day for science instruction, secure the necessary resources for an investigative classroom, and provide teachers with increased professional development opportunities that target content knowledge, pedagogical skills, and confidence in teaching science (e.g. Buczynski & Hansen, 2010; Brand & Moore, 2011; NSB, 2010). In particular, researchers recommended teachers receive quality professional development that is sustained over time and embedded in the real world of the classroom (e.g. Buczynski & Hansen, 2010; Cotabish & Robinson, 2012). The purpose of this dissertation was to examine changes in elementary teachers' science teaching perceptions, concerns, and science process skills during and after participation in a STEM-focused professional development intervention involving embedded support using peer coaching. The positive effects of sustained, embedded professional development programs on science instruction have been documented by multiple research studies (e.g. Buczynski & Hansen, 2010; Cotabish, Dailey, Hughes, & Robinson, 2011; Duran & Duran, 2005; Levitt, 2011); however, few studies have investigated the effects after removal of the professional development support (Johnson, Kahle, & Fargo, 2007; Shymansky, Yore, & Anderson, 2004). By examining the changes across three years (including one year after the conclusion of the professional development intervention), the researcher in the present study considered the dosage of intervention needed to bring about and preserve significant changes in the participant teachers. To measure the impact of the intervention on teachers, the researcher used quantitative data supported by qualitative interviews. Results indicated that changes in science teaching perceptions were realized after one year or 60 hours of intervention; however, it took two years or 120 hours of intervention to see
Linking Job-Embedded Professional Development and Mandated Teacher Evaluation: Teacher as Learner
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Derrington, Mary Lynne; Kirk, Julia
2017-01-01
This study explores the link between individualized, job-embedded professional development and teacher evaluation. Moreover, the study explores and describes job-embedded strategies that principals used to facilitate teacher development while working within a state-mandated evaluation system. The theoretical frame utilized four elements of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Samigullina, Galina Savelevna; Gilmanchina, Syriya Irekovna; Gaisin, Ilgisar Timergalievich; Gilmanshin, Iskander Rafailevich; Rafailevna, Akchurina Ilsia
2015-01-01
The purpose of this article is to analyse the professional and creative development of natural geographic course teachers of the Republic of Tatarstan in the process of professional retraining. The method for work performing is a retrospective analysis of professional retraining of natural geographic course teachers within the higher professional…
Teacher Educators: Their Identities, Sub-Identities and Implications for Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Swennen, Anja; Jones, Ken; Volman, Monique
2010-01-01
In this article we address the question: "What sub-identities of teacher educators emerge from the research literature about teacher educators and what are the implications of the sub-identities for the professional development of teacher educators?" Like other professional identities, the identity of teacher educators is a construction of various…
Continuous Professional Development of English Language Teachers: Perception and Practices
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Al Asmari, AbdulRahman
2016-01-01
Professional development is considered as an essential element in enhancing the teaching and learning process to ensure student learning. Professional development can also be deemed as a cornerstone of teacher professionalism and quality. The governments and educational institutions invest significantly in Continuous Professional Development (CPD)…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cooper, Calvin H., Jr.
2014-01-01
Consistent with a recognized challenge across the United States, the local problem addressed in this study was teachers' inability to implement new technologies in the classroom. Professional development is the channel through which teachers improve, and high-quality professional development has been shown to enhance teacher efficacy. Professional…
Evaluating the Impact of Teacher Professional Development: An Evidence-Based Framework
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
King, Fiona
2014-01-01
Does teacher professional development make a difference? How do we know? While researchers and policy-makers acknowledge that teacher professional development (PD) needs to be assessed and evaluated, there is often little clarity as to how this can be achieved. Evaluation of teacher PD by schools has been described as the weak link in the PD chain…
Vocational Education and Training Teacher Professional Development: Tensions and Context
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bound, Helen
2011-01-01
Planning and implementing teacher professional development is a process of engaging in organisational learning and change. Yet our planning and implementation of professional development is at times a series of one-off sessions and can be quite ad hoc. This paper argues that teacher learning takes place not only through formal sessions but also…
Shaping Professional Development to Promote the Diffusion of Instructional Expertise among Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sun, Min; Penuel, William R.; Frank, Kenneth A.; Gallagher, H. Alix; Youngs, Peter
2013-01-01
This study examines how high-quality professional development can promote the diffusion of effective teaching strategies among teachers through collaboration. Drawing on longitudinal and sociometric data from a study of writing professional development in 39 schools, this study shows that teachers' participation in professional development is…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Macdonald, Doune; Mitchell, Jane; Mayer, Diane
2006-01-01
Background: The widespread and diverse models of professional standards for teaching raise questions with respect to the need to provide teachers with a pathway for continuing professional development balanced with the public nature of surveillance and accountability that may accompany standards. Ways of understanding technologies of power in…
Female Teachers' Professional Development through Action Research Practice
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hassen, Rukya
2016-01-01
This is a study on teachers' professional development through action research practice. The participants of the study were 23 English Language Teachers (ELT) who teach in high schools, preparatory schools and colleges in Debre Markos, in Dessie and around in 2014. The methods of data collection were teacher reflection, and in-depth interview. The…
A Strength-Based Approach to Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zwart, Rosanne C.; Korthagen, Fred A. J.; Attema-Noordewier, Saskia
2015-01-01
Based on positive psychology, self-determination theory and a perspective on teacher quality, this study proposes and examines a strength-based approach to teacher professional development. A mixed method pre-test/post-test design was adopted to study perceived outcomes of the approach for 93 teachers of six primary schools in the Netherlands and…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Gargus, Gerald Vincent
This investigation represents an in-depth understanding of teacher professional development at the Alexander Science Center School, a dependent charter museum school established through a partnership between the California Science Center and Los Angeles Unified School District. Three methods of data collection were used. A survey was distributed and collected from the school's teachers, resulting in a prioritized list of teacher professional development needs, as well as a summary of teachers' opinions about the school's existing professional development program. In addition, six key stakeholders in the school's professional development program were interviewed for the study. Finally, documents related to the school's professional development program were analyzed. Data collected from the interviews and documents were used to develop an understand various components of the Alexander Science Center School's professional development program. Teachers identified seven areas that had a high-priority for future professional development including developing skills far working with below-grade-level students, improving the analytical skills of student in mathematics, working with English Language Learners, improving students' overall reading ability levels, developing teachers' content-area knowledge for science, integrating science across the curriculum, and incorporating hands-on activity-based learning strategies to teach science. Professional development needs identified by Alexander Science Center School teachers were categorized based on their focus on content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, or curricular knowledge. Analysis of data collected through interviews and documents revealed that the Alexander Science Center School's professional development program consisted of six venues for providing professional development for teachers including weekly "banked time" sessions taking place within the standard school day, grade-level meetings, teacher support
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mantei, Jessica; Kervin, Lisa
2011-01-01
This paper examines the development of professional identity in early career teachers enrolled in an "add-on year" of an undergraduate teacher education degree. Through a series of readings focused on reflection and pedagogy, participants engaged in professional dialogue as they made connections between the themes in their professional…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lin, Su-ching; Cheng, Wen-wen; Wu, Ming-sui
2015-01-01
Most research suggests professional development improves teachers' knowledge and pedagogy and enhances teachers' confidence to facilitate a positive attitude about student learning. This study attempted to investigate the connection between teacher professional development program and students' Learning. This study took Readers' Theater Teaching…
Teachers Helping Teachers: A Professional Development Model That Promotes Teacher Leadership
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ghamrawi, Norma
2013-01-01
This mixed methods study reports on the outcomes of a professional development model (PDM) developed by a K-12 private school in Beirut, Lebanon, after 3 years of its employment. Specifically, an evaluation of this PDM is provided with special emphasis on its potential of developing teacher leaders at school. The PDM embraces a constructivist…
Infusing Neuroscience into Teacher Professional Development
Dubinsky, Janet M; Roehrig, Gillian; Varma, Sashank
2015-01-01
Bruer (1997) advocated connecting neuroscience and education indirectly through the intermediate discipline of psychology. We argue for a parallel route: the neurobiology of learning, and in particular the core concept of plasticity, have the potential to directly transform teacher preparation and professional development, and ultimately to affect how students think about their own learning. We present a case study of how the core concepts of neuroscience can be brought to in-service teachers – the BrainU workshops. We then discuss how neuroscience can be meaningfully integrated into pre-service teacher preparation, focusing on institutional and cultural barriers. PMID:26139861
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Jones, M. Gail; Gardner, Grant E.; Robertson, Laura; Robert, Sarah
2013-07-01
Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are frequently being used as a vehicle to transform science education. This study explored elementary teachers' perceptions about the impact of participating in a science PLC on their own professional development. With the use of The Science Professional Learning Communities Survey and a semi-structured interview protocol, elementary teachers' perceptions of the goals of science PLCs, the constraints and benefits of participation in PLCs, and reported differences in the impact of PLC participation on novice and experienced teachers were examined. Sixty-five elementary teachers who participated in a science PLC were surveyed about their experiences, and a subsample of 16 teachers was interviewed. Results showed that most of the teachers reported their science PLC emphasized sharing ideas with other teachers as well as working to improve students' science standardized test scores. Teachers noted that the PLCs had impacted their science assessment practices as well as their lesson planning. However, a majority of the participants reported a differential impact of PLCs depending on a teacher's level of experience. PLCs were reported as being more beneficial to new teachers than experienced teachers. The interview results demonstrated that there were often competing goals and in some cases a loss of autonomy in planning science lessons. A significant concern was the impact of problematic interpersonal relationships and communication styles on the group functioning. The role of the PLC in addressing issues related to obtaining science resources and enhancing science content knowledge for elementary science teachers is discussed.
Mathematics Teachers' Professional Development Program--Needs and Expectations
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Levi-Keren, Michal; Patkin, Dorit
2016-01-01
This paper presents the major findings and recommendations from a formative evaluation of the first of a 2-year in-service training program. This program was designed for the professional development of math teachers. It was developed following an educational reform, which was meant to enhance the teachers' ability to generate changes in their…
Teachers' Goal Orientation Profiles and Participation in Professional Development Activities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kunst, Eva M.; van Woerkom, Marianne; Poell, Rob F.
2018-01-01
Participation in professional development activities is important for teachers to continuously improve their knowledge and skills. However, teachers differ in their attitude towards learning activities. This paper examined how different goal orientation profiles are related to participation in professional development activities (acquiring…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tupou, Samuel F.
2013-01-01
This study examines teacher efficacy within the context of professional development to understand the relationship between teacher efficacy and teacher collaboration. Two theoretical frameworks framed this teacher efficacy study based on "locus of control" and "social cognitive theory." A 29-item questionnaire was e-mailed to…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Namamba, Adam; Rao, Congman
2017-01-01
Teacher educators play a key role in teacher education and education in general. Worldwide, little is known about preparation and professional development of teacher educators. This paper critically examined teacher educators' preparation and professional development in the context of educational reforms and mushrooming of teacher education…
Infusing Neuroscience into Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dubinsky, Janet M.; Roehrig, Gillian; Varma, Sashank
2013-01-01
Bruer advocated connecting neuroscience and education indirectly through the intermediate discipline of psychology. We argue for a parallel route: The neurobiology of learning, and in particular the core concept of "plasticity," have the potential to directly transform teacher preparation and professional development, and ultimately to…
Professional Development to Promote Teacher Adaptability
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Parsons, Allison Ward; Ankrum, Julie Winneur; Morewood, Aimee
2016-01-01
Effective professional development (PD) follows adaptive teaching principles; it increases teacher understanding and instructional purpose, which ultimately supports and extends adaptive teaching. Through this article, we compare and contrast training models with educative models of PD (Duffy, 2004). We discuss characteristics of effective PD that…
Exploring Change in EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mohammadi, Mohammad; Moradi, Khaled
2017-01-01
Continuous professional development (CPD) is important for teachers in attaining sustainable education. Accordingly, exploring teachers' perceptions could be a significant endeavor as teachers' beliefs impact their classroom practices, thereby, impacting student learning and, thus have educational implications. Therefore, this study was designed…
A New Image: Online Communities to Facilitate Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lock, Jennifer V.
2006-01-01
Realizing the potential of online or virtual communities to facilitate teacher professional development requires educators to change their current perceptions of professional development. This calls for educators to develop new images of ongoing opportunities for professional development, based on their needs within an online community of learners…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
McGregor Petgrave, Dahlia M.
Many teachers are not adequately prepared to help urban students who have trouble understanding conceptual ideas in biology because these students have little connection to the natural world. This study explored potential professional development strategies to help urban biology teachers use concept maps effectively with various topics in the biology curriculum. A grounded theory approach was used to develop a substantive professional development model for urban biology teachers. Qualitative data were collected through 16 semi-structured interviews of professional developers experienced in working with concept maps in the urban context. An anonymous online survey was used to collect quantitative data from 56 professional developers and teachers to support the qualitative data. The participants were from New York City, recruited through the NY Biology-Chemistry Professional Development Mentor Network and the NY Biology Teachers' Association. According to the participants, map construction, classroom applications, lesson planning, action research, follow-up workshops, and the creation of learning communities are the most effective professional development strategies. The interviewees also proposed English language learning strategies such as picture maps, native word maps, and content reading materials with underlined words. This study contributes to social change by providing a professional development model to use in planning workshops for urban teachers. Urban teachers improve their own conceptual understanding of biology while learning how to implement concept mapping strategies in the classroom. Students whose teachers are better prepared to teach biology in a conceptual manner have the potential of growing into more scientifically literate citizens.
A Teacher Professional Development Model for Teaching Socioscientific Issues
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Carson, Katherine; Dawson, Vaille
2016-01-01
This paper describes the development and implementation of a three-pillared model for teaching socioscientific issues: teacher professional development; curriculum resources; and classroom support. A professional development program and curriculum resource based on the socioscientific issue of climate change was trialled with 75 Western Australian…
Factors Related to Professional Development of English Language University Teachers in Thailand
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wichadee, Saovapa
2012-01-01
Professional development is deemed necessary for university teachers at all levels, as it helps to enhance teaching quality. However, the extent of English language university teachers' professional development might depend on a number of factors. This paper reports on a study investigating English language university teachers' professional…
What Makes Professional Development Effective? Results from a National Sample of Teachers.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Garet, Michael S.; Porter, Andrew C.; Desimone, Laura; Birman, Beatrice F.; Yoon, Kwang Suk
2001-01-01
Used a national probability sample of 1,027 mathematics and science teachers to provide a large-scale empirical comparison of effects of different characteristics of professional development on teachers' learning. Results identify three core features of professional development that have significant positive effects on teachers' self-reported…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kazempour, Mahsa; Amirshokoohi, Aidin
2014-01-01
The literature on professional development is replete with studies that utilize survey, interview, and classroom observation data, primarily collected post professional development experience, to explore teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and actions; however, we lack a clear understanding of teachers' learning process and reflections during the…
Professional Development of Teacher-Educators towards Transformative Learning
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Meijer, Marie-Jeanne; Kuijpers, Marinka; Boei, Fer; Vrieling, Emmy; Geijsel, Femke
2017-01-01
This study explores the specific characteristics of teacher-educator professional development interventions that enhance their transformative learning towards stimulating the inquiry-based attitude of students. An educational design research method was followed. Firstly, in partnership with five experienced educators, a professional development…
Teachers' Professional Development in Schools: Rhetoric versus Reality
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gemeda, Fekede Tuli; Fiorucci, Massimiliano; Catarci, Marco
2014-01-01
Across the country of Ethiopia, a centrally planned and prescribed professional development programme was implemented in schools, with the intention of enhancing teachers' knowledge, skills and disposition, thereby improving student learning and achievement. This article explores and describes the lived experiences of teachers involved in…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tack, Hanne; Vanderlinde, Ruben
2014-01-01
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the need for teacher educators'--or those who teach the teachers--professional development became increasingly recognised in both policy and research literature. In this respect, a growing body of publications highly stress the teacher educators' task of engaging in research and becoming a teacher…
Exploring the Benefits of Music-Making as Professional Development for Music Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pellegrino, Kristen
2011-01-01
Although much has been written about professional development in general education and music education literature, little has addressed the benefits of music-making as meaningful professional development for music teachers. For music teachers, music-making and meanings of music-making have been connected with teachers' identity, well-being,…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Smith, Saress Ellerbe
2016-01-01
The purpose of this qualitative study was to look at how teachers use micro-blogging, in this case Twitter (www.twitter.com), for their own personalized professional learning and how effective Twitter is as a professional development (PD) tool. In order to measure the effectiveness of the tool, the researcher first gleaned nine essential…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dayoub, Ruba; Bashiruddin, Ayesha
2012-01-01
This paper attempts to present the findings of a study carried out in Pakistan that explored English-language teachers' professional development in developing countries. The main guiding question for the study was: How do English-language teachers at secondary schools learn to teach and develop professionally in Syria and Pakistan? Two cases were…
Professional Development for Teachers: What Two Rigorous Studies Tell Us
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Quint, Janet
2011-01-01
Professional development--formal in-service training to upgrade the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of teachers--is widely viewed as an important means of improving teaching and learning. While many interventions "include" professional development, professional development was the central intervention of the two recent research and…
Exploring Elements That Support Teachers Engagement in Online Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Prestridge, Sarah; Tondeur, Jo
2015-01-01
This study sought to identify the most effective elements required in online professional development to enable teachers to improve their use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in their classrooms. Four schools in Queensland were involved, with twelve classroom teachers participating in a year-long online professional development…
A model of professional development for urban teachers
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Narasimhan, C.
Over the past five years, DePaul University has established a network of urban teachers who are focused on linking the learning of fundamental concepts of physics, chemistry, and biology to relevant and current discoveries in space science. One component of this effort has been a series of annual space science symposia for Chicago-area teachers. These symposia are mixtures of space science presentations by national and local scientists and discussions in areas such as curriculum and professional development, NASA resources, and communication. Since the first symposium, planning has been done in partnership with a small group of teachers who have moved into leadership positions in advancing space science in the Chicago area. This presentation will describe the evolution of the annual symposium as a professional development activity and give the results of a recent assessment project designed to measure the impact of these symposia on Chicago teachers and their classroom practices.
Challenges in Japanese Teachers' Professional Development: A Focus on an Alternative Perspective
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Arani, Mohammad Reza Sarkar; Matoba, Masami
2006-01-01
In this paper we examine challenges of Japanese teachers' professional development which points to the essential change in in-service teacher training programs. Emphasis is placed here on an integrated model for professional development that should be deliberately designed to assist teacher training to construct an understanding of the spirit of…
Experiences of Pioneers Facilitating Teacher Networks for Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hanraets, Irene; Hulsebosch, Joitske; de Laat, Maarten
2011-01-01
This study presents an exploration into facilitation practices of teacher professional development networks. Stimulating networked learning amongst teachers is a powerful way of creating an informal practice-based learning space driven by teacher needs. As such, it presents an additional channel (besides more formal traditional professional…
Teachers' Cognitions Regarding Continuing Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wyatt, Mark; Oncevska Ager, Elena
2017-01-01
It is increasingly recognized that opportunities for continuing professional development (CPD) are needed to support teaching as lifelong learning, and that if these incorporate a nurturing bottom-up approach, this is more likely to lead to teacher empowerment. However, top-down approaches, including formal courses and workshops on predetermined…
Development of Professional Teacher Competences for Cooperation with Parents
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Viskovic, Ivana; Višnjic Jevtic, Adrijana
2017-01-01
Based on the belief that professional competences can partially be developed through professional training a cycle of ten educational workshops was designed. Combining theoretical knowledge, quality practice examples and discussions, the workshops strived to improve professional teacher competences. The assumed outcome was determined by difference…
"Shakespeare Reloaded": Teacher Professional Development within a Collaborative Learning Community
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Brady, Linzy
2009-01-01
This paper describes an instance of continuing professional development and explores the contribution it might make to the ongoing international dialogue of professional development. It reviews the way features of the current debate on effective teaching, teacher learning and continuing professional development overlap and feed into each other and…
Quality Science Teacher Professional Development and Student Achievement
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Dubner, J.
2007-12-01
Studies show that socio-economic background and parental education accounts for 50-60 percent of a child's achievement in school. School, and other influences, account for the remaining 40-50 percent. In contrast to most other professions, schools require no real apprenticeship training of science teachers. Overall, only 38 percent of United States teachers have had any on-the-job training in their first teaching position, and in some cases this consisted of a few meetings over the course of a year between the beginning teacher and the assigned mentor or master teacher. Since individual teachers determine the bulk of a student's school experiences, interventions focused on teachers have the greatest likelihood of affecting students. To address this deficiency, partnerships between scientists and K-12 teachers are increasingly recognized as an excellent method for improving teacher preparedness and the quality of science education. Columbia University's Summer Research Program for Science Teachers' (founded in 1990) basic premise is simple: teachers cannot effectively teach science if they have no firsthand experience doing science, hence the Program's motto, "Practice what you teach." Columbia University's Summer Research Program for Science Teachers provides strong evidence that a teacher research program is a very effective form of professional development for secondary school science teachers and has a direct correlation to increased student achievement in science. The author will present the methodology of the program's evaluation citing statistically significant data. The author will also show the economic benefits of teacher participation in this form of professional development.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kaymakamoglu, Sibel Ersel
2017-01-01
This study aimed to investigate the two primary school science teachers' conceptions of professional development, their perceptions of self-improvement and the factors influencing their professional development. In this investigation, a case study approach was adopted. The participant teachers were given a semi-structured interview and the data…
The Work, Perceptions and Professional Development of Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Silva, Ana Maria; Herdeiro, Rosalinda
2014-01-01
This article presents work from an ongoing investigation, where the objective is to understand the impact of recent Portuguese legislation--the Teaching Career Statute and its respective Evaluation of Teacher Performance regulations--on the (re)construction of teacher identity, the teaching career and professional development. From an analysis of…
Collaborative Learning in Physical Education Teachers' Early-Career Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Keay, Jeanne
2006-01-01
Background/context: Professional development is an important element of professional practice and teachers are expected to engage in activities that not only improve practice but also have a positive impact on pupil learning. Physical educators worldwide have acknowledged the need to improve the continuing education of teachers and have called…
Professional Development, Teacher Efficacy, and Collaboration in Title I Middle Schools
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rostan, MaryMargret
2009-01-01
A problem exists in the U.S. education system regarding the efforts to refine professional development and gain a deeper understanding of content knowledge to impact teachers' abilities to meet students' needs. Many teachers have not had the professional development opportunities that support the improvement of teaching skills and knowledge. The…
Hybrid Teacher Leaders and the New Professional Development Ecology
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Margolis, Jason
2012-01-01
This two-year study examines an emergent model for promoting classroom change amidst systemic professional development efforts--the hybrid teacher leader (HTL). Utilizing ecological and teacher social network frameworks, the relative strengths and weaknesses of educators who both teach and lead teachers are explored. In-depth qualitative data from…
Biology Teachers' Professional Development Needs for Teaching Evolution
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Friedrichsen, Patricia J.; Linke, Nicholas; Barnett, Ellen
2016-01-01
The social controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution puts pressure on secondary biology teachers to deemphasize or omit evolution from their curriculum. In this growing pressure, professional development can offer support to biology teachers. In this study, we surveyed secondary biology teachers in Missouri and report the data from…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Collins, Tonya Monique Nicki
Two Professional Learning Communities of physics teachers from different high schools voluntarily participated in Lesson Study as a means of professional development. The five teacher-participants and one participant-researcher partook of two Lesson Study cycles, each of which focused on student physics misconceptions. The Lesson Study resulted in two topics of physics: projectiles and gravitation. The researcher aimed to determine what happens to secondary physics teachers who undergo Lesson Study through this phenomenological case study. Specifically, (1) What is the process of Lesson Study with secondary physics teachers? and (2) What are the teacher-reported outcomes of Lesson Study with secondary physics teachers? Overall, Lesson Study provided an avenue for secondary physics teachers to conduct inquiry on their students in an attempt to better understand student thinking and learning. As a result, teachers collaborated to learn how to better meet the needs of their students and self-reported growth in many areas of teaching and teacher knowledge. The study resulted in twelve hypotheses to be tested in later research centering on idealizing the process of Lesson Study and maximizing secondary physics teacher growth.
Teachers' Perceptions of the Quantity and Quality of Professional Development Activities in Turkey
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bellibas, Mehmet Sukru; Gumus, Emine
2016-01-01
Professional development for teachers has been a substantial issue in contemporary educational research and policy. Yet, opportunities for professional development activities have been very limited in Turkey. In this study, we examined Turkish teachers' involvement in professional development activities by comparing their participation with the…
Differences across Academic Subjects in Teachers' Attitudes about Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Torff, Bruce; Byrnes, Katherine
2011-01-01
A survey study examined how attitudes about professional development (PD) vary among teachers of different subjects. Elementary teachers were more supportive of PD than health and physical education, social studies, and science teachers; special education teachers were more supportive of PD than social studies and science teachers; and five…
K-12 Teacher Participation in Online Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McNamara, Catherine Louise
2010-01-01
Effectiveness in education is a national concern and reform efforts continue to be championed with the hope of stimulating improvement to more effectively meet the needs of all students. Many reform efforts include a focus on teacher professional development to strengthen teacher pedagogy and positively impact student achievement. Rapid expansion…
Understanding Inservice Science Teachers' Needs for Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zhang, Meilan; Parker, Joyce; Koehler, Matthew J.; Eberhardt, Jan
2015-01-01
Prior research has mainly focused on what makes professional development effective from the program design perspective. However, there is a lack of understanding about what teachers need for improvement in the context of educational reforms and curricular changes. This study used the pedagogical content knowledge framework to examine teachers'…
Flipped Professional Development: An Innovation in Response to Teacher Insights
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hardin, Brooke L.; Koppenhaver, David A.
2016-01-01
This article reports on a study of K-12 teachers' responses to an innovative flipped professional development series focused on literacy instruction. Thirty-six participants voluntarily enrolled in one or more of three professional development courses. Findings address teacher evaluation of the efficacy of both the structure and the content of the…
A Professional Development on Autism Spectrum Disorders for Special Education Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Murphy, LaShunda
2016-01-01
This study examined the effects of a 2-day professional development for special education teachers of students who have Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). The professional development included general knowledge of ASDs and teaching strategies that could be used in the classroom to assist children with ASDs. This study also ascertained teachers'…
Engaging Teachers as Learners: Modeling Professional Development for Adult Literacy Providers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hanna, Mary Barbara; Salzman, James A.; Reynolds, Sharon L.; Fergus, Katherine B.
2010-01-01
As professional developers for the Adult Basic Literacy Education (ABLE) system in Ohio, the authors have focused their efforts over the last several years on more actively engaging adult basic education teachers as learners in the professional development they offer. By creating activities that engage teachers in active learning with their adult…
Kepler Mission IYA Teacher Professional Development Workshops
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Devore, E. K.; Harman, P.; Gould, A. D.; Koch, D.
2009-12-01
NASA's Kepler Mission conducted six teacher professional development workshops on the search for Earth-size in the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. The Kepler Mission launched in March, 2009. As a part of International Year of Astronomy 2009, this series of one-day workshops were designed and presented for middle and high school teachers, and science center and planetarium educators prior to and after the launch. The professional development workshops were designed using the best practices and principals from the National Science Education Standards and similar documents. Sharing the outcome of our plans, strategies and formative evaluation results can be of use to other Education and Public Outreach practitioners who plan similar trainings. Each event was supported by a Kepler team scientist, two Education & Public Outreach staff and local hosts. The workshops combined a science content lecture and discussion, making models, kinesthetic activities, and interpretation of transit data. The emphasis was on inquiry-based instruction and supported science education standards in grades 7-12. Participants’ kit included an orrery, optical sensor and software to demonstrate transit detection. The workshop plan, teaching strategies, and lessons learned from evaluation will be discussed. Future events are planned. Kepler's Education and Public Outreach program is jointly conducted by the SETI Institute and Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley in close coordination with the Kepler Mission at NASA Ames Research Center. The IYA Kepler Teacher Professional Development workshops were supported by NASA Grants to the E. DeVore, SETI Institute NAG2-6066 Kepler Education and Public Outreach and NNX08BA74G, IYA Kepler Mission Pre-launch Workshops. Teachers participate in human orrery.
Teachers' Perceptions of Online Professional Development in Literacy
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Garbe, Amber Yudchitz
2012-01-01
This study sought to describe perceptions of teachers regarding the influence of online professional development (oPD) in literacy on their instruction and students' learning. The following features of effective professional development were analyzed: content-focus; collectivity; coherence; duration; and active learning. As well, the study…
Case-Based Long-Term Professional Development of Science Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dori, Yehudit J.; Herscovitz, Orit
2005-01-01
Reform efforts are often unsuccessful because they failed to understand that teachers play a key role in making educational reforms successful. This paper describes a long-term teacher professional development (PD) program aimed at educating and training teachers to teach interdisciplinary topics using case-based method in science. The research…
Designing Continuous Professional Development Programmes for Teachers: A Literature Review
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Luneta, K.
2012-01-01
Continuous professional development is essential for upgrading and updating teachers because the rate of social and educational change makes pre-service training an inadequate basis for long term professional competence. The design of these continuous professional development programmes must be informed by an effective needs analysis that…
Engaging Beginning Teachers as Experts in Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fleming, Jane
2014-01-01
Beginning teachers most often are viewed as needing significant support in all areas of teaching. As a result, professional development (PD) associated with induction programs typically is presented by experienced professionals. This article describes one induction program's attempt to draw on the strengths within its network, engaging new…
Sustaining Online Teacher Professional Development through Community Design
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Henderson, Michael
2007-01-01
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of community of practice in sustaining teachers' participation in a blended (face-to-face and online) professional development course. Design/methodology/approach: A longitudinal multiple-case study methodology was used in researching groups of five teachers in Australia and four teachers…
From professional development for science teachers to student learning in science
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Tinoca, Luis Fonseca
This study investigates the effects of professional development for science teachers on student learning. It is usually expected that professional development programs positively impact student learning, however this dimension is not commonly incorporated in the programs evaluation. It is simply assumed that students will be indirectly impacted through their participating teachers in the work with their students. Two main research questions are addressed: (1) Are professional development programs effective in enhancing student learning in science? (2) What are the characteristics of the most and least effective programs? To answer these questions a meta-analysis of 37 professional development programs reporting their impact on student learning was performed. Program characteristics have been defined according to the categories defined by Loucks-Horsley et al (1998), the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996), as well as new categories developed by us analyzing other variables such as the programs length. A significant impact of professional development for science teachers on student learning has been found in the form of an overall correlation effect size of r = 0.22 (p < 0.001). Moreover, a Fixed Effects Model was used to differentiate between the impacts of the different characteristics of professional development programs for science teachers. In particular, programs emphasizing work on curriculum development, replacement, or implementation, scientific inquiry, pedagogical content knowledge, lasting over 6 month and with a total duration of at least 100 hours have been identified as having a larger impact on student learning. To enhance the findings vignettes have been developed based on the attained effect sizes describing possible professional development programs. Recommendations for present and future professional development programs are made based on what works best in order to maximize their impact on student learning.
Inquiry Identity and Science Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bryce, Nadine; Wilmes, Sara E. D.; Bellino, Marissa
2016-01-01
An effective inquiry-oriented science teacher possesses more than the skills of teaching through investigation. They must address philosophies, and ways of interacting as a member of a group of educators who value and practice science through inquiry. Professional development opportunities can support inquiry identity development, but most often…
EFL Teachers' Self-Initiated Professional Development: Perceptions and Practices
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Simegn, Birhanu
2014-01-01
This study assessed perceptions and practices of secondary schools (Grade 9-12) EFL teachers' self-initiated professional development. A questionnaire of likert scale items and open-ended questions was used to gather data from thirty-two teachers. The teachers were asked to fill out the questionnaire at Bahir Dar University during their…
The Missing Link in Teacher Professional Development: Student Presence
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Margolis, Jason; Durbin, Rebecca; Doring, Anne
2017-01-01
With a continuing disconnect between structural changes to the work of teaching and the work of teachers engaged with students in classrooms, this paper addresses a growing need to attend to the way teacher professional development (TPD) is enacted in today's schools. Specifically, drawing from theories of teacher learning and numerous models of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Murugaiah, Puvaneswary; Ming, Thang Siew; Azman, Hazita; Nambiar, Radha
2013-01-01
Professional development programmes that include teacher collaboration can help teachers meet their professional needs and control their professional lives. They can voice their needs and expectations to peers who share similar experiences. Moreover, teachers can discover new teaching roles and opportunities, develop new skills and find motivation…
Use of a Numerical Strategy Framework in the Professional Development of Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Laxman, Kumar; Hughes, Peter
2015-01-01
Derived initially from a strategic analysis of children's methods of counting, the New Zealand Numeracy Projects used, as a starting point for the professional development of teachers, a strategy framework that traces children's development in number reasoning. A pilot study indicated the usefulness of professional development where teachers use…
Developing a Professional Learning Community among Preservice Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bond, Nathan
2013-01-01
This action research study examined the development of a professional learning community (PLC) among 20 preservice secondary teachers as they met regularly during a semester-long, field-based education course to share artifacts of learning from their professional portfolios. The PLC model described by Hord and Tobia (2012) served as a framework…
Principals' Views on Teachers' Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nabhani, Mona; Nicolas, Maureen O'Day; Bahous, Rima
2014-01-01
This article is an account of a study that aimed to elicit the perceptions of school principals and middle managers in Lebanon on teachers' professional development (PD) and to promote an understanding of PD that extends beyond workshops. The study was qualitative and exploratory and used online interviewing to collect data. Questions were emailed…
Including Teachers in the Design of Collaborative Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jensen, Christopher M.
2014-01-01
Improving instruction has been shown to be among the best means of improving student achievement, and professional development has, in turn, been shown to be integral to improving instruction. Moreover, to be effective, professional development programs should be based on adult learning principles and incorporate teacher input. The problem serving…
Facilitating Professional Development for Teachers of English Language Learners
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Molle, Daniella
2013-01-01
The study explores the process of facilitation in professional development for educators. The study relies on discourse analysis of interaction among K-12 teachers and administrators in a Midwestern U.S. state during a semester-long professional development program especially designed for educators working with English language learners (ELLs).…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chikasanda, Vanwyk Khobidi Mbubzi; Otrel-Cass, Kathrin; Williams, John; Jones, Alister
2013-01-01
This paper reports on a professional development that was designed and implemented in an attempt to broaden teachers' knowledge of the nature of technology and also enhance their technological pedagogical practices. The professional development was organised in four phases with each phase providing themes for reflection and teacher learning in…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McNeill, Jane; Butt, Graham; Armstrong, Andy
2016-01-01
This research project promoted a collaborative model of professional development between lead teachers from three schools, supported by a project coordinator and a researcher from a local university. Each lead teacher worked with their head teacher to design, lead, and evaluate an innovative, personalised, and school-based mathematics continuing…
A Situative Perspective on Developing Writing Pedagogy in a Teacher Professional Learning Community
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pella, Shannon
2011-01-01
The bulk of current research on teacher professional development is focused on teacher learning in the context of teacher professional learning communities (PLCs). In teacher PLCs, groups of teachers meet regularly to increase their own learning and the learning of their students. Teacher PLCs offer a learning model in which, "new ideas and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Diaconu, Dana Viorica; Radigan, Judy; Suskavcevic, Milijana; Nichol, Carolyn
2012-01-01
A teacher professional development program for in-service elementary school science teachers, the Rice Elementary Model Science Lab (REMSL), was developed for urban school districts serving predominately high-poverty, high-minority students. Teachers with diverse skills and science capacities came together in Professional Learning Communities, one…
Why Teachers Participate in Professional Development: Lessons from a Schoolwide Teacher Study Group
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bigsby, James B.; Firestone, William A.
2017-01-01
Because it is not clear that teachers will volunteer for good professional development if it is made available, this study used surveys--including social network analysis--and interviews to examine why teachers did and did not participate in one school's high-quality study group. While all teachers were motivated by intrinsic incentives, two…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chien, Chin-Wen
2013-01-01
Coaches can provide teachers with quality professional development experiences by mentoring, providing workshops, modeling, or encouraging professional growth (York-Barr & Duke, 2004). This study focuses on the instructional coach's role in the professional development of teachers of English language learners (ELLs). The study has the following…
A Research Agenda for Online Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dede, Chris; Ketelhut, Diane Jass; Whitehouse, Pamela; Breit, Lisa; McCloskey, Erin M.
2009-01-01
This article highlights key online teacher professional development (oTPD) areas in need of research based on a review of current oTPD research conducted in conjunction with an oTPD conference held at Harvard University in fall 2005. The literature review of this field documents much work that is anecdotal, describing professional development…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Thomson, Margareta Maria; Kaufmann, Elisha
2013-01-01
This study explored primarily the elementary teachers' motivations and expectations for engagement in a science professional development. Participants (N=20) were elementary teachers in two public schools from the United States and were enrolled in a yearlong science professional development; however, due to various factors teachers did not…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hadar, Linor L.; Brody, David L.
2013-01-01
This study explores the interaction between transformative processes in which a group of teacher educators became a professional development community (PDC) and the individual progress of these instructors through the professional development course on the topic of thinking education. Twelve teacher educators who participated in one of three…
Career Development and Professional Attrition of Novice ESL Teachers of Adults
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Valeo, Antonella; Faez. Farahnaz
2013-01-01
Research and development in language teacher education and, more recently, teacher accreditation has had enormous impact on the professional lives of ESL teachers in Canada. There has been less interest, however, in examining the career development and employment experiences of accredited ESL teachers as they transition from TESL programs to ESL…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Akura, Okong'o. Gabriel
This study examined both the changes that elementary school teachers experienced when they implemented a reform-based science curriculum and the impact of professional development on this transformation. The research involved a case study of three purposefully selected teachers implementing the Linking Food and the Environment (LIFE) program during the 2002--2003 school year. The LIFE program is a curriculum designed to enhance science literacy among learners from high poverty urban environments. While the study was grounded in the tradition of critical theory (Carspecken, 1996), the theoretical perspective of hermeneutic phenomenology (van Manen, 1990) guided data collection and analysis. Extensive observations of the teachers were made in order to capture and record the teacher change phenomenon. Data were recorded by means of field notes, audio and videotapes, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and video Stimulated Recall (SR) interviews. Emerging themes relating to teacher change, knowledge interests, constructivist pedagogy, and professional development illustrated how teachers grapple with various aspects of implementing a reform-based science curriculum. The teachers in this study were similar to those in earlier investigations, which found that sustained professional development programs involving mentoring and constant reflection enable elementary science teachers to change their instructional strategies from the technical-realist orientation towards the practical-hermeneutic and emancipatory-liberatory orientations. The study has implications for science curriculum developers and designers of professional development programs.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Patahuddin, Sitti Maesuri
2013-12-01
This paper is a reflection on a model for mathematics teacher professional development with respect to technology. The model was informed by three interrelated concepts: (1) a theory of teacher professional development from analysis of the field, (2) the zone theory of teacher professional learning, and (3) ethnography as a method. The model was applied in a study that focused on the uses of the Internet for primary mathematics teacher professional development, particularly to exploit the potential of the Internet for professional learning and to use it in professional work. This is illustrated through selected critical events over an eight-month ethnographic intervention in a primary mathematics classroom in Australia. Though the model is theoretically grounded, it opens up questions about the power, potential, and challenges as well as its feasibility, with respect to not only the teacher but also the ethnographer.
Perceived Effectiveness of Professional Development Programs of Teachers at Higher Education Level
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Malik, Sufiana Khatoon; Nasim, Uzma; Tabassum, Farkhanda
2015-01-01
The major purpose of the study was to assess the perceived effectiveness of professional development programs of teachers at higher educational level. The objectives of the study were: "to assess university level teachers'" opinion about effectiveness of professional development training with reference to quality teaching, to measure…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hussein, Hisham Barakat
2013-01-01
The study aims to determine the effectiveness of using social communications networks in mathematics teachers' professional development. The main research questions was: what is the effectiveness of using social communications networks in mathematics teachers' professional development. The sub questions were: (1) what are the standards of…
Teachers' Perceptions of Edcamp Professional Development: A Q Method Study
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Brown, Toby
2015-01-01
This study described the subjective opinions of teachers about their experiences at Edcamp, an unconference-style form of teacher professional development (PD). Traditional PD has been maligned for being overly expensive and ineffectual in affecting changes in teacher practice. In order to defend teachers' decisions to partake in Edcamp-style PD,…
The Black Teacher Project: How Racial Affinity Professional Development Sustains Black Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mosely, Micia
2018-01-01
The Black Teacher Project (BTP) is an organization that supports, develops and sustains Black teachers for schools in the United States. The organization is building a Black teaching force that reflects the diversity and excellence of Black people in the United States. In our pilot year, BTP offered racial affinity-based professional development…
Distance Learning for Teacher Professional Development in Statistics Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Meletiou-Mavrotheris, Maria; Mavrotheris, Efstathios; Paparistodemou, Efi
2011-01-01
We provide an overview of "EarlyStatistics," an online professional development course in statistics education targeting European elementary and middle school teachers. The course facilitates intercultural collaboration of teachers using contemporary technological and educational tools. An online information base offers access to all of…
Preparing Teachers for Inclusive Education in Botswana: The Role of Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mangope, Boitumelo; Mukhopadhyay, Sourav
2015-01-01
The continuing professional development of teachers is crucial for implementation of inclusive education and improving the quality of educational service delivery of all learners. The purpose of this preliminary study was to explore teachers' beliefs about professional development for inclusive education in two primary and two secondary schools in…
Teachers' Online Experience: Is There a Covert Curriculum in Online Professional Development?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Norton, Priscilla; Hathaway, Dawn
2015-01-01
Although the literature emphasizes the need for teachers to have online learning experiences in preparation for teaching online, teachers have few opportunities to experience online learning. One opportunity is online professional development. The authors hypothesized that online professional development might serve not only as a way to gain…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Walker, William S., III
2016-01-01
In this research, I investigated teachers' interpretations of the goals of professional development and factors that contributed to enacted instructional practices. A multiple-case study design was used to examine the interpretations of four high school teachers participating in a year-long professional development program with a standards-based…
Module-Based Professional Development for Teachers: A Cost-Effective Philippine Experiment
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
San Antonio, Diosdado M.; Morales, Nelson S.; Moral, Leo S.
2011-01-01
This article examines the impact of implementing module-based professional development for teachers (MBPDT) in the Philippines. A mixed-method study, experimental design with empirical surveys and an open-ended questionnaire revealed that the experimental group of teachers had greater professional content knowledge compared with the control group…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Paik, Sunhee; Zhang, Meilan; Lundeberg, Mary A.; Eberhardt, Jan; Shin, Tae Seob; Zhang, Tianyi
2011-08-01
Since A Nation at Risk was released in the 1980s, standards-based reform has been the most dominant trend in American educational policy, and the No Child Left Behind Act pushed the trend further by requiring states to develop rigorous curriculum standards. Though much has been said about these new standards, less has been said about whether or how well professional development helps teachers link their instruction to these standards. This study examined the impact of a professional development program for K-12 science teachers in helping teachers meet state curriculum standards. Seventy-five science teachers in Michigan participated in a 2-week summer workshop that used Problem-Based Learning for improving teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Researchers surveyed participating teachers about the change of teachers' preparedness for standards-based teaching, their expectations to meet state curriculum standards, and whether their expectations were met. In addition, the usefulness of workshop activities was examined. Data analysis showed that to align teaching with state curriculum standards, participating teachers expected to learn instructional strategies and enhance science content knowledge through professional development, and by and large their expectations were well met. Collaboration with colleagues and facilitators helped teachers achieve their goals in terms of teaching within state curriculum standards. These findings have important implications for designing professional development to help teachers align instruction with curriculum standards.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mukeredzi, Tabitha Grace
2016-01-01
Attempts to address global pressure to achieve Education for All have been hampered by two fundamental challenges in developing countries, namely an acute shortage of teachers and large rural populations in these countries. In addition, qualified, competent teachers shun working in rural settings. While recruitment of professionally unqualified…
Use of WebQuest Design for Inservice Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Iskeceli-Tunc, Sinem; Oner, Diler
2016-01-01
This study investigated whether a teacher professional development module built around designing WebQuests could improve teachers' technological and pedagogical skills. The technological skills examined included Web searching and Web evaluating skills. The pedagogical skills targeted were developing a working definition for higher-order thinking…
EAL Teacher Agency: Implications for Participation in Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gurney, Laura; Liyanage, Indika
2016-01-01
Teachers construct their practice, education and professional development within two domains of professionalism: sponsored and independent. The association between these two domains, however, is complex; it is overlapping, inseparable and sometimes uneasy. The complexity is further exacerbated by the codependent nature of association between the…
Inconvenient Truths about Teacher Learning: Towards Professional Development 3.0
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Korthagen, Fred
2017-01-01
Based on recent findings about teacher learning, a critical analysis of traditional and new approaches to professional development is presented. To a large degree, teacher learning takes place unconsciously and involves cognitive, emotional and motivational dimensions. Moreover, teacher learning takes place at various levels. Although these…
The Student Teacher Portfolio as Autobiography: Developing a Professional Identity.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Antonek, Janis L.; And Others
1997-01-01
Argues that student teacher portfolios are a viable, effective, appropriate tool for documenting teacher growth and development and for promoting reflective practice. Traces the unique paths of two pre-service foreign language teachers who constructed a professional identity from the historical and cultural conditions of their classroom…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hanson, Timothy E.
2017-01-01
The purpose of teacher professional development is to enhance teacher quality so that students may achieve at high levels. Many times, professional development is too general or not connected to teachers' needs or learning preferences. The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the perceptions of teachers, administrators, and…
Collaborative Teacher Learning: Findings from Two Professional Development Projects
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Erickson, G.; Minnes Brandes, G.; Mitchell, I.; Mitchell, J.
2005-01-01
This article discusses two projects that were aimed at enhancing the opportunities for professional development of the participants through collaboration between classroom teachers and teacher educators. The two projects, the Australian Project for Enhancing Effective Learning (PEEL) and the Canadian Learning Strategies Group (LSG), focused on the…
Teacher Perceptions about Value and Influence of Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Martin, Tami S.; González, Gloriana
2017-01-01
We used a situative perspective to examine teachers' perceptions of a professional development intervention that integrated lesson study, video clubs, and animation discussions. The analysis of interviews with the five geometry teachers who participated in the intervention during two consecutive years showed three characteristics of professional…
Elaborating the Purpose and Content of Professional Development Plan for Preschool Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
zareie, Mohammad Hossein; Nasr, Ahmad Reza; Mirshahjafari, Seyyed Ebrahim; Liaghatdar, Mohammad Javad
2016-01-01
Professional development of educators, especially in preschool years has been neglected in Iran. The purpose of this study was to investigate the viewpoints of experts and teachers about the purposes and content of the professional development plan for preschool teachers. This research is a descriptive-analytic study conducted through both…
Novice Music Teachers Learning to Improvise in an Improvisation Professional Development Workshop
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Filsinger, Mark H.
2013-01-01
With the intent of improving music improvisation pedagogy, the purpose of this research was to examine experiences of six novice music teachers and a professional development facilitator in an eight-week Improvisation Professional Development Workshop (IPDW). The research questions were: 1. How do teachers learn to improvise within the context of…
Evolution of a Teacher Professional Development Program that Promotes Teacher and Student Research
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Pompea, S. M.; Croft, S. K.; Garmany, C. D.; Walker, C. E.
2005-12-01
The Research Based Science Education (RBSE) and Teacher Leaders in Research Based Science (TLRBSE) programs at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory have been evolving for nearly ten years. Our current program is actually a team of programs aiding teachers in doing research with small telescopes, large research-grade telescopes, astronomical data archives, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Along the way, as these programs evolved, a number of basic questions were continuously discussed by the very talented program team. These questions included: 1) What is real research and why should we encourage it? 2) How can it be successfully brought to the classroom? 3) What is the relative importance of teacher content knowledge versus science process knowledge? 4) How frustrating should an authentic research experience be? 5) How do we measure the success of our professional development program? 6) How should be evaluate and publish student work? 7) How can teachers work together on a team to pursue research? 8) What is the model for interaction of teachers and researchers - equal partners versus the graduate student/apprentice model? 9) What is the ideal mix of skills for a professional development team at NOAO? 10) What role can distance learning play in professional preparation? 11) What tools are needed for data analysis? 12) How can we stay funded? Our evolving program has also been used as a test bed to examine new models of teacher's professional development that may aid our outreach efforts in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope program, the Thirty-Meter Telescope program, and the National Virtual Observatory program. We will describe a variety of lessons learned (and relearned) and try to describe best practices in promoting teacher and student research. The TLRBSE Program is funded by the National Science Foundation under ESI 0101982, funded through the AURA/NSF Cooperative Agreement AST-9613615. NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Finkelstein, Keely; Hemenway, Mary Kay; Sneden, Chris; Lacy, John; Richter, Matthew J.; EXES Teacher Associates
2018-01-01
The Astronomy Department and McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas at Austin has and continues to offer a suite of different astronomy based K-12 teacher professional development programs. One of our longest running, and most successful programs, is reaching its 20th anniversary, the EXES Teacher Associate Program, which was started in 1998. The EXES Teacher Associate program features sustained and continued professional development opportunities for K-12 science and math educators. It consists of 6 times per year day-long meetings, coupled with other professional development opportunities provided at various times. In total, there are approximately 30 active members of the group currently, but more than 90 teachers have participated in this group over its 20 year history. The program has had astronomy education as its focus throughout its history, but different partnerships and collaborations with other programs have supported the group and have allowed for a variety of professional development opportunities and themes for educators to engage in. We will give an overview of this program, present evaluation data and teacher feedback related to program success and student impact, and highlight a few specific program opportunities that are unique and have been shown to be most impactful for participants.
Professional Development for Secondary Science Teachers in a Contextual Setting.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nelson, C. Riley; Hanegan, Nikki L.
This paper discusses an intensive professional development program designed by a science education specialist in conjunction with university science research professors demonstrating quality science teaching practices for secondary teachers in a contextual setting. The intensive professional development model was designed using research based,…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Li, Yi
2016-01-01
This study analyzed data from a statewide professional development (PD) program to investigate whether gender difference towards technology usage was mitigated after participation in the program. Teachers responded to pre- and post-questionnaires regarding their perceptions and use of technology before and after participating in PD courses.…
Teacher-Led Professional Development: A Proposal for a Bottom-up Structure Approach
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Macias, Angela
2017-01-01
This article uses current research recommendations for teacher-led professional development as well as qualitative data from a set of grassroots conferences to propose a new model for bottom-up teacher-led professional development. This article argues that by providing a neutral space and recruiting expertise of local experts, a public sphere can…
From Professional Development to System Change: Teacher Leadership and Innovation
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Frost, David
2012-01-01
This article argues for a particular conceptualisation of teacher leadership; one that enables us to overcome the limitations of established approaches to continuing professional development as a strategy for school improvement by mobilising the massive untapped potential of teachers as leaders of innovation. In this article, teacher leadership is…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hendrick, M. Georgeann
The course content for middle school physical science in Virginia is defined by the Standards of Learning. These eleven categories include topics in scientific experimentation, the nature of matter, chemistry and physics. Content knowledge is essential if teachers are to provide effective teaching, which includes analogies, illustrations, examples, and most importantly, hands-on experimentation. One means of assessing teacher content knowledge is by determining their academic major and minor. Teachers lacking a major or minor in the classes they teach are defined as "out-of-field" by Ingersoll (1996). When he examined data for middle school physical science teachers, 74% were "out-of-field." This survey study had two major facets. First, Virginia teachers were asked to assess their content knowledge in all eleven categories. They were also asked to provide descriptive and demographic data about themselves (including their academic degrees) and their schools. Secondly, the teachers were asked for their professional development preferences as well as organizational logistics including location, time, other participants, and use of technology. The survey was mailed to each school containing an eighth grade within the Commonwealth. The survey response rate was 73%. The data was analyzed descriptively and analytically, using frequency, percentages, T-tests, and ANOVA. Three major findings emerged. (1) The three areas which teachers assessed as lowest content knowledge included PS.11 (Electricity and Magnetism), PS.9 (Light), and PS.8 (Sound). These exactly match the three topics most desired for professional development. (2) Based on Ingersoll's definition, 68% of Virginia's teachers are providing "out-of-field" instruction. In addition, teachers with fewer years of teaching experience or mixed assignments, and/or those teaching in smaller, more rural schools report lower content knowledge. (3) Teachers desire professional development in all eleven categories. They are
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Boriack, Anna Christine
The purpose of this study is to examine teachers' perceptions of professional development and changes in classroom practice. A proposed conceptual framework for effective professional development that results in changes in classroom practices was developed. Data from two programs that provided professional development to teachers in the areas of technology, mathematics, and science was used to inform the conceptual framework. These two programs were Target Technology in Texas (T3) and Mathematics, Science, and Technology Teacher Preparation Academies (MSTTPA). This dissertation used a multiple article format to explore each program separately, yet the proposed conceptual framework allowed for comparisons to be made between the two programs. The first study investigated teachers' perceptions of technology-related professional development after their districts had received a T3 grant. An online survey was administrated to all teachers to determine their perceptions of technology-related professional development along with technology self-efficacy. Classroom observations were conducted to determine if teachers were implementing technology. The results indicated that teachers did not perceive professional development as being effective and were not implementing technology in their classrooms. Teachers did have high technology self-efficacy and perceived adequate school support, which implies that effective professional development may be a large factor in whether or not teachers implement technology in their classrooms. The second study evaluated participants' perceptions of the effectiveness of mathematics and science professional development offered through a MSTTP academy. Current and former participants completed an online survey which measured their perceptions of academy activities and school environment. Participants also self-reported classroom implementation of technology. Interviews and open-ended survey questions were used to provide further insight into
Teachers' Attitudes toward Pedagogical Changes during Various Stages of Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Maskit, Ditza
2011-01-01
This study examines teachers' attitudes toward pedagogical changes regarding various teaching strategies concerning students, content, and the teacher's educational orientation. Teachers' attitudes toward such changes are examined at different stages of their professional development. The research question is: To what extent do teachers at…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Rostock, Roseanne
The challenge of attracting and retaining the next generation of teachers who are skilled and committed to meeting the growing demands of the profession is of increasing concern to researchers and policy makers, particularly since 45--50% of beginning teachers leave the profession within five years (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003). Reasons for such attrition include compensation, status and working conditions; however, there is growing evidence that a critical factor in new teacher retention hinges on teachers' ability to accomplish the difficult task of forming a workable professional identity in the midst of competing discourses about teaching (Alsup, 2006; Britzman, 2003). There is little research on professional identity development among those beginning teachers at highest risk for attrition (secondary math and science teachers, and those with strong academic backgrounds). This study explores the professional identity development of early-career math and science teachers who are part of the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation's (KSTF) teaching fellowship program, an external support network that aims to address many of the issues leading to high attrition among this particular population of teachers. Using narrative research methods, I examine three case studies of beginning teachers, exploring how they construct professional identity in relation to various discourse communities and negotiate tensions across multiple discourses. The cases identify both dominant discourses and counter-discourses that the teachers draw upon for important identity development resources. They also demonstrate that the way a teacher manages tensions across competing discourses is important to how well one can negotiate a workable professional identity. In particular, they emphasize the importance of engaging in borderland discourses (Gee, 1996) as a way of taking agency in one's own identity development as well as in transforming one's discourse communities. These cases shed light on how
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
de Oliveira Souza, Leandro; Lopes, Celi Espasandin; Pfannkuch, Maxine
2015-01-01
The recent introduction of statistics into the Brazilian curriculum has presented a multi-problematic situation for teacher professional development. Drawing on research in the areas of teacher development and statistical inquiry, we propose a Teacher Professional Development Cycle (TPDC) model. This paper focuses on two teachers who planned a…
Professional Development Workshops for Student Teachers: An Issue of Concern
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hsu, Amy; Malkin, Fran
2013-01-01
Professional development programs are critical in addressing the needs of teacher education students and graduates. In an effort to best meet the desired needs and wants of these new educators, professional development opportunities must target essential issues. This study examines topics including classroom management, exceptional children,…
Teacher Educators as Curriculum Developers: Exploration of a Professional Role
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bouckaert, Marina; Kools, Quinta
2018-01-01
Teacher educators arguably fulfil several roles in their professional context: they can be seen as role models or teachers of teachers, and have additionally been characterised as researchers, mentors, gatekeepers, brokers, and curriculum developers. To address a perceived gap in the literature on the latter role, a quantitative and qualitative…
Professional Development: Teachers Use of GIS to Enhance Student Learning
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McClurg, Patricia A.; Buss, Alan
2007-01-01
This article explains a professional development experience of fifth to twelfth grade teachers in using geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) technologies to enhance classroom teaching and learning environments. A key challenge faced by the developers was whether teachers would value the technology tools enough…
Organisational and Task Factors Influencing Teachers' Professional Development at Work
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Evers, Arnoud T.; Van der Heijden, Béatrice I. J. M.; Kreijns, Karel
2016-01-01
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate organisational (cultural and relational) and task factors which potentially enhance teachers' professional development at work (TPD at Work). The development of lifelong learning competencies and, consequently, the careers of teachers, has become a permanent issue on the agenda of schools…
Using Mentoring and Professional Development Approaches to Educate Urban Mathematics Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fraser-Abder, Pamela
2005-01-01
Due to the dearth of qualified professional teachers, policymakers and professional development programs need to focus on improving the quality of high school mathematics teaching in order to diffuse this crisis. In the middle of this crisis, the demand for new teachers is predicted to rise significantly in the next ten years. Based on the…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Gultom, S.; Simanjorang, M. M.; Muchtar, Z.; Mansyur, A.
2018-03-01
Based on Act number 12 in year 2012 the function of higher education is related to individual, social community, knowledge and technology development. Hence, higher education providers need to think and develop policies in order to improve their service and fulfil the higher education function. As part of the effort to fulfil its function Universitas Negeri Medan (Unimed), which historically was a pre-service teacher training institute, should has a special interest on improving teachers’ professionalism. The Act number 14 in year 2005 described requirements for professional teacher, including academic qualification and set of competencies possessed by the teacher. The Act also guaranties teachers’ right to have opportunities for improving their competencies and academic qualification through training and other professionalism development programme. The question is how this guarantee can be implemented. In order to answer this question a developmental study has been done which aimed on developing an integrated service centre system for professional teachers empowerment. As the name implies, this integrated service centre system is expected to be a real manifestation of Unimed’s support towards the improvement of professional teachers quality, which in the end will boils down to the improvement of national education services quality. The result of this study is an integrated service centre system for professional teachers empowerment that fulfils the professionalism principles described in the Act number 14 in year 2005, which has been developed by considering problems faced by and also supports needed by teachers post certification programme.
Teachers' Continuing Professional Development: Contested Concepts, Understandings and Models
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Fraser, Christine; Kennedy, Aileen; Reid, Lesley; Mckinney, Stephen
2007-01-01
Teachers' continuing professional development (CPD) is being given increasing importance in countries throughout the world. In Scotland, the changing professional and political context has resulted in unprecedented investment in CPD. However, analysis and evaluation of CPD policies, practice and impact is complex. In seeking to understand some of…
Applications of Vygotsky's Sociocultural Approach for Teachers' Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shabani, Karim
2016-01-01
This paper outlines an approach to teachers' professional development (PD) that originates in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory (SCT), arguing that what Vygotsky claimed about students' learning in the school setting is applicable to the teachers and that the developmental theories of Vygotsky resting on the notions of social origin of mental…
Supporting Novice Special Education Teachers through Quality Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tate, Mary E.
2013-01-01
The special education teaching environment is a teaching environment with unique duties that often challenge novice special education teachers. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain clarity of the work environment of special education teachers to uncover professional development practices that would work to support them. Research…
Psychometric Properties of Characteristics of Teacher Professional Development Instrument
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Soine, Karen M.
2011-01-01
This primary purpose of the study was to expand the work of Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, and Yoon (2001) by creating and psychometrically testing an instrument designed to measure teachers' perceptions of characteristics of professional development. Elementary teachers (n = 406) from five school districts in Washington State participating in a…
A Blended and Face-to-Face Comparison of Teacher Professional Development: What's the Impact?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Leake, Stephanie
2014-01-01
The availability and subsequent expansion in the use of online learning environments has provided a new avenue for teacher professional development: blended learning. While blended learning environments may provide attractive benefits to teachers and school administration, the impact of blended teacher professional development has been largely…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chval, Kathryn; Abell, Sandra; Pareja, Enrique; Musikul, Kusalin; Ritzka, Gerard
2008-01-01
High quality teachers are essential to improving the teaching and learning of mathematics and science, necessitating effective professional development (PD) and learning environments for teachers. However, many PD programs for science and mathematics teachers fall short because they fail to consider teacher background, experience, knowledge,…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Minuskin, Sondra
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of professional development on the knowledge and classroom practices of teachers of science in kindergarten through Grade 5. These teachers, trained to be generalists in the content areas, were strongly prepared in pedagogical practices, reading skills, basic language arts, and mathematics content areas. Science reform has led to more content-specific science standards that were difficult for these unprepared teachers to address without professional development. The researcher implemented a professional development program that used a collaborative model involving 8 teachers in Grade 4. The researcher conducted the professional development, assisted at times by personnel from the New Jersey State Department of Education. The new standards were learned, reinforced, and adopted. The data that were analyzed to determine the effects of the professional development came from a comparison of student achievement of the classes of 2 sets of teachers in Grade 4, one of which was the control set ( n = 8). The other was the experimental set (n = 8). The researcher administered pre- and postintervention content tests to both groups to measure teacher knowledge. In addition, the researcher reviewed lesson plans, conducted observations, and administered surveys to determine whether professional development in science impacted teacher practices in the classroom. This limited study suggested that teacher instruction did not significantly differ after professional development intervention. It also suggested that teacher content knowledge did not significantly increase due to the intervention. The researcher believes that local factors influenced the outcome and recommends a more systemic program that includes the involvement of all stakeholders.
Characteristics of Teachers Participating in Voluntary Music Integration Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wagner, Diana; Baron, Jessica
2008-01-01
This study examines characteristics of teachers participating in the national Guitars in the Classroom program in the 2007-2008 school year. 96 teacher participants from programs across the United States completed an online survey at the start of their professional development programs, usually 6-10 hours. 75 percent of teachers electing to…
Application of E-Portfolio System to Enhance Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Liao, Chin-Wen
2011-01-01
This study focuses on the meaning, applications and future development of e-teaching portfolios as an attempt to highlight the important role it plays in the "post-modern teaching practice mode". For the purpose of enhancing teacher professional development, application of the teaching portfolio system in the post-modern teacher qualification…
Intellectual Energy Flow: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Vogel, Amber; Muth, Christine
2005-01-01
This article features the workshop titled Exploring New Environments, developed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's DESTINY Traveling Science Learning Program. Exploring New Environments is a teacher professional development model based on the idea that teachers are also learners who thrive when given the means and encouragement…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Stevens, Tara; Aguirre-Munoz, Zenaida; Harris, Gary; Higgins, Raegan; Liu, Xun
2013-01-01
growth of teachers with more and less mathematics background as the teachers participated in professional development across two summers. Professional development activities were associated with increases in teachers' self-efficacy; however, without considering mathematics…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chiyaka, Edward T.; Kibirige, Joachim; Sithole, Alec; McCarthy, Peter; Mupinga, Davison M.
2017-01-01
School administrators continuously consider teacher professional development (PD) as one of the key strategies to improving teachers' pedagogical skills. Modern proposals for advancing education by improving student learning outcomes are centered on high quality professional development for teachers. However, teachers face a number of barriers…
Deconstructing Diversity: Professional Development for Elementary Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Aujla-Bhullar, Sonia
2011-01-01
Organizing and facilitating professional development (PD) for teachers around issues of ethnicity, race, language, culture, and religion is an important area of research within Canadian education. The diversity in schools across Canada is growing, and meeting the needs of these students becomes essential as we reflect on the aims of teacher…
International Handbook on the Continuing Professional Development of Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Day, Christopher; Sachs, Judyth
2005-01-01
This Handbook brings together theoretical and empirical research on purposes, policies and practices of teachers' continuing professional development (CPD) over the last twenty years. It provides a unique collection of regional writing from key professionals in different regions of the world, featuring: (1) A review of current CPD literature; (2)…
Fostering Structurally Transformative Teacher Agency through Science Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rivera Maulucci, Maria S.; Brotman, Jennie S.; Fain, Shoshana Sprague
2015-01-01
This study draws on data from a 10-month critical narrative inquiry of science teaching and learning in a third grade, dual language, integrated co-teaching classroom. The teachers were participants in a 14-week science professional development seminar that enrolled inservice and preservice teachers and focused on enhancing science teaching and…
Perspectives on Science Teacher Professional Development: A study of the ASSET Experience
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Reeves, Katrina; Miller, Scott; Foster, Andrea
2015-01-01
The Astronomy Summer School of East Texas (ASSET) is a two-year NASA-funded teacher professional development program created to help improve middle and high school science teachers' knowledge of and attitudes toward astronomy. During an intensive summer astronomy course experience, science teachers are taught astronomy concepts and principles through engaging pedagogical techniques. The workshop models hands-on/minds-on teaching strategies that strengthened teachers' own pedagogical content knowledge and ways of teaching astronomy to students.As part of our second year of ASSET, participants were observed and interviewed before, during and after the workshop experience to ascertain their perspectives on their own professional development and understanding of astronomy. Interview data, participant observations, surveys, and artifact data (journaling, one-minute papers, etc...) were analyzed and three broad themes emerged regarding the significance of the ASSET experience on teacher enhancement of content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and the significance of teacher professional development communities in teaching and learning science. We will discuss the major implications of our observations and outline what tools and techniques can be best implemented as part of professional development workshops such as ASSET.This project is supported by the NASA Science Mission Directorate Education and Public Outreach for Earth and Space Science (EPOESS), which is part of the Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES), Grant Number NNX12AH11G.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hoque, Kazi Enamul; Alam, Gazi Mahabubul; Abdullah, Abdul Ghani Kanesean
2011-01-01
This study seeks to describe the teachers' professional development activities in Bangladesh and explores the hypotheses about the relationship between teachers' traditional professional development activities and school improvement. Data from a representative sample of City secondary schools from Bangladesh (n = 127) were gathered through…
The Influence of Teacher Professional Development on Technology Integration at the Secondary Level
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Baldwin, Kristi Lynn
2011-01-01
Traditionally, professional development for technology integration has been insufficient or ineffective for supporting changes in classroom practice. This study examined the professional development experiences of secondary school teachers in South Dakota related to educational technology in order to determine core content area teachers' perceived…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Desimone, Laura M.; Porter, Andrew C.; Garet, Michael S.; Yoon, Kwang Suk; Birman, Beatrice F.
2002-01-01
Examined the effects of professional development on teachers' instruction using a purposeful sample of about 207 teachers across 5 states for 1996-1999. Professional development focused on specific instructional practices increased teachers' use of those practices in the classroom, and specific features, such as active learning opportunities,…
Critiquing Teacher Professional Development: Teacher Learning within the Field of Teachers' Work
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hardy, Ian
2010-01-01
This study is an empirical account of the professional development (PD) practices that constituted part of the work of a group of teachers and school-based administrators working together in a cluster of six schools in southeast Queensland, Australia, during a period of intense educational reform. The data comprise meeting transcripts and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Klieger, Aviva; Oster-Levinz, Anat
2015-01-01
Apprenticeship and professional development schools (PDSs) are two models for teacher education. The mentors that are the focus for this research completed their initial teacher training through one of these models and now mentor in PDSs. The paper reports on how the way in which they were trained as student teachers influenced their role…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sixel, Deborah Marie
2013-01-01
Existing research has shown an association between teachers' professional growth and student success. However, there is a lack of information on the mandated professional development linked to Wisconsin teacher licensure requirements. The purpose of this study was to examine the phenomenon of self-directed professional development and its impact…
Philosophy of Education Subscales: Predictors of EFL Teachers' Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ashraf, Hamid; Kafi, Zahra H.
2017-01-01
The present study aimed at investigating the relationship between Iranian EFL, English as a foreign language, male and female instructors' philosophy of education and their professional development to see whether there is any significant relation between the type of philosophy of education that teachers hold and their professional development. It…
Mediating Artifact in Teacher Professional Development
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Svendsen, Bodil
2015-07-01
This article focuses on teacher professional development (TPD) in natural science through the 5E model as mediating artifact. The study was conducted in an upper secondary school, grounded in a school-based intervention research project. My contribution to the field of research on TPD is founded on the hypothesis that teachers would be best facilitated to make their practice more inquiry based if they are provided with a mediating artifact. In this study the artifact is a model 5E, which is a conceptual way of thinking, to help teachers reflect on their practice. The aim is to encourage teachers to make changes themselves, by applying extended use of inquiry into their practice. This mediated artifact could thus be used across different national contexts. The main research question is; how can the 5E model as a mediating artifact enhance TPD? The article addresses the processes of the use of the 5E model and its influence on teachers' perception of the model. This is in order for teachers to conceptualize their goals related to inquiry and scientific thinking, and to solve the problems involved in achieving those goals in their own contexts. The study concludes that, after the intervention, the teachers' approaches and strategies demonstrate greater emphasis on learning.
Preservice Teachers' Microblogging: Professional Development via Twitter
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Carpenter, Jeffrey
2015-01-01
Twitter has demonstrated potential to facilitate learning at the university level, and K-12 educators' use of the microblogging service Twitter to facilitate professional development appears to be on the rise. Research on microblogging as a part of teacher education is, however, limited. This paper investigates the use of Twitter by preservice…
Quality Professional Development for Secondary Science Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mchazlett, Dwight Henry, Jr.
2015-01-01
This record of study (ROS) explores the perceptions of three high school biology teachers who implemented a form of the Japanese originated Lesson Study Professional Development (LS PD) model. Additionally, this ROS reports on the perceptions of the internal stakeholders with regard to the model's viability as a potential solution to a proposed…
Professional Development and Job-Embedded Collaboration: How Teachers Learn to Exercise Leadership
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hunzicker, Jana
2012-01-01
Research shows that professional development alone does not provide adequate leadership preparation for teachers, yet many develop into established teacher leaders. The purpose of this study was to explore how teachers learn to exercise informal leadership in the schools and districts where they work. Eight elementary teachers who lived and worked…
Lesson study: Professional development and its impact on science teacher self-efficacy
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Roberts, Megan Rae
This study focuses on an analysis of a professional development program known as lesson study via data obtained during an in-service professional development program for secondary school science teachers. The purpose of this study was to examine the self-efficacy beliefs of one group of science teachers related to their experiences in a lesson study. Another purpose for this research, aligned with the first, included a theoretical analysis of the lesson study construct to see if its design promoted positive self-efficacy beliefs of its participants. The research is framed within the context of social constructivism and self-efficacy and is qualitative in nature and utilized descriptive analysis as a means of research. Case studies were conducted detailing two of the six participants. Data sources included researcher field notes and transcriptions of all planning and debriefing sessions; individual interviews with each participant and the schools' principal; a participant questionnaire, and the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument. Themes that emerged included the positive perceptions of lesson study as a collaborative and teacher-centered experience; the understanding that lesson study can instill a sense of professionalism to those who participate in the process; the sense that discussing student learning using objective observations from classroom is a powerful way to assess learning and uncover personal teacher beliefs; and the insight that the time commitment that lesson study requires can inhibit teachers and schools from sustaining it as a form of on-going professional development. Although these themes are consistent with the research on lesson study in Japan and elsewhere in the United States, they also extend the research on self-efficacy and science teacher professional development. In the end, this study supported some of the conclusions of the self-efficacy research as it relates to professional development while also adding that interpersonal
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Coffino, Kara Lee
2012-01-01
As US public schools become increasingly diverse and teachers are expected to teach across cultural differences, teacher educators must consider how different professional development models shape teacher learning and practice. This study explores how a cohort of 55 P-12 teachers experienced and perceived long-term professional development focused…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Koh, Joyce Hwee Ling; Chai, Ching Sing; Lim, Wei Ying
2017-01-01
This article explicates the conception and evaluation of an information and communications technologies (ICT) professional development process for developing teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge for 21st century learning. The process emphasizes teachers' prolonged engagement with peers and researchers in design teams. Supported by…
Teachers' perceptions of Twitter for professional development.
Davis, Kerry
2015-01-01
The aim of this study was to determine how school teachers in the United States (US) perceived using Twitter as a means for professional development, engagement in communities of practice, and any benefits or drawbacks to participating in Twitter. This qualitative research utilized an embedded case design with three sources of data: (a) three consecutive months of tweet data from late 2011 archived on the host website, relating to #EdChat, a weekly online chat in Twitter about education issues; (b) interviews with 19 school teachers in the US who participated in the #EdChat online discussions in Twitter; and (c) Twitter bio and Tweet data of the 19 teachers interviewed. All data were entered into NVIVO (QSR International Pty. Ltd., Doncaster, Australia) for content thematic coding, and The Communities of Practice and Connectivist Conceptual Framework was used to inform this analysis. The researchers' interpretations were verified with participants, and data triangulated across all sources to strengthen confidence in the results. Five main themes and 17 subthemes emerged from the data across all sources. The main themes were teachers' perceptions of sharing knowledge and resources, Twitter promoting a sense of belonging, Twitter providing meaningful professional development, and teachers' views on the technical benefits and drawbacks of using Twitter. Regardless of years teaching, subject area, or age, educators perceived Twitter as providing an online forum to reflect upon practice, exchange knowledge and experience, and be in the presence of supportive colleagues. While participants experienced the pace and volume of information as being overwhelming at times, educators developed skills to managing this and perceived discussions to be learner-centered and supportive. Teachers valued the sense of community and learning that they reported were not otherwise available in their own physical workplace. Overall, participants perceived that the benefits of participation
Teachers' Professional Development: The Case of WhatsApp
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cansoy, Ramazan
2017-01-01
In this study, the kinds of shares made by science teachers in a WhatsApp group as an online community of practice to support professional development were examined. The netnographic research method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The messages shared by 12 science teachers, who worked at a private school between…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ho, Kai Fai; Tan, Preston
2013-01-01
The term "professional vision" points to the many nuanced ways professionals see. This paper traces the development of a professional vision of a researcher and a teacher looking at classroom practices. The researcher's interest was to capture and study notable aspects of the teacher's practice. Through a coding scheme, disparate…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ferreira, Maria Madalena
2015-01-01
Teacher professional development plays an important role in a teacher's growth and every year school districts spend a large portion of their budgets in professional development activities. However, as districts face increasing budget cuts, funds for professional development compete against other district priorities. As a result, partnerships…
Does Teacher Professional Development Improve Math and Science Outcomes and Is It Cost Effective?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Foster, John M.; Toma, Eugenia F.; Troske, SuZanne P.
2013-01-01
Scholars and policymakers see improving teacher quality as a key way to improve student learning. While quality may be improved in a variety of ways for pre-service teachers, professional development is one of the few avenues by which quality can be improved for those teachers already in the teaching profession. But professional development, like…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Wamba Aguado, Ana Maria
The aim of this thesis has been to elaborate criteria which characterise how teachers teach, as a curriculum component of their professional knowledge and to infer the obstacles which hinder their desired professional development, in such a way that they are considered in the design of proposals for teacher training in secondary education. In addition to this, a further objective was to elaborate and validate data analysis instruments. Case studies were carried out on three natural science secondary teachers with more than ten years' experience, enabling the characterisation of the teachers' science and science teaching conceptions as well as the description of classroom practice. Finally, with the help of these data together with the material used by the teachers, the inference of the teachers' personal didactical models and the obstacles to their professional development were made possible. Instruments for data collection used a questionnaire to facilitate the realisation of a semi-structured interview, video recordings of the classroom intervention of each teacher which correspond to a teaching unit taught over a two-week period and all the written material produced for the unit was collected. For the data analysis a taxonomy of classroom intervention patterns and a progression hypothesis towards desirable professional knowledge were elaborated, from the perspective of a research in the classroom model and according to a system of categories and subcategories which refer to their concepts about scientific knowledge, school knowledge, how to teach and evaluation. With the interview and the questionnaire a profile of exposed conceptions was obtained. The intervention profile was obtained using the classroom recordings; according to the patterns identified and their sequencing, both of which determine the characteristic structures and routines of these teachers. An outcome of these results was the validation of the previously mentioned taxonomy as an instrument of
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Jones, Kathleen M.
Inquiry science, including a focus on evidence-based discourse, is essential to spark interest in science education in the early grades and maintain that interest throughout children's schooling. The researcher was interested in two broad areas: inquiry science in the elementary classroom and the need/desire for professional development opportunities for elementary teachers related to science education, and specifically professional development focused on inquiry science. A cross sectional survey design was prepared and distributed in May 2005 and usable responses were received from 228 elementary teachers from the south-central area of Pennsylvania which was a representative sample of socio-economical and geographical factors. Areas of particular interest in the results section include: (1) The use of Science Kits which is popular, but may not have the desired impact since they are "adjusted" by teachers often removing the opportunity for evidence-based discourse by the students. This may be partly based on the lack of time dedicated to science instruction and, secondly, the teachers' lack of comfort with the science topics. Another issue arising from science kits is the amount of preparation time required to utilize them. (2) Teachers demonstrated understanding of the high qualities of professional development but, when it came to science content professional development, they were more inclined to opt for short-term opportunities as opposed to long-term learning opportunities. Since elementary teachers are generalists and most schools are not focusing on science, the lack of attention to a subject where they are least comfortable is understandable, but disappointing. (3) There is a great need for more training in evidence--based discourse so teachers can implement this needed skill and increase students' understanding of science content so they are more able to compete in the international science and math measurements. (4) Professional development, especially
Learning about Whole-Class Scaffolding from a Teacher Professional Development Study
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Visnovska, Jana; Cobb, Paul
2015-01-01
The importance of teachers developing adaptive instructional practices consistent with metaphor of whole-class scaffolding has been well documented. However, teachers' development of such practices is currently not well understood. We draw on a 5-year professional development (PD) design experiment in which a group of middle school mathematics…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Feng, Yan
2012-01-01
Limited evidence is available from the existing literature that relates teachers' career motivation to their attitudes towards special and inclusive education and their motivation for professional development in China. A mixed-method approach was used to investigate teachers' perspectives in this respect. A sample of teachers at seven mainstream…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kuhn, Jeff; Stevens, Vance
2017-01-01
As computer-based game use grows in classrooms, teachers need more opportunities for professional development aimed at helping them to appropriately incorporate games into their classrooms. Teachers need opportunities not only to learn about video games as software but also about video games as culture. This requires professional development that…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lotter, Christine; Rushton, Gregory T.; Singer, Jonathan
2013-01-01
The purpose of this study was to investigate high school teachers' beliefs about inquiry instruction and determine how their beliefs influenced their use of inquiry after a professional development program. Thirty-six high school science teachers participated in this study. The professional development program consisted of a 2-week summer…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yoo, Julia H.
2016-01-01
The current study examined the effect of an online professional development learning experience on teachers' self-efficacy through 148 (Male = 22; Female = 126) K-12 teachers and school educators. The Teachers' Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) developed by Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001) was administered twice with a five-week gap. Additionally,…
Teacher Professional Development as Knowledge Building: A Popperian Analysis
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chitpin, Stephanie; Evers, Colin W.
2005-01-01
This paper offers an analysis of how six experienced teachers, and two in particular, used portfolios to aid and chart steps in their own professional development. The key finding of the study was that the pattern of growth of professional knowledge conformed strikingly to the central features of the model proposed by the philosopher of science,…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Musikul, Kusalin
The purpose of this study was to examine an entire PD project as a case to understand the dynamic nature of science PD in a holistic manner. I used a pedagogical content knowledge model by Magnusson, Krajcik, and Borko (1999) as my theoretical framework in examining the professional developers' and teacher participants' knowledge, orientation, and practice for professional development and elementary science teaching. The case study is my research tradition; I used grounded theory for data analysis. The primary data sources were interview, card sort activity, and observation field notes collected during the PD and subsequently in teacher participants' classrooms. Secondary data sources were documents and artifacts that I collected from the professional developers and teachers. An analysis of the data led me to interpret the following findings: (a) the professional developers displayed multiple orientations. These orientations included activity-driven, didactic, discovery, and pedagogy-driven orientations. The orientations that were found among the professional developers deviated from the reformed Thai Science Education Standards; (b) the professional developers had limited PCK for PD, which were knowledge of teachers' learning, knowledge of PD strategies, knowledge of PD curriculum, and knowledge of assessment.; (c) the professional developers' knowledge and orientations influenced their decisions in selecting PD activities and teaching approaches; (d) their orientations and PCK as well as the time factor influenced the design and implementation of the professional development; (e) the elementary teachers displayed didactic, activity-driven, and academic rigor orientations. The orientations that the teachers displayed deviated from the reformed Thai Science Education Standards; and (f) the elementary teachers exhibited limited PCK. It is evident that the limitation of one type of knowledge resulted in an ineffective use of other components of PCK. This study
Preschool Teachers' Attitudes toward Internet Applications for Professional Development in Taiwan
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chen, Ru-Si
2016-01-01
This study focuses on preschool teachers' attitudes toward integrated Internet applications for professional development by a survey in Taiwan. The researcher developed a survey questionnaire consisting of five factors: usefulness, effectiveness, behavioral intention, Internet connection, and professional competence. This study analyzed the survey…
Pedagogical Reasoning and Action: Affordances of Practice-Based Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pella, Shannon
2015-01-01
A common theme has been consistently woven through the literature on teacher professional development: that practice-based designs and collaboration are two components of effective teacher learning models. In addition to collaboration and practice-based designs, inquiry cycles have been long recognized as catalysts for teacher professional…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Klieger, Aviva; Ben-Hur, Yehuda; Bar-Yossef, Nurit
2010-01-01
The study examines the professional development of junior-high-school teachers participating in the Israeli "Katom" (Computer for Every Class, Student and Teacher) Program, begun in 2004. A three-circle support and training model was developed for teachers' professional development. The first circle applies to all teachers in the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shabani, Karim; Khatib, Mohamad; Ebadi, Saman
2010-01-01
The current paper examines the instructional implications of Vygotsky's (1978) seminal notion of Zone of Proximal Development, originally developed to account for the learning potential of children, and investigates ZPD applications to the concept of teacher professional development. Specific attempt has been made to see how a number of assets at…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Eliahoo, Rebecca
2017-01-01
At a time of increasing public and government focus on the quality of teacher education, little is known about the professional development needs of those who teach teachers in further education (FE). Yet they are crucial players. Efforts are intensifying across a significant number of countries to promote the professional development of teacher…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Olson, Amy M.
2014-01-01
This dissertation adds to the teacher education literature by exploring the experiences education students have of mathematics anxiety and self-efficacy for teaching and learning mathematics. Further, the utility of a specific in-service teacher professional development project, focused on improving rational number instruction, in pre-service…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Buchmann, Margret
This paper aims to accomplish several purposes through conceptual analysis, story telling and interpretation, excursions into philosophy, and recent studies of teachers' professional development. First, the paper identifies limitations and confusions in current conceptions of teachers' professional thinking: equating teacher thinking with planning…
Caricature and Hyperbole in Preservice Teacher Professional Development for Diversity
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pollock, Mica; Bocala, Candice; Deckman, Sherry L.; Dickstein-Staub, Shari
2016-01-01
Professional development (PD) "for diversity" aims to prepare teachers to support students from varying backgrounds to succeed, often in under-resourced contexts. Although many teachers invite such inquiry as part of learning to teach, others resist "diversity" inquiry as extra to teaching, saying they cannot "do it…
Using Technology for Geography Teacher Education: Web-Based Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Frazier, Cheryl A.; Boehm, Richard G.
2012-01-01
This qualitative study explores the perceived value of a video-based online workshop in Geography, "Watershed Management," part of the Geography: Teaching with the Stars series, a 22 program professional development series for teachers of geography, social studies, and environmental science. Results indicated that teachers reported…
STEM Outreach Activities: An Approach to Teachers' Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Aslam, Farzana; Adefila, Arinola; Bagiya, Yamuna
2018-01-01
STEM outreach programmes in secondary schools are mediated by STEM teachers who are responsible for organising, implementing and evaluating the activities with a view to promoting STEM subjects. However, research investigating teachers' STEM roles and professional development through participation in outreach activities is limited. This paper…
Emerging Professional Roles for Teacher Educators.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Massanari, Karl; And Others
Emerging professional roles for teacher educators are examined by three educators from three different viewpoints, and a critique of the positions developed is undertaken by a spokesman for the teacher organization viewpoint of professional development. Karl Massanari examines the changes currently affecting the education of teachers--social,…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Robertson, Amy D.; Daane, Abigail R.
2017-12-01
Promoting positive attitudes about science among teachers has important implications for teachers' classroom practice and for their relationship to science as a discipline. In this paper, we report positive shifts in teachers' attitudes about science, as measured by the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science (CLASS) survey, over the course of their participation in a professional development course that emphasized the flexible use of energy representations to understand real world scenarios. Our work contributes to the larger effort to make the case that professional development matters for teacher learning and attitudes.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sutherland, Louise; Howard, Sarah; Markauskaite, Lina
2010-01-01
The importance of reflection in supporting the continued professional learning of preservice practitioners is well recognised. This study examines one aspect of the outcomes of preservice teachers' reflection: the development of their own self-image as a teacher. In making the transition from student to teacher, preservice teachers create their…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kao, Chia-Pin; Tsai, Chin-Chung; Shih, Meilun
2014-01-01
The major purpose of this study was to develop a survey to measure elementary school teachers' self-efficacy for web-based professional development. Based on interviews with eight elementary school teachers, three scales of web-based professional development self-efficacy (WPDSE) were formed, namely, general self-efficacy (measuring teachers'…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Cisterna Alburquerque, Dante Igor
This study describes and analyzes the experiences of two high-school chemistry teachers who participated in a team-based professional development program to learn about and enact formative assessment in their classrooms. The overall purpose of this study is to explain how participation in this professional development influenced both teachers' classroom enactment of formative assessment practices. This study focuses on 1) teachers' participation in the professional development program, 2) teachers' enactment of formative assessment, and 3) factors that enabled or hindered enactment of formative assessment. Drawing on cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and using evidence from teacher lessons, teacher interviews, professional development meetings as data sources, this single embedded case study analyzes how these two teachers who participated in the same learning team and have similar characteristics (i.e., teaching in the same school, teaching the same courses and population of students, and using the same materials) differentially used the professional development learning about formative assessment as mediating tools to improve their classroom instruction. The learning team experience contributed to both teachers' development of a better understanding of formative assessment---especially in recognizing that their current grading and assessment practices were not appropriate to promote student learning---and the co-creation of artifacts to gather evidence of students' ideas. Although both teachers demonstrated understanding about how formative assessment may serve to promote student learning and had a set of tools available to utilize for formative assessment use, they did not enact these tools in the same way. One teacher appropriated formative assessment as mediating tool to verify if the students were following her explanations, and to check if the students were able to provide the correct response. The other teacher used the mediating tool to promote
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
DeMonte, Jenny
2013-01-01
Professional development in education has gotten a bad reputation, and for good reason. Everyone on all sides of the education reform and improvement debate agrees that what most teachers receive as professional opportunities to learn are thin, sporadic, and of little use when it comes to improving teaching. This paper is the first of a periodic…
Early Career Teacher Professional Learning
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McCormack, Ann; Gore, Jennifer; Thomas, Kaye
2006-01-01
Becoming a teacher requires not only the development of a professional identity but the construction of professional knowledge and practice through continued professional learning. This study tracked a sample group of 16 early career teachers through their first year of teaching. The participants were encouraged to write about their experiences in…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
McNicholl, Jane
2013-01-01
Teacher quality largely determines student outcomes and many argue for high quality teacher training and professional development (PD). Much PD has been heavily critiqued and what constitutes effective provision for teachers remains contested. Disenfranchisement of teachers, through neglect of prior expertise and failure to acknowledge teachers'…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bills, Andrew M.; Giles, David; Rogers, Bev
2016-01-01
Dominant discourses on professional development for teachers internationally are increasingly geared to the priority of ensuring individual teachers are meeting prescribed standards-based performance benchmarks which we call "performativities" in this paper. While this intent is invariably played out in individualised performance…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Allen, Carrie D.; Penuel, William R.
2015-01-01
Recent research on teacher professional development (PD) underscores the importance of the coherence of PD with standards, curriculum, and assessment. Teachers' judgments of the coherence of PD with larger system goals influence their decisions about what ideas and resources they appropriate from PD. Little research, however, has examined how…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yow, Jan A.; Lotter, Christine
2016-01-01
This study investigates the role of an inquiry professional development institute in empowering middle school mathematics and science teachers to develop as teacher leaders. Teachers and coaches jointly attended content sessions and participated in practice teaching sessions with students. The coaches led reflection sessions following the practice…
Professional Development Needs of Idaho Technology Teachers: Teaching and Learning
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cannon, John G.; Kitchel, Allen; Duncan, Dennis W.; Arnett, Sally E.
2011-01-01
This study's purpose was to identify the teaching and learning professional development needs of [state] secondary technology teachers. Teachers' perceived level of importance and competence for 35 teaching and learning items were used to calculate mean weighted discrepancy scores (MWDS). Approximately 63% (n = 46) of [state] secondary technology…
Organisational Factors and Teachers' Professional Development in Dutch Secondary Schools
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Evers, Arnoud T.; van der Heijden, Beatrice I. J. M.; Kreijns, Karel; Gerrichhauzen, John T. G.
2011-01-01
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on a study that investigates the relationship between organisational factors, Teachers' Professional Development (TPD) and occupational expertise. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was administered among 152 Dutch teachers in secondary education. Findings: Analysis of the data revealed that of…
Effective Strategies for Developing Academic English: Professional Development and Teacher Practices
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bowers, Erica; Fitts, Shanan; Quirk, Mathew; Jung, Woo
2010-01-01
The development of academic English and advanced literacy is crucial for student success, especially for English language learners. In this study, researchers used a survey to investigate which instructional strategies 108 fourth- and fifth-grade teachers learned in professional development and found to be effective for providing English learners…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Akerson, Valarie L.; Pongsanon, Khemmawadee; Weiland, Ingrid S.; Nargund-Joshi, Vanashri
2014-01-01
This study explores the development of professional identity as a teacher of nature of science (NOS). Our research question was "How can a teacher develop a professional identity as an elementary teacher of NOS?" Through a researcher log, videotaped lessons, and collection of student work, we were able to track efforts in teaching NOS as…
A Longitudinal Study of Teachers' Professional Development through an International Exchange
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Purves, Ross; Jackson, Anita; Shaughnessy, Julie
2005-01-01
The Teachers' International Professional Development (TIPD) Programme was launched by the British Council in 2000 in response to a Government Green Paper on teacher training. This provides opportunities for teachers to participate in international study visits to gain first-hand experience of good practice. As part of this programme, eighteen…
Between Continuity and Change: Identities and Narratives within Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Curwood, Jen Scott
2014-01-01
This year-long ethnographic case study examined high school teachers' participation in technology-focused professional development. By pairing a dialogical perspective on teacher identity with a micro-level analysis of narratives, findings indicate that teachers use language and other semiotic resources to express their own identity as well as to…
A Venezuelan Experience: Professional Development for Teachers, Meaningful Activities for Students.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
LeLoup, Jean W.; Schmidt-Rinehart, Barbara C.
2003-01-01
Presents a model of professional development that is suited to the inservice Spanish teacher with limited time and financial resources. Details a summer program for Spanish teachers in Venezuela that combines an immersion experience with an advanced methodology course emphasizing a standards-based approach to curriculum development. (Author/VWL)
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Akbasli, Sait; Üredi, Lütfi; Ulum, Hakan
2016-01-01
One of the determinant factors contributing to the professional development of teachers is the school manager, since the school managers' administration manner determines the speed and capacity of development. With this study, the managerial approaches adopted at schools and their effects on teachers' professional development are aimed to be found…
The Results of an Era of Teacher Professional Development at McDonald Observatory
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Finkelstein, K. D.; Hemenway, M. K.; Preston, S.; Wetzel, M.; Meyer, J.; Rood, M.
2014-07-01
During the past decade, McDonald Observatory has been developing and refining its Teacher Professional Development Workshops, many of which have been supported by NASA. Metrics include attendance, perceived knowledge gain, and readiness to apply what was learned in the classroom. Evaluations show impact through the classroom application at five to six months after the workshops and through consistently high positive workshop results. This paper will show that a) our Teacher Professional Development Workshops are consistently well attended, b) the workshops improve teachers' confidence and their understanding of concepts, c) teachers enjoy unique interactions with astronomers and engineers, d) teachers appreciate hands-on and inquiry-based activities that are modeled and tied to state and national standards, and e) many teachers experience using the activities in their classrooms with good results.
Evidence-Based Professional Development of Science Teachers in Two Countries
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Harrison, Christine; Hofstein, Avi; Eylon, Bat-Sheva; Simon, Shirley
2008-01-01
The focus of this collaborative research project of King's College London, and the Weizmann Institute, Israel is on investigating the ways in which teachers can demonstrate accomplished teaching in a specific domain of science and on the teacher learning that is generated through continuing professional development (CPD) programmes that lead…
Achieving the Goals. Goal 4: Teacher Education and Professional Development.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Department of Education, Washington, DC.
Goal 4 of the National Education Goals envisions that teachers will have access to programs for the continued improvement of their professional skills. This book examines what federal agencies are doing to enhance teacher preparation, presents information on career-long development, and offers program descriptions and contact names. The first…
Use of Graphic Organizers in a Language Teachers' Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chien, Chin-Wen
2012-01-01
Starting from 2009 academic year, the instructional coaches in a school district in a northwest American city began to provide Workshop II (pseudonym) to elementary school English teachers. This study aims to discuss the use of graphic organizers in English teachers' professional development. Different types of graphic organizers such as…
21st Century Learning Skills Embedded in Climate Literacy Teacher Professional Development
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Myers, R. J.; Schwerin, T. G.; Blaney, L.
2011-12-01
Trilling and Fadel's "21st Century Learning Skills" defines a vision of how to infuse an expanded set of skills, competencies and flexibilities into the classroom. Among these skills are global awareness, health and environmental literacy. The authors contend that in order for our students to compete, they will need critical thinking and problem solving skills, communication and collaboration, and creativity and innovation. Students will also need to be digital savvy. This poster outlines a program of preparing teachers to implement inquiry-based modules that allow students to exercise hypothetical deductive reasoning to address climate literacy issues such as: the Dust Bowl, thermohaline circulation, droughts, the North Atlantic Oscillation, climate variability and energy challenges. This program is implemented through the Earth System Science Education Alliance. ESSEA supports the educational goal of "attracting and retaining students in science careers" and the associated goal of "attracting and retaining students in science through a progression of educational opportunities for students, teachers and faculty." ESSEA provides long-duration educator professional development that results in deeper content understanding and confidence in teaching global climate change and science disciplines. The target audience for this effort is pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers. The ESSEA program develops shared educational resources - including modules and courses - that are based on NASA and NOAA climate science and data. The program is disseminated through the ESSEA Web site: http://essea.courses.strategies.org. ESSEA increases teachers' access to high-quality materials, standards-based instructional methods and content knowledge. Started in 2000 and based on online courses for K-12 teachers, ESSEA includes the participation of faculty at 45 universities and science centers. Over 3,500 pre- and in-service K-12 teachers have completed ESSEA courses. In addition to 21st
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Osmond-Johnson, Pamela
2017-01-01
Drawing on data from a mixed methods study of the Saskatchewan Professional Development Unit's (SPDU) Facilitator Community, this paper highlights the potential of teacher-led professional learning in developing professional capital through engagement in teacher leadership. Analysis of survey, interview, and observational data revealed the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kafyulilo, Ayoub; Fisser, Petra; Voogt, Joke
2016-01-01
This study investigated the impact of teacher design teams as a professional development arrangement for developing technology integration knowledge and skills among in-service science teachers. The study was conducted at a secondary school in Tanzania, where 12 in-service science teachers participated in a workshop about technology integration in…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Molle, Daniella
2013-01-01
For more than a decade, the professional development literature has shown that most teachers are not adequately prepared to teach English learners (ELs)--that holds true for both specialist and mainstream teachers (see, for example, August & Hakuta, 1997; Beykont, 2002). Research that focuses on professional development for teachers of ELs,…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Liu, Katrina; Miller, Richard; Jahng, Kyung Eun
2016-01-01
Financial and political pressures on the compulsory education teacher corps in the United States, as well as US higher education, demands a new approach to teacher professional development that shifts the focus away from repeated short-term university-based teacher professional development programmes and toward the nurturing of self-organized and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shin, Jihae; Seog, Moonjoo
2018-01-01
Professional development for in-service teachers is necessary to meet the changing needs of students and society. This teacher collaboration study examined the experiences of mid-career elementary teachers in Korea in their music professional development. Research questions included: (1) What were the contents of discussion? (2) What was the level…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shanks, Joyce
2016-01-01
The paper reviews teacher candidates' use of action research and the Professional Learning Community (PLC) concept to support their work in their pre-student teaching field experience. In this research study, teacher candidates are involved in a professional development school relationship that uses action research and PLCs to support candidate…
The Effect of a Teacher Professional Development in Facilitating Students' Creativity
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hosseini, Afzal S.; Watt, Anthony P.
2010-01-01
The Iranian educational system would benefit from major refinement in order to better develop the creativity of children. The extension of teachers' understanding of creativity is one of the main factors in facilitating change. A theory and practice based professional development program was designed, therefore, to assist teachers to acquire…
MyTeachingPartner: A Professional Development Intervention for Teacher Self-Efficacy
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jamil, Faiza M.
2012-01-01
MyTeachingPartner (MTP) is an interactive, web-based professional development format created at the Center for Advanced Studies in Teaching and Learning (CASTL) at the University of Virginia (Hadden & Pianta, 2006). The MTP model is based on the understanding that effective teacher professional development requires opportunities for teachers…
Common Features of Professional Development Activities for Mathematics and Science Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Moyer-Packenham, Patricia S.; Bolyard, Johnna J.; Oh, Hana; Cerar, Nancy Irby
2011-01-01
This study examines professional development activities provided for mathematics and science teachers in the National Science Foundation's Math and Science Partnership Program by analyzing a cross-sectional sample of over 2000 professional development (PD) activities in the program. Data were gathered from secondary source documents and surveys to…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hauck, Nancy
2012-01-01
The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which sustained teacher professional development in science education affects the classroom instruction of elementary school teachers in third through sixth grade over a 3-year period. The teachers in the study were all elementary endorsed and prepared to be generalists in the content areas.…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kirsten, Nils; Wermke, Wieland
2017-01-01
The purpose of this article was to analyse how teachers' continuing professional development (CPD) contributes to the government of the teaching profession. This is done by examining the CPD initiatives organized by two Swedish national educational agencies since 1991 involving the school subjects of Swedish (standard language education) and…
Using Facet Clusters to Guide Teacher Professional Development
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Seeley, Lane; DeWater, L. S.; Vokos, S.; Kraus, P.
2006-12-01
The Department of Physics and the School of Education at Seattle Pacific University, together with FACET Innovations, LLC, are beginning the second year of a five-year NSF TPC project, Improving the Effectiveness of Teacher Diagnostic Skills and Tools. We are working in partnership with school districts in Washington State to help teachers make their classrooms into better diagnostic learning environments. In this talk, we describe initial efforts to construct content-rich professional development courses for teachers, which are infused with diagnostic assessment that target the fine structure of student ideas in specific topical areas. * Supported in part by NSF grant #ESI-0455796, The Boeing Corporation, and the SPU Science Initiative.
Exemplary Programs Supporting Teacher Professional Development in the U.S.A.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Passow, Michael J.
2015-04-01
By Law, there is no national curriculum in the U.S.A., so each State sets its own regulations for teacher certification and professional development. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, http://www.nextgenscience.org/next-generation-science-standards) provide guidelines for teacher training and curriculum development in Earth Science, Life Science, and the physical sciences (chemistry and biology). Presented here are examples of effective programs designed to support in-service Earth Science teachers, especially at the middle school and high school level (grades 6 - 12, ages 12 - 18). The Earth2Class Workshops for Teachers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University (E2C) provides monthly gatherings of research scientists and teachers to learn about cutting-edge investigations in a wide variety of fields, and develop lesson plans to share these discoveries. The E2C website, www.earth2class.org/site, also provides a wide variety of educational resources used by teachers and students to learn about the planet. The National Earth Science Teachers Association (www.nestanet.org) is the largest professional society focused on pre-college Earth Science education. Together with its partner, Windows to the Universe (www.windows2universe.org), NESTA offers workshops and other programs at national and regional teacher conferences, a quarterly journal designed for classroom use, monthly E-Newsletters, and one of the largest collection of web resources in education. For more than twenty years, the American Meteorological Society has trained teachers across the country through its online courses: DataStreme Weather, DataStreme Ocean, and DataStreme Earth's Climate System (www.ametsoc.org/amsedu). Informal science education institutions also provide strong in-person and web-based professional development programs. Among these are the American Museum of Natural History's "Seminars on Science" (http://www.amnh.org/learn/) and many programs for educators
Comparing Teacher and Administrator Perspectives on Multiple Dimensions of Teacher Professionalism
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tichenor, Mercedes; Tichenor, John
2009-01-01
In this paper, we compare teacher and administrator perspectives on multiple dimensions of teacher professionalism. An instrument with a total of 51 professional behaviors and characteristics that operationalize the multiple dimensions of professionalism was developed. Survey participants, including 216 teachers and 89 administrators, were asked…
Motivation, Professional Development, and the Experienced Music Teacher
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Angeline, Vincent R.
2014-01-01
Drawing from inquiry on human motivation can serve to inform seasoned educators in questing for a more individualized form of professional development. Experienced music teachers who have moved beyond the formative stages benefit from crafting self-defined experiences that satisfy needs-based states. Research in self-determination theory reveals…
Teachers' Professional Development from the Perspective of Teaching Reflection Levels
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Zhao, Mingren
2012-01-01
This paper is a case study based on Habermas's theory of knowledge and human interest. We analyzed the written reflections of four teachers employed at a school and found that the teachers who had experienced advanced professional development tended to engage in practical and critical reflection, whereas those who had experienced average…
Purposeful Action Research: Reconsidering Science and Technology Teacher Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
vanOostveen, Roland
2017-01-01
Initial plans for this project arose from a need to address issues of professional development of science and technology teachers that went beyond the norm available within school board settings. Two teams of 4 teachers responded to an invitation to participate in a collaborative action research project. Collaborative action research was chosen in…
Enhancing Teacher Beliefs through an Inquiry-Based Professional Development Program.
McKeown, Tammy R; Abrams, Lisa M; Slattum, Patricia W; Kirk, Suzanne V
2016-01-01
Inquiry-based instructional approaches are an effective means to actively engage students with science content and skills. This article examines the effects of an ongoing professional development program on middle and high school teachers' efficacy beliefs, confidence to teach research concepts and skills, and science content knowledge. Professional development activities included participation in a week long summer academy, designing and implementing inquiry-based lessons within the classroom, examining and reflecting upon practices, and documenting ways in which instruction was modified. Teacher beliefs were assessed at three time points, pre- post- and six months following the summer academy. Results indicate significant gains in reported teaching efficacy, confidence, and content knowledge from pre- to post-test. These gains were maintained at the six month follow-up. Findings across the three different time points suggest that participation in the professional development program strongly influenced participants' fundamental beliefs about their capacity to provide effective instruction in ways that are closely connected to the features of inquiry-based instruction.
Case-based Long-term Professional Development of Science Teachers
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Dori, Yehudit J.; Herscovitz, Orit
2005-10-01
Reform efforts are often unsuccessful because they failed to understand that teachers play a key role in making educational reforms successful. This paper describes a long-term teacher professional development (PD) program aimed at educating and training teachers to teach interdisciplinary topics using case-based method in science. The research objective was to identify, follow and document the processes that science teachers went through as they assimilated the interdisciplinary, case-based science teaching approach. The research accompanied the PD program throughout its 3-year period. About 50 teachers, who took part in the PD program, were exposed to an interdisciplinary case-based teaching method. The research instruments included teacher portfolios, which contained projects and reflection questionnaires, classroom observations, teacher interviews, and student feedback questionnaires. The portfolios contained the projects that the teachers had carried out during the PD program, which included case studies and accompanying student activities. We found that the teachers gradually moved from exposure to new teaching methods and subject matter, through active learning and preparing case-based team projects, to interdisciplinary, active classroom teaching using the case studies they developed.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yurtseven, Nihal; Altun, Sertel
2017-01-01
Concepts such as teachers' professional development and students' achievement act as the driving force for the development of each in a causal relationship in EFL teaching, as in many other disciplines. The purpose of this study is to investigate the change Understanding by Design (UbD) made on teachers' professional development and students'…
Job-Embedded Professional Development: Reducing Teacher Isolation by Enacting Social Change
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Frank, K.
2009-01-01
Teacher isolation and burn-out are problems which contribute to high rates of teacher attrition and require school districts to hire new teachers each year and start anew with professional development. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate whether peer coaching and mentoring programs had an effect on this problem by…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shin, Doohyun L.
2013-01-01
Professional internship experiences play a critical role in the development of pre-service teachers. This research investigates pre-service teachers' personal practical theories (PPTs) and autonomy and how they are developed during professional internship experiences. This study also explores relationships that exist for PPTs and autonomy and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Reimers, Jackson E.; Farmer, Cheryl L.; Klein-Gardner, Stacy S.
2015-01-01
The past 30 years have yielded a mature body of research regarding effective professional development for teachers of science and mathematics, leading to a robust selection of professional development programs for these teachers. The current emphasis on connections among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics underscores the need for…
The Use of Science Kits in the Professional Development of Rural Elementary School Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sherman, Ann; MacDonald, A. Leo
2008-01-01
This study reports on a science professional development initiative with elementary school teachers in Canada. Grades 4 and 5 teachers were involved in the implementation and modification of science kits, together with corresponding professional development activities. Each kit was aligned to specific outcomes in the curriculum and provided a…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Akerson, Valarie L.; Pongsanon, Khemmawadee; Weiland, Ingrid S.; Nargund-Joshi, Vanashri
2014-08-01
This study explores the development of professional identity as a teacher of nature of science (NOS). Our research question was 'How can a teacher develop a professional identity as an elementary teacher of NOS?' Through a researcher log, videotaped lessons, and collection of student work, we were able to track efforts in teaching NOS as part of regular classroom practice. A team of four researchers interpreted the data through the Beijaard et al. professional identity framework and found that it was not as simple and straightforward to teach NOS as we predicted. Development of professional identity as a teacher of NOS was influenced by contextual factors such as students, administration, and time, as well as personal struggles that were fraught with emotion. Development took place through an interpretation and reinterpretation of self through external factors and others' perceptions, as well as the influence of sub-identities.
Rural outreach in Maine: A research-driven professional development teacher community
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Wittmann, Michael
2016-03-01
In the Maine Physical Sciences Partnership (MainePSP), researchers at the University of Maine have joined together with the state's Department of Education, non-profits, and teachers in multiple school districts to create a dynamic and growing community dedicated to improving K12 education of the physical sciences. Through ongoing efforts to introduce and adapt instructional materials, guided by education research and research-guided professional development, we have built a community responsive to student and teacher needs. This work has fed back into the university setting, where teachers are playing a role in graduate courses taken by our Master of Science in Teaching students. In this talk, I will focus on the role of education research in the partnership, showing how we use research in professional development, the development of assessments, and the analysis of the resulting data. I will describe two projects, one to understand how teachers' content knowledge affects the development of items assessing knowledge of acceleration, the other to see how teachers use their content knowledge of systems and energy to make pedagogical choices based on students' incorrect ideas about conservation of energy. Sponsored in part by NSF Grants MSP-0962805, DRL-1222580, and DUE-1340033.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gaible, Edmond; Burns, Mary
2005-01-01
This handbook is intended to help decision makers in developing-country governments and donor agencies in their efforts to utilize information and communication technologies (ICT) to improve and expand teacher professional development (TPD) activities. To the extent possible in a brief work, the handbook combines a global perspective--including…
Teachers' Professional Development: What Are the Key Change Factors for Mathematics Teachers?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pehkonen, Erkki; Torner, Gunter
1999-01-01
Surveyed and interviewed 13 experienced German middle school mathematics teachers to examine key factors causing discontinuity in their professional development. Results included 49 statements about change that fell into four categories. Researchers extracted three change factors not reported in earlier literature: experiences and observations…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Pinner, Pascale Creek
Conderman and Sheldon Woods (2008) suggest that although science plays a central role in our world today, science instruction seems to be minimized particularly at the elementary grade levels. Research has investigated the construct of efficacy (Bandura, 1977, 2006a; Riggs & Enochs, 1990; Ramey-Gassert, Shroyer & Staver, 1996; Tschannen-Moran, Hoy & Hoy, 1998, 2001). Professional and conceptual development in teachers has also been explored (Gordon, 1990; Sheerer, 1997; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2007). The purpose of this research was to describe the changes in efficacy elementary teachers experience as they participated in science professional development. Data from a Math/Science Partnership (MSP) grant sample suggested significant changes in science self-efficacy and improved pedagogy. Mixed methods revealed connections resulting in a multi-faceted Progression of Efficacy Growth flowchart. The results suggest that utilizing the Teacher-to-Teacher (T2T) professional development model has created a pathway for more science teaching across the Hilo elementary schools.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Renyi, Judith
A national survey of more than 800 teachers found that these teachers' top reason for participating in professional development is to bolster their ability to help students learn; almost 3 in 4 said they engage in professional growth to improve student achievement; and a majority (55 percent) said they participate in professional development to…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Maor, Dorit
1999-01-01
Describes a professional development program that involved the use of a multimedia package called "Birds of Antarctica" to develop teachers' understanding of a constructivist epistemology in science education. Argues that teachers who engage themselves as learners in a professional development program have greater opportunities to…
Teachers' Opinions Regarding the Usage of Action Research in Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yigit, Celal; Bagceci, Birsen
2017-01-01
The aim of the study is to investigate the contribution of action research to teachers' professional development. In line with this goal, a group of teachers were asked their opinions. The working group of the study is comprised of six teachers working at a state primary and middle school. The study is an example of "Case Study," one of…
RISE: The Online Professional Development Choice for Secondary Teachers.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tabor, Kara; Meyers, Jane Slater
2002-01-01
Explains San Diego County Office of Education's "Reading in Secondary Education" (RISE), an online series of nine professional development modules for secondary teachers and administrators, intended for use in staff development groups or by individual educators. Notes that the program combines video, Web information, lesson plans, and Internet…
Policies and Practices of Professional Development in China: What Do Early Childhood Teachers Think?
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Guo, Karen Liang; Yong, Yan
2013-01-01
This paper focuses on early childhood teachers' professional development in China. It reports a study which aims to elicit twelve in-service early childhood teachers' perspectives of the values and issues of professional development policies and the learning opportunities they experienced. Two themes arising from the study are addressed, namely…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Alshehry, Amel
2018-01-01
Professional development has a major role in addressing the skill gaps of teachers. Recently, much effort has been focused on improving teaching practices in Saudi Arabia. Here we aim to determine Saudi teachers professional development needs in the higher educational system. We also focus on skill needs, training programs, factors affecting…
Professional Development for Early Reading Teachers. NCEE Evaluation Brief 2009-4055
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, 2009
2009-01-01
A recent national study of state and local No Child Left Behind activities indicated that 80 percent of elementary teachers reported participating in 24 hours or less of professional development on reading instruction during the 2003-2004 school year and summer. Reading and professional development experts are concerned that this is not intensive…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Meijer, Paulien C.; Oolbekkink, Helma W.; Meirink, Jacobiene A.; Lockhorst, Ditte
2013-01-01
This article describes an empirical exploration of three initiatives in which teachers in secondary education (learn to) research their own practice in collaboration with university-based research institutes, aiming at professional development and knowledge construction. We found evidence of professional development, mainly at the level of the…
Improving Teacher Feedback during Active Learning: Effects of a Professional Development Program
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Van den Bergh, Linda; Ros, Anje; Beijaard, Douwe
2014-01-01
This study focuses on improving teacher feedback during active learning. Changing teachers' behavior sustainably, however, is very difficult. Several conditions should be taken into account, and programs should build on teachers' cognitions and practices. Effects of a specifically designed professional development program on 16 elementary…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lovett, Maureen W.; Lacerenza, Lea; De Palma, Maria; Benson, Nancy J.; Steinbach, Karen A.; Frijters, Jan C.
2008-01-01
In this paper, we ask what constitutes effective professional development for teachers faced with struggling readers in high school. Metacognitive teacher training, instructional coaching, mentorship, and collaborative learning are considered. We describe a professional development model preparing high school teachers to teach PHAST PACES, a…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
McNamee, Dana Crosby
Experiential education opportunities are recommended in science classrooms but due to budget and time constraints (Cowart, 2010; Dallimore, et al., 2010; Johnson, 2007) schools often resort to simple science inquiry (Chinn, 2002). While many programs exist with the intention of providing teachers with experiential education opportunities, often these are short-term day trips that do not provide the same learning benefits that an extended program would (Gulamhussein, 2013). To help address these issues in their own classrooms, middle and high school teachers from New England voluntarily chose to participate in an experiential education professional development course. This study examined how the individuals' teaching had or had not changed as a result of their participation in this course. The question that guided this research was: * How do teachers benefit, and how do teachers perceive their students benefit, after their participation in an experiential education professional development course? . Research focused on teachers from middle and high schools across New England who completed a three-day program. Their participation in the course was entirely voluntary. The course goal was to provide teachers with the skills to be able to understand and apply experiential education pedagogy and principles in their classrooms. This interpretative phenomenological analysis found that all participating teachers had made changes to their curriculum and teaching methodologies as a result of their participation in the professional development course. While the experiential learning model (Kolb, 1984) played a significant role how the professional development was implemented during the professional development course for teachers, only portions of the experiential learning model were present when teachers implemented those lessons into their own classes. Regardless, teachers found that students had been impacted through the engagement they felt and the connections they made to
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cunningham, Thomas H.; Parnell, Gary L.
2007-01-01
Democratic professional development is of the teachers, by the teachers, for the teachers. It differs from managerial models, which often have preset agendas and provide what "experts" think teachers need. Managerial models tend to be leader-centered, making some teachers feel treated like "tall children" rather than…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rotermund, Susan; DeRoche, John; Ottem, Randolph
2017-01-01
This Statistics in Brief provides a snapshot of the state of teacher professional development activities among U.S. public school teachers using data collected through the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) Public School Teacher Questionnaire. This report relies on data provided by public school teachers about their professional…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Braga, Luciana; Jones, Emily; Bulger, Sean; Elliott, Eloise
2017-01-01
The purpose of this study was to examine teacher perceptions regarding their experiences in a research-informed continuous professional development (CPD) initiative and its influence on their professional readiness to implement innovative content in physical education (PE). Participants included four PE teachers who engaged in a series of hands-on…
The Sustainability of a Teacher Professional Development Programme for Beginning Urban Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gaikhorst, Lisa; Beishuizen, Jos J. J.; Zijlstra, Bonne J. H.; Volman, Monique L. L.
2017-01-01
This study investigated the long-term effects of a professional development intervention for beginning urban teachers and explored which characteristics and activities in school organisations contributed to the sustainability of these effects. A quasi-experimental study (n = 72) investigated whether the positive effects of the programme were…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Obery, Angela D.
2012-01-01
This qualitative study examined the influence of the 2011 Oregon Writing Project (OWP) Summer Institute (SI) on the professional development of six teachers in the following ways: 1. The development of case descriptions of teachers' personal and professional backgrounds relevant to their teaching of writing. 2. An examination of the effects of the…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Stolk, Machiel J.; de Jong, Onno; Bulte, Astrid M. W.; Pilot, Albert
2011-05-01
Involving teachers in early stages of context-based curriculum innovations requires a professional development programme that actively engages teachers in the design of new context-based units. This study considers the implementation of a teacher professional development framework aiming to investigate processes of professional development. The framework is based on Galperin's theory of the internalisation of actions and it is operationalised into a professional development programme to empower chemistry teachers for designing new context-based units. The programme consists of the teaching of an educative context-based unit, followed by the designing of an outline of a new context-based unit. Six experienced chemistry teachers participated in the instructional meetings and practical teaching in their respective classrooms. Data were obtained from meetings, classroom discussions, and observations. The findings indicated that teachers became only partially empowered for designing a new context-based chemistry unit. Moreover, the process of professional development leading to teachers' empowerment was not carried out as intended. It is concluded that the elaboration of the framework needs improvement. The implications for a new programme are discussed.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hobbs, Shandar Nicole Armstrong
2017-01-01
The practice of using teacher leaders to support and develop teachers from within the educational organization is gaining support from research. The Trainer of Trainers (TOT) model of professional development is one practice used to develop educators. This study focused on the perceptions of teacher leaders within the TOT model. Teachers'…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cho, Moon-Heum; Rathbun, Gail
2013-01-01
Teacher Professional Development (TPD) is critical for educational improvement in higher education. However, one of the main concerns in TPD is that the traditional workshop format constrains active participation and the consequent creation of usable knowledge for teaching. In response to this challenge, we developed a series of teacher-centred…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kuykendall, Salvatrice Domenica
2017-01-01
"Professional Development Tools to Enhance the Abilities of Veteran Teachers in Pre-K Through Eighth Grades" examined the variety of professional development tools available to veteran educators. The quasi-experimental study allowed veteran teachers to participate in a pretest survey consisting of questions about teachers' desire for…
Elementary Teachers' Simulation Adoption and Inquiry-Based Use Following Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gonczi, Amanda; Maeng, Jennifer; Bell, Randy
2017-01-01
The purpose of this study was to characterize and compare 64 elementary science teachers' computer simulation use prior to and following professional development (PD) aligned with Innovation Adoption Theory. The PD highlighted computer simulation affordances that elementary teachers might find particularly useful. Qualitative and quantitative…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dalal, Medha; Archambault, Leanna; Shelton, Catharyn
2017-01-01
This mixed-methods study explored the impacts of a semester-long technology professional development for secondary school international teachers from developing nations around the world. We used (a) a survey approach to examine international teachers' perceived technology integration abilities using the technological pedagogical content knowledge…
Narrative Construction of Professional Teacher Identity of Teachers with Dyslexia
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Burns, Eila; Bell, Sheena
2011-01-01
This paper considers the development of teachers' professional identity in the context of educators that have diverse backgrounds. We elucidate how teachers with dyslexia working in tertiary education use narrative resources to construct and negotiate their professional teacher identities. The analysis of narrative interviews, interpreted within…
Teachers' Practice a Decade After an Extensive Professional Development Program in Science Education
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Furman Shaharabani, Yael; Tal, Tali
2017-10-01
Science teachers are expected to teach in innovative ways that are different from their long experience as students. Professional development programs are planned to help teachers' development, yet, there is little knowledge of the long-term effects of professional development programs (PDPs), and especially on actual practice. The purpose of this study is to gain a long-term perspective of the ways in which the process and outcomes of a reform-oriented, extended PDP are expressed in science teachers' practice. Data sources included interviews and documents. The study presents four case studies of the practices of junior high school science teachers (grades 7-9) in Israel, with respect to a past PDP in which they took part a decade ago. The cases are presented in pairs of a leader and a follower. Each case details the teacher's work context, sustained implementation, coherence of tools and approaches, and adaptations. All four teachers shared the view that scientific skills are important to their students as learners in a changing world. All four teachers adopted one or two major approaches, which were the PDP's main focus. In addition, the two leaders adopted two more approaches. The teachers were still using many strategies associated with the major foci of the PDP. The level of enactment and modifications of the strategies varied. Usability of innovations is discussed in relation to the teachers' context. We suggest that science teachers' professional development include the ability to adapt the innovation to their teaching context in order to sustain the changes for a long period of time.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Walker, Andrew; Recker, Mimi; Ye, Lei; Robertshaw, M. Brooke; Sellers, Linda; Leary, Heather
2012-01-01
This article presents a quasi-experimental study comparing the impact of two technology-related teacher professional development (TTPD) designs, aimed at helping junior high school science and mathematics teachers design online activities using the rapidly growing set of online learning resources available on the Internet. The first TTPD design…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
de Vries, Siebrich; van de Grift, Wim J. C. M.; Jansen, Ellen P. W. A.
2014-01-01
Teachers' continuing professional development (CPD) can improve teacher quality and teaching practice, yet teachers differ greatly in the extent to which they engage in CPD. In extensive research into which factors affect teachers' participation in CPD, the effects of teachers' beliefs have received limited attention, despite their strong…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cardina, Catherine E.; DeNysschen, Carol
2018-01-01
Purpose: This study described professional development (PD) among public school physical education (PE) teachers and compared PE teachers to teachers of other subjects. Method: Data were collected from a nationally representative sample of public school teachers in the United States. Descriptive statistics were used to describe teachers' support…
Understanding Teacher Professional Learning through Cyber Research
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bates, Meg S.; Phalen, Lena; Moran, Cheryl
2018-01-01
Online professional learning websites provide a unique window into how teachers make self-directed choices about their own professional development. This study extends previous research on how teachers use online resource repositories to examine how teachers make choices about resource use on a professional learning website. The website, the…
Teacher Professionalism in Technical and Vocational Education
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Tampang, B. L. L.; Wonggo, D.
2018-02-01
The advancement of a nation is largely determined by the advancement of education, and the field of education is on the teachers’ shoulders. Therefore, professionalism of teachers should be improved in performing their duties as facilitators, initiators, and motivators in achieving the competence of graduates. Teachers should be able to facilitate the learning process and pay attention to the development of learners in its various dimensions, leading to the ownership and development of intelligence, learning skills, attitudes, work skills, and social independence. Vocational education carried by Vocational High School, should not only provide theory, but also be coupled with the application or application of theory. It is time for us to rise up to give birth to professional experts in their fields, in accordance with the needs of the workforce. A professional teacher is required to have a work ethic and a high commitment to his profession, and always through continuous development through professional organizations, the internet, books, seminars, and the like. With the professionalism of teachers, then the future teacher does not appear again only as a teacher (teacher), such a prominent function during this, but switch as coach, counselor, and learning manager. Each Educational Institution of Education Personnel graduate and other college graduates who wish to become teachers are required to have at least the competence of the standard. Thus, teacher professionalism is a life-long and never-ending process. Developing and developing vocational education is an important and absolute thing to do, considering that approximately 80% of the workforce in the field is lower middle-level workforce.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dedousis-Wallace, Anna; Shute, Rosalyn; Varlow, Megan; Murrihy, Rachael; Kidman, Tony
2014-01-01
This study with 326 girls-school teachers developed and tested a model of predictors of the likelihood that teachers will intervene in indirect bullying, and evaluated a professional development presentation. Teachers responded to bullying vignettes before and after a presentation on indirect bullying (Experimentals) or adolescent mental health…
Developing Teachers: Improving Professional Development for Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Coe, Robert; Aloisi, Cesare; Higgins, Steve; Major, Lee Elliot
2015-01-01
This document is a summary of the report "What Makes Great Teaching". It argues that improved teacher development will positively impact on pupil attainment, particular those from disadvantaged backgrounds. "Developing Teachers" presents five policy recommendations which have been signed by 17 of Britain's leading headteachers…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Maerten-Rivera, Jaime Lynn; Huggins-Manley, Anne Corinne; Adamson, Karen; Lee, Okhee; Llosa, Lorena
2015-01-01
Using data collected from two multiyear teacher professional development projects employing randomized control trials, this study describes the development and validation of a paper-based test of elementary teachers' science content knowledge (SCK). Evidence of construct validity is presented, including evidence on internal structural…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bohny, Brenna D.
2018-01-01
Laws such as the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" (NCLB) and the "Every Student Succeeds Act" have shaped the landscape of education in many ways, including how professional development is structured. As a result, professional development has become increasingly limited to "training" teachers to carry out top-down…
Strategic Framework for Teacher Education and Professional Development: Pakistan
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
US Agency for International Development, 2006
2006-01-01
It is common to find well-crafted and coherent policy designs failing to attain desired results in developing counties. Pakistan is no exception. Despite having taken a significant number of initiatives in a quest to further its Teacher Professional Development (TPD) objectives, progress remains less than satisfactory. While a number of studies…
Supporting Student Teachers in Developing and Applying Professional Knowledge with Videoed Events
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ingram, Jenni
2014-01-01
Student teachers often struggle with handling events in the complex environment that is a classroom. This article reports on a study that investigates the potential of using video-based materials to support mathematics student teachers in developing and applying professional knowledge. Student teachers viewed videos of classroom events with…
Teacher Professional Development for Technology Integration in a Primary School Learning Community
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Liu, Shih-Hsiung
2013-01-01
Teacher professional development (TPD) can benefit teachers in classrooms. This study contributes to an understanding of TPD processes where there is sufficient technology integration through teacher participation in a school-based community. It assesses the effectiveness of TPD and its potential problems. Qualitative research methods are used to…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Blanchard, Margaret R.; LePrevost, Catherine E.; Tolin, A. Dell; Gutierrez, Kristie S.
2016-01-01
This 3-year, mixed-methods study investigated the effects of teacher technology-enhanced professional development (TPD) on 20 teachers' beliefs and practices. Teachers in two middle schools located in neighboring rural, high-poverty districts in the southeastern United States participated in reform-based lessons and learned how to integrate…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gamrat, Christopher; Zimmerman, Heather Toomey; Dudek, Jaclyn; Peck, Kyle
2014-01-01
To provide customized workplace learning opportunities, a digital badge system was designed by a university, governmental agency and national professional association to support teachers' implementation of professional development (PD). Teacher Learning Journeys (TLJ) is an approach that allows for teachers to customize their PD experience to…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Schuster, D. A.
2005-12-01
The role of university faculty in promoting meaningful educational change through inservice teacher professional development has long been theorized, but seldom modeled. Cordial relations and clear mutual goals shared between discipline specialists, such as university scientists and the K - 12 staff development communities, have not existed, and dysfunctional relationships between K-12 schools and the university over the past century have inhibited the solidification of these meaningful professional development partnerships. Our research suggest that inservice teachers tend to learn more about scientific processes in settings where they have the opportunity to interact and engage in an environment where opportunities for learning are promoted by participation and work with professionals in the sciences: University scientists that fostered collaborative flexible environments and treated teachers as professionals appear to have had greater impacts on teachers' learning about the creative, imaginative, social, and cultural aspect of science than the university scientists who treated teachers as technicians. Our work challenges many of the seminal studies and in-depth literature reviews of the last 15 years that assert that an explicit/reflective approach is most effective in promoting adequate conceptions of science among both prospective and practicing teachers. It should be noted, however, that all of these previous studies were conducted in the context of preservice elementary and secondary science methods courses and the process of generalizing these findings to practicing teachers appears to have occurred only in literature reviews and is not clearly substantiated in published research reports. Our study recommends that science teacher professional development should involve initiating inservice teachers into the ideas and practices of the scientific community. Teaching is a learning profession and professional development contexts need to assign teachers a
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Vogler, Anna-Marietha; Prediger, Susanne
2017-01-01
Video is often used in professional development courses to sensitize mathematics teachers to students' thinking and issues of classroom interaction. This article presents an approach that incorporates students' perspectives on mathematics classroom interactions into video-based professional development in order to enhance teachers' reflection on…
Teacher Professionalism: Analysis of Professionalism Phases
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Wardoyo, Cipto; Herdiani, Aulia; Sulikah
2017-01-01
Teacher professionalism has become a distinctive concern in educational discussions. Based on Teacher and Lecturer Act No.14 2005 carried out by Indonesian Government, teacher professionalism, considered as an assessment aspect of teacher quality, could be drawn by four competences, pedagogical competence, personal, competence, social competence,…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Neil-Burke, Merah Bell
The aim of this qualitative study was to determine how professional development might be designed to meet the needs of teachers delivering interdisciplinary STEM instruction in an urban middle school. This study was framed and guided by three bodies of literature: literature in support of the theory of change, adult learning theory, and effective STEM professional development. The study, designed to be collaborative in nature, employed an action research variation of participatory classroom action research, (CAR) to find out how STEM professional development could be designed to meet the needs of teachers delivering interdisciplinary STEM instruction. A sample of five middle school teachers from grades six through eight was interviewed using semi-structured, in-depth interview technique to identify their perceived needs. Observational techniques were utilized to determine how STEM teachers' instructional practices change as a result of exposure to STEM professional development for interdisciplinary instruction. Data from these interviews were used to design the professional development. Planning and implementation of the professional development were accomplished using the CAR model with data being collected in all phases of the CAR cycle for teaching interdisciplinary STEM. The findings suggest that interdisciplinary STEM professional development that is collaborative, along with a curriculum that supports the process of discipline integration, is an effective approach to meeting teachers' needs for the teaching of interdisciplinary STEM instruction. Lastly, the findings imply that certain barriers such as limited time to collaborate, plan, reflect, and practice could impede teachers' ability to use an interdisciplinary approach to classroom instructional practices. However, these barriers may become diminished when teachers, support each other through communication and collaboration. Thus, the essential elements included in the design and implementations of this
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Saliga, Linda Marie; Daviso, Al; Stuart, Denise; Pachnowski, Lynne
2015-01-01
In this project, a university team of teacher education and mathematics professors conducted eight professional development sessions for General Educational Development (GED) teachers in the area of mathematics teaching. Topics included concretely modeling mathematics concepts in algebra, number sense, geometry, and differentiating instruction in…
Using Facebook as an E-Portfolio in Enhancing Pre-Service Teachers' Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kabilan, Muhammad Kamarul
2016-01-01
This study aims to determine if "Facebook," when used as an online teacher portfolio (OTP), could contribute meaningfully to pre-service teachers' professional development (PD) and in what ways the OTP can be meaningful. Pre-service teachers (n = 91) were asked to develop OTP using "Facebook" and engage in learning and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sadovets, Olesia
2017-01-01
Research conducted by the British Council concerning modern continuous professional development of teachers has been analyzed. The issue concerning foreign language teachers' professional development has been considered. Productive approach to this process that gives a teacher the opportunities to define aspects of their professional activities…
Emerging Considerations for Professional Development Institutes for Science Teachers
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Freeman, John G.; Marx, Ronald W.; Cimellaro, Luigia
2004-04-01
This paper describes two professional development institutes in project-based science. We collected data from these institutes in the form of structured questionnaires, individual written reflections by the teachers, and focus-group interviews. An analysis of the data revealed three factors that had been underrepresented in previous research: comfort, technology, and balance. In terms of comfort, the teachers expressed a need for both physical and psychological comfort for them to learn. The technological emphasis in our institutes caused teachers to stress in their comments our developing software. We found that, depending on teachers'' previous knowledge, technology could be a barrier or a support to the success of institutes. Finally, we found a necessity to balance elements within the institute and a need to balance cognitively demanding time on task with less demanding opportunities for informal interaction.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
du Plessis, Andre; Webb, Paul
2012-01-01
This qualitative interpretive exploratory case study investigated a sample of South African teachers' perceptions of the requirements for successful implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional Teacher Development (PTD) within disadvantaged South African township schools in the Port Elizabeth district in South…
Teachers' Continuing Professional Development: Framing a Model of Outcomes
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Harland, John; Kinder, Kay
2014-01-01
In order to contribute towards the construction of an empirically-grounded theory of effective continuing professional development (CPD), this paper seeks to develop a model of the effects of teachers' CPD or in-service education and training (INSET). It builds on an earlier typology of INSET outcomes and compares it to two previous classification…
Professional Development of Teacher Educators: A Cross Border Story
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Laws, Kevin; Harbon, Lesley; Nguyen, Nam; Trinh, Lap
2009-01-01
This paper presents the results of a collaborative project between the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney, Australia, and the School of Education at Can Tho University, Vietnam. The project aimed to develop a model for the professional development of teacher educators in the context of educational innovations in…
Impacts of Professional Development in Classroom Assessment on Teacher and Student Outcomes
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Randel, Bruce; Apthorp, Helen; Beesley, Andrea D.; Clark, Tedra F.; Wang, Xin
2016-01-01
The authors describe an impact study of Classroom Assessment for Student Learning (CASL), a widely used professional development program in classroom and formative assessment. Researchers randomly assigned 67 elementary schools to receive CASL materials or continue with regularly scheduled professional development. Teachers in CASL schools formed…
Reflective Dialog Journals: A Tool for Developing Professional Competence in Novice Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gut, Dianne M.; Wan, Guofang; Beam, Pamela C.; Burgess, Lawrence
2016-01-01
This study focuses on the use of a mentoring protocol, the reflective dialogue journal, to develop professional competencies for pre-service teachers within a school-university partnership. To examine the effectiveness of the reflective dialogue journal protocol and the processes employed by mentor teachers to assist pre-service teachers with…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Hodges, Michael; Kulinna, Pamela Hodges; Lee, Chong; Kwon, Ja Youn
2017-01-01
Students of all ages have documented a deficiency in health-related fitness knowledge (HRFK). However, improving students HRFK may require a change in teacher practices and professional development (PD). Purpose: This study, framed by Guskey's Model of Teacher Change (GMTC; Guskey, 2002), sought to assist teachers' HRFK instruction as part of…
Teaching Practice and the Personal and Socio-Professional Development of Prospective Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Schoeman, S.; Mabunda, P. L.
2012-01-01
This study investigates the interplay between individual and contextual variables during teaching practice and its impact on the personal and socio-professional development of prospective teachers. The purpose of the study was to survey how prospective teachers experienced the process of becoming aware of their emerging identities as teachers, and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
de Oliveira Souza, Leandro; Lopes, Celi Espasandin; de Oliveira Mendonça, Luzinete
2014-01-01
The inclusion of statistics and probability in the mathematics curriculum has always generated challenges to mathematics teachers of elementary schools. This article discusses activities that promote the professional development of such teachers. We present part of a doctoral research study of 16 teachers in which we discuss two case studies of…
Landmarks in the Professional and Academic Development of Mid-Career Teacher Educators
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Griffiths, Vivienne; Thompson, Simon; Hryniewicz, Liz
2014-01-01
This paper focuses on the professional and academic development of mid-career teacher educators from two universities in England. The objectives of the study were to analyse and compare the career experiences of teacher educators; in particular, to identify stages of development, landmark events and contextual factors affecting professional…
Critical Reflection in the Professional Development of Teachers: Challenges and Possibilities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Šaric, Marjeta; Šteh, Barbara
2017-01-01
Critical reflection in teachers' professional development has received much attention in the scholarly literature, and there is an overwhelming consensus about its great significance to the quality of teachers' work. Nevertheless, despite the well-established role of reflection, a large gap between the professed goals and the actual reflective…
Teachers' Perceptions of Digital Badges as Recognition of Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jones, W. Monty; Hope, Samantha; Adams, Brianne
2018-01-01
This mixed methods study examined teachers' perceptions and uses of digital badges received as recognition of participation in a professional development program. Quantitative and qualitative survey data was collected from 99 K-12 teachers who were awarded digital badges in Spring 2016. In addition, qualitative data was collected through…
Collaborative Partnerships: A Model for Science Teacher Education and Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Jones, Mellita M.
2008-01-01
This paper proposes a collaborative partnership between practicing and pre-service teachers as a model for implementing science teacher education and professional development. This model provides a structure within which partnerships will work collaboratively to plan, implement and reflect on a series of Science lessons in cycles of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Burstein, Jill; Shore, Jane; Sabatini, John; Moulder, Brad; Lentini, Jennifer; Biggers, Kietha; Holtzman, Steven
2014-01-01
This article reports on two studies using "Language Muse[superscript SM]" (LM), a web-based, teacher professional development (TPD) application designed to enhance teachers' linguistic awareness and to support teachers in the development of language-based instructional scaffolding for English language learners (ELL). In Study 1,…
Teacher-student interaction: The overlooked dimension of inquiry-based professional development
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
de Oliveira, Alandeom Wanderlei
This study explores the teacher-student interactional dimension of inquiry-based science instruction. In it, microethnographic and grounded theory analyses are conducted in order to assess the impact of a professional development program designed to enhance in-service elementary teachers' interactional views (i.e., their understandings of inquiry-based social roles and relationships) and discursive practices (i.e., teachers' abilities to interact with student engaged in classroom inquiries) through a combination of expert instruction, immersion in scientific inquiry, and collaborative analysis of video-recorded classroom discourse. A sociolinguistic theoretical perspective on language use is adopted, viewing classroom discourse as comprising multiple linguistic signs (questions, responses, personal pronouns, hedges, backchannels, reactive tokens, directives, figures of speech, parallel repetitions) that convey not only semantic meanings (the literal information being exchanged) but also pragmatic meanings (information about teachers and students' social roles and relationships). A grounded theory analysis of the professional development activities uncovered a gradual shift in teachers' interactional views from a cognitive, monofunctional and decontextualized perspective to a social, multifunctional and contextualized conception of inquiry-based discourse. Furthermore, teachers developed increased levels of pragmatic awareness, being able to recognize the authoritative interactional functions served by discursive moves such as display questions, cued elicitation, convergent questioning, verbal cloze, affirmation, explicit evaluations of students' responses, verbatim repetitions, IRE triplets, IR couplets, second-person pronouns, "I/you" contrastive pairs, and direct or impolite directives. A comparative microethnographic analysis of teachers' classroom practices revealed that after participating in the program teachers demonstrated an improved ability to share
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Purkiss, C.
2015-12-01
In many professional development programs, teachers attend workshops to learn new knowledge and skills and then are expected to go back to their classrooms and implement what they learned. Often skills or an activity is learned but does not necessarily get practiced in the classroom. Very few professional development programs add direct, immediate practice with children where teachers can try out immediately the new activities or the knowledge they have just learned. In this case, the program directors wanted to see that, by having children to practice with in a non-threatening, low stakes environment, if participants would incorporate the activities and knowledge learned during the workshop into their classrooms in a more immediate way. Would immediate practice help participants internalize the new knowledge and skills and thus create a fund of knowledge that they would use immediately on their return to the classroom. As part of a grant for professional development for underserved elementary teachers on climate literacy, an innovative children's camp was added to a summer intensive workshop. Prior to the summer workshop, participants completed an eight-week online graduate level course on the basics of inquiry-based science. Participants then attended the intensive three-week workshop to gain knowledge in weather and climate and how to teach these concepts in their classrooms. The workshop was rich in materials and resources for participants. During the third week of the workshop, teachers were camp leaders to 100 elementary students in grades 3 through 5 who were participating in "Climate Camp". Various evaluation and assessments were completed during the program on all participants. Through various evaluation methods, it was found that there was a positive transfer of knowledge to the classroom.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Roberts, Jennifer A.
2009-01-01
The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe and explain teachers' perceptions about effective professional development as well as to identify the environmental factors that affect the teacher participants' ability to engage in and implement various behaviors and beliefs transferred from the professional development experience. Four…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Baxter, Juliet A.; Ruzicka, Angie; Beghetto, Ronald A.; Livelybrooks, Dean
2014-01-01
The press to integrate mathematics and science comes from researchers, business leaders, and educators, yet research that examines ways to support teachers in relating these disciplines is scant. Using research on science and mathematics professional development, we designed a professional development project to help elementary teachers improve…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Smith, Jason S.
2017-01-01
This dissertation investigated regular and special education co-teachers' perceptions of professional development programs and their readiness to co-teach in the elementary mathematics classroom. A gap in co-teaching literature exists regarding how teachers perceived co-teaching professional development and how it impacts their readiness to…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Armour, Kathleen M.; Yelling, Martin
2007-01-01
This paper reports data from the third phase of a 2-year investigation into continuing professional development (CPD) for physical education teachers in England. The purpose of this phase was to examine the ways in which 10 case study teachers engaged in professional learning over the course of 1 academic year. Data were collected from a series of…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Reichenberg, Monica; Andreassen, Rune
2018-01-01
The present study compares how Swedish (n = 340) and Norwegian (n = 236) teachers' human capital and social capital support reading habits as an aspect of professional development. The overall aim was to describe how teachers' human and social capital support their professional development as measured by the aspect of reading habits during leisure…
Transforming Professional Development to Professional Learning
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Stewart, Chelsea
2014-01-01
This article reviews teacher professional development norms as they are shifting toward collaborative practice. It is posed that passive and individual practices are inadequate to prepare teachers to integrate the academic skills that learners need for both workforce and college readiness. Promising practices in professional development are…
CSI: Creating Student (and Teacher) Investigators--Using Popular Culture in Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yanowitz, Karen L.; McKay, Tanja; Ross, C. Ann; Vanderpool, Staria S.
2010-01-01
The goal of this article is to present a description of a professional development program designed to immerse middle and high school teachers in an inquiry-based learning environment using a forensic science context and the consequent impact participating in this program had on teachers' pedagogy. Teachers participated in a year-long program…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gurevich, Irina; Stein, Hana; Gorev, Dvora
2017-01-01
This research traced changes in choices of technological tools and attitudes toward technology use among novice mathematics teachers at three stages of their professional development: as pre-service teachers, a year later, and in their work as novice teachers. At each stage, the participants were required to evaluate the benefits of technology use…
Evaluating Graduate Education and Transcending Biases in Music Teachers' Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Laor, Lia
2015-01-01
Research concerning professional development and its contribution to the formation of professional identity is prevalent in both general and music education. However, its implications for music educators in the context of graduate programs for music education are seldom discussed. This mixed-methods case study examined experienced music teachers'…
Teachers' Perceived Values on the Effect of Literacy Strategy Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mundy, Marie-Anne; Howe, Mary E.; Kupczynski, Lori
2015-01-01
This study examined 299 Louisiana teachers from three school districts regarding their perceptions of the value provided by specific types of professional development (PD) including professional learning communities (PLC), demonstration lessons, and in-service as well as graduate hours in reading/literacy on implementation (frequency of use),…
iSTEM Summer Institute: An Integrated Approach to Teacher Professional Development inSTEM
DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)
Anne Seifert; Louis Nadelson
The importance of STEM education to our national prosperity and global competitiveness was recently reinforced by the Obama administration support for Change the Equation. Change the Equation is a multi-entity initiative formed in response to the rapidly increasing demand for STEM related careers and the potential lack of preparation by many Americans to be employed in these positions. To address the issue many are calling for increased emphasis on K-12 STEM education, as early preparation in STEM provides the foundation essential for further learning and competencies (National Research Council, 2007). Achieving and sustaining depth and breadth of K-12 STEM educationmore » is inextricably linked to ongoing professional development of K-12 educators. The need for teacher continuing education in STEM education and the link between teacher effectiveness and student preparation in STEM was the impetus behind our i- STEM professional development summer institute. The i-STEM initiative is a collaborative effort between business, industry, government, K-12, and higher education. Although the organization is working on a number of projects, including policy, research, communication, and collaborations, the i-STEM group has directed significant resources toward K-12 educator professional development opportunities in STEM. Our report focuses on the structure and impact of the intensive four-day i-STEM residential professional development institute which we designed to increase the capacity of grade 4-9 teachers to teach STEM content. We structured the summer institute using the outcome of a survey we conducted of grade 4-9 teachers’ to assess their STEM professional development needs, the extant literature on teacher development, the increasing need for a STEM informed society, and our desire to use evidence based practices to enhance teacher capacity to teach STEM content. We developed this investigation to determine if our summer institute influenced the participating
Evaluating Teachers' Professional Development Initiatives: Towards an Extended Evaluative Framework
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Merchie, Emmelien; Tuytens, Melissa; Devos, Geert; Vanderlinde, Ruben
2018-01-01
Evaluating teachers' professional development initiatives (PDI) is one of the main challenges for the teacher professionalisation field. Although different studies have focused on the effectiveness of PDI, the obtained effects and evaluative methods have been found to be widely divergent. By means of a narrative review, this study provides an…
Teacher Participation in Online Professional Development: Exploring Academic Year Classroom Impacts
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Opfer, Thomas
2017-01-01
The purpose of this mixed methods case study research was to investigate the reasons teachers chose online professional development (OPD) focusing on technology integration and how this OPD impacted teachers' classroom practices over a six month period. Previous research identified that OPD provides flexibility beyond what traditional face-to-face…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Polly, Drew; Martin, Christie S.; Wang, Chuang; Lambert, Richard G.; Pugalee, David K.
2016-01-01
This study examines primary grades teachers' instructional decisions in their mathematics classroom during their participation in a year-long professional development program on formative assessment. Teachers participated in 40 h of face-to-face workshops followed by 40 h of classroom-embedded activities that were facilitated in an asynchronous…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Rozenszajn, Ronit; Yarden, Anat
2014-02-01
Experienced teachers possess a unique teaching knowledge comprised of an inter-related set of knowledge and beliefs that gives direction and justification to a teacher's actions. This study examined the expansion of two components of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of three in-service teachers in the course of a professional development program aimed at designing new teaching and learning materials suggested by the teachers themselves. The research presents an enlargement of previous PCK representations by focusing on a detailed representation of two main PCK domains: teaching and learning, including ten PCK components that emerged in the course of data analysis. This representation enabled revealing the unique PCK held by each teacher and to characterize the expansion of the two components of the participating teachers' PCK during the long-term professional development program. Retention of major parts of the expanded PCK a year after termination of the program implies that designing and implementing new teaching and learning materials based on the teachers' experiences, needs, and knowledge in a workshop format accompanied by biology and science education courses might provide a powerful means for PCK expansion. We recommend that designers of professional development programs be aware of the unique PCK held by each teacher in order to promote meaningful professional development of each teacher. Moreover, the PCK representations that were identified in the course of this study enabled clarifying the "orientation toward teaching science" category of PCK which appears to be unclear in current literature.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Balbag, M. Zafer; Yenilmez, Kürsat; Turgut, Melih
2017-01-01
This study aimed at adapting the personal professional development efforts scale developed for science and technology teachers to be applied for middle school mathematics teachers. For this purpose, first of all, the items of the original scale were adjusted for the middle school mathematics teachers by a team of experts. Data obtained by the new…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Luebeck, Jennifer; Roscoe, Matt; Cobbs, Georgia; Diemert, Kacey; Scott, Lisa
2017-01-01
This paper reports findings from a study that followed K-12 mathematics teachers through the components of a blended professional development program, highlighting their engagement in a series of online modules that connect face-to-face gatherings across the school year. Data collected over four years illuminate the teachers' performance,…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sandilos, Lia E.; Goble, Priscilla; Rimm-Kaufman, Sara E.; Pianta, Robert C.
2018-01-01
The present study examines the extent to which participation in a 14-week professional development course designed to improve teacher-child interactions in the classroom moderated the relation between teacher-reported job stress and gains in observed teacher-child interaction quality from the beginning to the end of the intervention. Participants…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kafyulilo, Ayoub Cherd
2013-01-01
This study introduces "teachers' collaboration" as an approach to teachers' professional development geared at enhancing science and mathematics teaching in Tanzania secondary schools. Teachers' professional development through teachers' collaboration has been reported to be effective for the improvement of schools' performance and…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Menez, Jessica L.
Using extant data that were collected as part of a larger project, the current study examined teacher self-efficacy and the teachers' intentions to implement workshop content throughout the course of a six-week professional development workshop focused on enhancing science motivation for students through the adoption of specific instructional strategies. There were a total of 20 middle and high school teacher participants. Results indicated teacher self-efficacy changed significantly from pre to post. Teachers showed higher teacher self-efficacy after the professional development, in particular for influencing student engagement. In addition, we found a moderate correlation between the level of confidence after the implementation of a strategy and teachers intention of trying the strategy again. Finally, new direction for future research topics made possible by this study are presented.
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Viorica Diaconu, Dana; Radigan, Judy; Suskavcevic, Milijana; Nichol, Carolyn
2012-04-01
A teacher professional development program for in-service elementary school science teachers, the Rice Elementary Model Science Lab (REMSL), was developed for urban school districts serving predominately high-poverty, high-minority students. Teachers with diverse skills and science capacities came together in Professional Learning Communities, one full day each week throughout an academic year, to create a classroom culture for science instruction. Approximately 80 teachers each year received professional development in science content and pedagogy using the same inquiry-based constructivist methods that the teachers were expected to use in their classrooms. During this four-year study, scientists and educators worked with elementary teachers in a year-long model science lab environment to provide science content and science pedagogy. The effectiveness of the program was measured using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods that allowed the researchers to triangulate the findings from quantitative measures, such as content test and surveys, with the emerging themes from the qualitative instruments, such as class observations and participant interviews. Results showed that, in all four years, teachers from the REMSL Treatment group have significantly increased their science content knowledge (p < 0.05). During the last two years, their gains in science content knowledge, use of inquiry-based instruction and leadership skills were significantly higher than those of the Control group teachers' (p < 0.01, p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively). Three themes resonated in the interviews with participants: science content knowledge growth, constructivist pedagogy and leadership skills.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Herro, Danielle; Quigley, Cassie
2017-01-01
This research involves a multi-year study examining the perspectives and classroom practices of 21 middle school mathematics and science teachers, in the southeastern United States, participating in professional development (PD) exploring science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) literacies. This study sought to understand…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Washington, Vanassa
2016-01-01
The overall aim of this quantitative non-experimental study was to investigate the degree to which content-focused professional development, active based-learning professional development and teacher self-efficacy predict student performance in reading, within persistently low-performing schools. The need to investigate professional development in…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Qablan, Ahmad; Mansour, Nassar; Alshamrani, Saeed; Aldahmash, Abdulwali; Sabbah, Saed
2015-01-01
Many researchers critique that continuing professional development programs in Saudi Arabia are neither well organized nor are systematic. This study came to assess the impact of CPD opportunities in the country to better suit the professional needs of Saudi science teachers and support them in implementing the reformed instructional practices.…
Multi-Membership in Communities of Practice: An EFL Teacher's Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nishino, Takako
2012-01-01
This study investigates the professional development of one EFL teacher, Gen, through narrative analysis and the notion of community of practice (CoP) (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). This study addresses two questions: (1) How did a Japanese high school teacher generate context-appropriate pedagogy?; and (2) How did multi-membership in…
Professional Development for Secondary School Mathematics Teachers: A Peer Mentoring Model
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kensington-Miller, Barbara
2012-01-01
Professional development is important for all teachers, and in low socio-economic schools where the challenges of teaching are greater this need is crucial. A model involving a combination of one-on-one peer mentoring integrated with group peer mentoring was piloted with experienced mathematics teachers of senior students in low socio-economic…
Practitioner Research as Part of Professional Development in Initial Teacher Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Maaranen, Katriina
2009-01-01
The purpose of this research is to seek the connection between professional development and an MA thesis research project, which is conducted as part of initial teacher education in Finland. This article examines the experiences of teachers with work experience, but without an official qualification, who recently completed their MA thesis. The…
Teachers' Perceptions of National Board Certification as Professional Development and Evaluation
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tingle, Scot M.
2014-01-01
The purpose of the study was to investigate and describe the perceptions of recently NBPTS certified teachers in Maryland of the NBPTS certification process as both a professional development activity and as an evaluation instrument to identify teaching excellence. This descriptive survey used an online survey to collect data from 125 teachers for…
Towards the Future: Teachers' Vision of Professional Development in the Arts
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Andrews, B. W.
2016-01-01
Teachers enrolled in a professional development program involving artists on site at cultural institutions participated in a study in which they expressed their views on upgrading in the arts. Findings indicate that they were influenced in their own schooling by passionate teachers who conveyed the importance of the arts. Their progress was…
Identifying Professional Development Environment for Mentor Teachers at a Learning Centre
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Cheng, May May-hung; Yeung, Yau-Yuen
2010-01-01
This paper argues with evidence that conditions for teacher professional development can be enhanced for mentor teachers through a Learning Centre (LC) project which has been introduced in Hong Kong as a collaborative project between the government, a primary school, a secondary school, and the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The LC teachers…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Tan, Liang Soon; Ang, Keng Cheng
2016-01-01
A school-based professional development programme (SBPD) aimed at developing secondary school mathematics teachers' competencies to teach mathematical modelling in Singapore is presented and evaluated in this article. The SBPD is characterized by two key features--content elements to develop teachers' knowledge and skills, and transformative…
K-4 Keepers Collection: A Service Learning Teacher Professional Development Program
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Schwerin, T. G.; Blaney, L.; Myers, R. J.
2011-12-01
This poster focuses on the K-4 Keepers Collection, a service-learning program developed for the Earth System Science Education Alliance (ESSEA). ESSEA is a NOAA-, NASA- and NSF-supported program of teacher professional development that increases teachers' pedagogical content knowledge of climate-related Earth system science. The ESSEA program -- whether used in formal higher education courses or frequented by individual teachers who look for classroom activities in the environmental sciences -- provides a full suite of activities, lessons and units for teachers' use. The ESSEA network consists of 45 universities and education centers addressing climate and environment issues. K-4 Keepers Collection - ESSEA K-4 module collections focus on five specific themes of content development: spheres, Polar Regions, oceans, climate and service learning. The K-4 Keepers collection provides the opportunity for teachers to explore topics and learning projects promoting stewardship of the Earth's land, water, air and living things. Examination of the impacts of usage and pollution on water, air, land and living things through service-learning projects allows students to become informed stewards. All of the modules include short-term sample projects that either educate or initiate action involving caring for the environment. The K-4 Keepers course requires teachers to develop similar short or long-term projects for implementation in their classrooms. Objectives include: 1. Increase elementary teachers' environmental literacy addressing ocean, coastal, Great Lakes, stewardship, weather and climate science standards and using NOAA and NASA resources. 2. Develop elementary teachers' efficacy in employing service learning projects focused on conserving and preserving Earth's land, air, water and living things. 3. Prepare college faculty to incorporate service learning and environmental literacy into their courses through professional development and modules on the ESSEA website.
How can video supported reflection enhance teachers' professional development?
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
McCullagh, John F.
2012-03-01
This paper responds to Eva Lundqvist, Jonas Almqvist and Leif Ostman's account of how the manner of teaching can strongly influence pupil learning by recommending video supported reflection as a means by which teachers can transform the nature of their practice. Given the complex nature of the many conditions which influence and control teachers' actions the reframing of routine practice through reflection-in-action can prove challenging. This response paper describes how video can empower teachers to take greater control of their progress and allows for a more social constructivist approach to professional development. Along with a consideration of the difficulties associated with the notion of `reflection' and a short case study, the paper uses Lev Semenovich Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and the notion of scaffolding to propose that video offers a Video Supported Zone of Proximal Development which can ease the process of teacher development. In capturing permanent and exchangeable representations of practice video encourages a collaborative approach to reflection and is consistent with the original ideas of John Dewey.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Benson, Chris, Ed.
2000-01-01
This serial issue contains 12 articles on the theme of "Professional Development," specifically about how teachers in the Bread Loaf Rural Teacher Network (BLRTN) are fostering their own and each other's development as teachers. The BLRTN consists of approximately 260 rural teachers in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky,…
Impact of Selected Professional Aspects on Teacher Burnout.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kudva, Pramila
This study investigated the relationship between several components of teacher burnout and various professional factors. Professional factors included professional qualifications, teaching level, professional growth, professional commitment, and role efficacy. Components of teacher burnout included development of negative attitudes toward students…
Exploring Climate Science with WV Educators: A Regional Model for Teacher Professional Development
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Ruberg, L. F.; Calinger, M.
2014-12-01
The National Research Council Framework for K-12 Science Literacy reports that children reared in rural agricultural communities, who experience regular interactions with plants and animals, develop more sophisticated understanding of ecology and biological systems than do urban and suburban children of the same age. West Virginia (WV) is a rural state. The majority of its residents live in communities of fewer than 2,500 people. Based on the features of the population being served and their unique strengths, this presentation focuses on a regional model for teacher professional development that addresses agricultural and energy vulnerabilities and adaptations to climate change in WV. The professional development model outlined shows how to guide teachers to use a problem-based learning approach to introduce climate data and analysis techniques within a scenario context that is locally meaningful. This strategy engages student interest by focusing on regional and community concerns. Climate science standards are emphasized in the Next Generation Science Standards, but WV has not provided its teachers with appropriate instructional resources to meet those standards. The authors addressed this need by offering a series of climate science education workshops followed by online webinars offered to WV science educators free of charge with funding by the West Virginia Space Grant Consortium. The authors report on findings from this series of professional development workshops conducted in partnership with the West Virginia Science Teachers Association. The goal was to enhance grades 5-12 teaching and learning about climate change through problem-based learning. Prior to offering the climate workshops, all WV science educators were asked to complete a short questionnaire. As Figure 1 shows, over 40% of the teacher respondents reported being confident in teaching climate science content. For comparison post workshops surveys measure teacher confidence in climate science
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Beckford-Young, Paulette Vivienne
2016-01-01
The purpose of this action research study was to conduct a professional development activity to provide content-area teachers with academic vocabulary strategies to be implemented during instruction on a daily basis. Professional development is essential for teachers to gain new knowledge and skills in order to hone their craft to improve student…
A Prospective Study on the Application of MOOC in Teacher Professional Development in China
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ji, Zhaolin; Cao, Yanhua
2016-01-01
Teacher professional development is the process of constantly strengthening professional attainment, broadening academic knowledge, enhancing the professional skills, and improving teaching ability. With the reform of learning science and the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the traditional mode of teacher…
First-Grade Teachers' Response to Three Models of Professional Development in Reading
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Carlisle, Joanne F.; Cortina, Kai Schnabel; Katz, Lauren A.
2011-01-01
The purpose of this study was to compare 1st-grade teachers' responses to professional development (PD) programs in reading that differed in means and degree of support for teachers' learning and efforts to improve their reading instruction. We compared 3 models of PD: the 1st model provided only seminars for the teachers, the 2nd model provided…
Factors Principals Consider When Choosing Professional Development for Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Price, Kimberly Jacob
2017-01-01
Professional development is supposed to increase instructional capacity in teachers. It is well funded by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which also provides clear expectations for activities and programs that research suggests make it effective in improving student learning (Ball & Cohen, 1999; Banilower et al., 2006; Gersten et…
Collaborative Online Professional Development for Teachers in Higher Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Teräs, Hanna
2016-01-01
Enhancing teaching quality has become a priority for many universities. The need for high-quality professional development for university teachers is therefore crucial. Earlier research has indicated that isolated workshops often fail to result in significant changes in teaching practice. It has been suggested that the desired transformation…
Emerging Considerations for Professional Development Institutes for Science Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Freeman, John G.; Marx, Ronald W.; Cimellaro, Luigia
2004-01-01
This paper describes two professional development institutes in project-based science. We collected data from these institutes in the form of structured questionnaires, individual written reflections by the teachers, and focus-group interviews. An analysis of the data revealed three factors that had been underrepresented in previous research:…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Patahuddin, Sitti Maesuri
2010-01-01
This paper is aimed to describe an ethnographic intervention study of supporting a Low Use Internet (LUI) teacher to use the Internet for his professional development. Five characteristics of effective professional development were identified and applied. This description is followed by a reflection on the process to get a deeper insight about…
Twitter: A Professional Development and Community of Practice Tool for Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Rosell-Aguilar, Fernando
2018-01-01
This article shows how a group of language teachers use Twitter as a tool for continuous professional development through the #MFLtwitterati hashtag. Based on data collected through a survey (n = 116) and interviews (n = 11), it describes how this collective of teachers use the hashtag and evaluates the impact of their Twitter network on their…
Collaborative Teacher Educator Professional Development in Europe: Different Voices, One Goal
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lunenberg, Mieke; Murray, Jean; Smith, Kari; Vanderlinde, Ruben
2017-01-01
In this article we present an embedded case study focused on the learning activities provided for and by us through our involvement in an international forum focused on the professional development of teacher educators. The aim of this research was to gain more insight into the complicated processes of professional learning across national…
A Model for the Professional Development of Teachers of Thinking
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Adey, Philip
2006-01-01
Teaching for the development of students' thinking is not a straightforward matter. It requires pedagogical skills, which are different from those of normal good quality teaching for conceptual development. It follows that providing professional development (PD) for teachers of thinking is a "hard case"--we can learn much of general value to…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Spillane, Nancy Kay
Within successful Inclusive Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-focused High Schools (ISHSs), it is not only the students who are learning. Teachers, with diverse backgrounds, training, and experience, share and develop their knowledge through rich, embedded professional development to continuously shape their craft, improve their teaching, and support student success. This study of four exemplars of ISHSs (identified by experts in STEM education as highly successful in preparing students underrepresented in STEM for STEM majors in college and future STEM careers) provides a rich description of the relationships among the characteristics of STEM teachers, their professional development, and the school cultures that allow teachers to develop professionally and serve the needs of students. By providing a framework for the development of teaching staffs in ISHSs and contributing to the better understanding of STEM teaching in any school, this study offers valuable insight, implications, and information for states and school districts as they begin planning improvements to STEM education programs. A thorough examination of an existing data set that included site visits to four ISHSs along with pre- and post-visit data, provided the resource for this multiple case study with cross-case analysis of the teachers and their teacher professional development experiences. Administrators in these ISHSs had the autonomy to hire teachers with strong content backgrounds, philosophical alignment with the school missions, and a willingness to work collaboratively toward achieving the schools' goals. Ongoing teacher professional development began before school started and continued throughout the school day and year through intense and sustained, formal and informal, active learning experiences. Flexible professional development systems varied, but aligned with targeted school reforms and teacher and student needs. Importantly, collaborative teacher learning
Understanding Teacher Perceptions in a Professional Development Program for a Middle Grade Science
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Deloney, Dericka B.
The standards-based framework requires teachers to evaluate and in some cases change their instructional approach to more student-centered and inquiry-based in an effort to help students meet the standards. The rationale for this study was to determine the skills needed for teachers to be effective in a standard-based, problem-based learning (PBL) constructivist classroom. Traditionally, teachers in this school district transitioning from teacher to student-centered classrooms need new skills when implementing this type of instruction. A qualitative case study design served to highlight the research questions for this project study. The participants in this study participated in data collection activities that include a multiple-choice survey, an interview, and the sharing of their PBL units. Artifacts, professional development teaching resources, from the workshop added credence to the survey and interview responses. The findings from each research question addressed the teachers' perception of their understanding and the obstacles of instructional design, development, and implementation the participants encountered. The results of this study indicated that teachers had problems with designing and implementing this instructional strategy due to lack of time and resources. This data assisted the development of district specific PBL sustainable professional development program that could be adaptable to other curriculums and school systems. Social change resulting from this study could include a framework for developing K-12 professional development as well as instructional programs that incorporates PBL curriculum design to enhance the student's inquiry, problem-solving, and decision-making skills that in turn should change their academic achievement and scores on high stakes test in science.
The Problem of Developing Professional Mobility of Teachers in the Works of Foreign Scholars
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pavlenko, Marina
2017-01-01
The article analyzes the positions of foreign and domestic scholars on the problem of developing professional mobility of teachers. It has been stated that today professional mobility is a necessary component of training a skilled worker. It has been indicated that the teacher possesses an appropriate set of competences that provide an opportunity…
Effects of Professional Development on Preschool Teachers' Use of Embedded Instruction Practices
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Snyder, Patricia; Hemmeter, Mary Louise; McLean, Mary; Sandall, Susan; McLaughlin, Tara; Algina, James
2018-01-01
We conducted a randomized controlled potential efficacy trial to examine effects of two variants of the Tools for Teachers (TfT) professional development (PD) intervention on preschool teachers' implementation of embedded instruction practices and children's developmental and learning outcomes. Thirty-six preschool teachers recruited from three…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Chien, Hui-Min; Kao, Chia-Pin; Yeh, I-Jan; Lin, Kuen-Yi
2012-01-01
This study was conducted to investigate elementary school teachers' attitudes and motivation toward web-based professional development. The relationship between teachers' attitudes and motivation was explored using the AWPD (Attitudes toward Web-based Professional Development) and MWPD (Motivation toward Web-based Professional Development)…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Woolley, Michael E.; Rose, Roderick A.; Mercado, Micaela; Orthner, Dennis K.
2013-01-01
Intervention researchers in school settings often implement interventions that involve professional development to schoolteachers or other professional staff to implement school-based interventions. In terms of classroom interventions, teachers are the primary implementation agents; therefore, the fidelity of such interventions depends on teacher…
Impact of Professional Development on Teacher Practice: Uncovering Connections
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Buczynski, Sandy; Hansen, C. Bobbi
2010-01-01
An Inquiry Learning Partnership (ILP) for professional development (PD) was formed between a university, science centre, and two urban school districts to offer 4-6th grade teachers specific science content and pedagogical techniques intended to integrate inquiry-based instruction in elementary classrooms. From pre/post content exams, PD surveys,…
Supporting the Professional Development of Teacher Educators in a Productive Way
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Boei, Fer; Dengerink, Jurriën; Geursen, Janneke; Kools, Quinta; Koster, Bob; Lunenberg, Mieke; Willemse, Martijn
2015-01-01
This study reports on what 13 teacher educators going through a procedure to become registered as a teacher educator in 2011-2012 learned, what goals they formulated for their further professional development and what activities they planned to achieve these goals. The methods used in this study are mainly the same as were used at the time the…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Greenhaus, Karen Larsen
2014-01-01
This qualitative grounded theory study explored teachers' instructional decisions around planning and practice for technology integration after participation in professional development. The purpose of this study was to determine how a long-term hybrid professional development experience influenced, if at all, math teachers' instructional…
Teacher Collaboration and Professional Development in the Workplace: A Study of Portuguese Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Forte, Ana Maria; Flores, Maria Assunção
2014-01-01
This article reports on findings from research aimed at investigating teacher collaboration and professional development in the workplace. It draws upon a broader study carried out in a school in Northern Portugal. Data were collected through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and written reflective accounts. In total, 80 teachers…
Constructing Occupational Identities: How Female Preschool Teachers Develop Professionalism
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kim, Mina
2013-01-01
This study explores how female teachers construct their occupational identities as teachers within early childhood education (ECE) settings. The combination of feminist scholarship and the use of teacher life history method allow these women to describe themselves as professionally trained and educated teachers who love teaching and children even…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Hathcock, Stephanie J.
Although science teachers regularly participate in PD experiences involving reform-based practices, even our best teachers struggle to change their teaching practices to coincide with these pedagogics, and when they do change, it occurs at differential rates. The aim of this study was to better understand teachers' self-systems by analyzing their experiences in a PD institute program through the lens of professional identity. This multiple case study involved five high school science teachers participating in a summer PD initiative. Data were collected through interviews, written reflections and exploration and commitment cards, and a scale designed to capture participants' perceived level of pedagogical discontentment, or unease with teaching practices (Southerland, et al., 2012). Data were analyzed using the Theoretical Model of Professional Identity (Kaplan, et al., 2012), which highlights the dynamic interplay of teachers' self-perceptions, beliefs, purposes, and practices. Data were also analyzed for pedagogical discontentment, and the two were compared. Analysis led to patterns of change in professional identities, triggers for changes to professional identities, insights into perceptions of pedagogical discontentment, and ultimately, the potential relationship between professional identity and pedagogical discontentment. The model of professional identity served to capture teachers' experience of the PD, including tensions that arose as they began to explore portions of their professional identity. Pedagogical discontentment served to assist in better problematizing portions of the participants' professional identities, and assisted in identifying tensions and potential changes in less elaborative interviewees. However, the professional identity model was better able to capture the underlying causes of discontentment and planning associated with alleviating discontent. These emergent models can provide conceptual tools for future use, as well as guide
Conditions for Professional Development.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Humes, Walter
2001-01-01
Examines aspects of initial teacher education and continuing professional development in Scotland against the backdrop of McCrone Report recommendations on teaching conditions. Discusses teachers' attitudes toward their own professional development; the nature of professional knowledge, skills, and values; and some principles to promote genuine…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Mansour, Nasser; EL-Deghaidy, Heba; Alshamrani, Saeed; Aldahmash, Abdulwali
2014-12-01
The aim of this study was to investigate science teachers' views of continuing professional development (CPD) provision in Saudi Arabia and science teachers' perspectives of the CPD contextual issues that have an impact on putting the learning emerging from the CPD programmes into practice. The study used mixed methods (open-ended questionnaires and interviews) with Saudi Arabian science teachers framed by a socio-cultural perspective. This study argues that science teachers' voices concerning their professional development needs should be the key guide for their CPD. Our study shows the significance of engaging critically with science teachers' voices and views of their CPD programme. One of the unique findings of this study indicated CPD programmes should take place at school where teachers have the opportunity to collaborate with others in an authentic context and where they can participate in the content of the CPD that directly meets their needs within their work context. The study has shown that science teacher development can be effective and successful when science teachers are able to talk with each other as part of the learning activities of the CPD programmes about what they are doing in the classroom, and how they can implement the ideas of the CPD programmes into their classroom and school settings. This might shed light on why teachers were either able or unable to put some aspects of their CPD learning into practice.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gage, Nicholas A.; Grasley-Boy, Nicolette M.; MacSuga-Gage, Ashley S.
2018-01-01
Effective classroom instruction is contingent upon successful classroom management. Unfortunately, not all teachers successfully manage classroom behavior and need in-service professional development. In this study, we replicated a targeted professional development approach that included a brief one-on-one training session and emailed visual…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bleistein, Tasha Maria
2013-01-01
China continues to invite expatriate tertiary-level English language educators to teach. Foreign English language teachers and local Chinese English educators who wish to develop professionally have an ever-increasing body of research regarding Chinese culture, education, professional development, and intercultural communication; however, research…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Mule, Lucy
2006-01-01
Professional development school (PDS) contexts are increasingly being viewed as powerful sites for the preparation of future teachers in the USA. One of their documented strengths is in the fostering of preservice teachers' inquiry within collaborative frameworks that result from the partnerships between university teacher education programmes and…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kim, Mina; Kang, Bokyung
2012-01-01
This study was designed to explore how Korean preschool and kindergarten teachers understand teacher research and utilize it in professional development. Two teachers, two site directors, and one district supervisor were interviewed in South Korea. Data were collected in multiple ways: (1) open-ended individual interviews; (2) participants'…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Kassner, Laura
2014-01-01
The purpose of this report was to consider ways to integrating teacher evaluation and professional development--specifically, to explore innovative ways to harness feedback from teacher evaluations for the creation of personalized professional learning for teachers. This study was commissioned by the planning council members of the Metropolitan…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Sevis, Serife; Cross, Dionne; Hudson, Rick
2017-01-01
Considering the role of mathematics-focused professional development programs in improving teachers' content knowledge and quality of teaching, we provided teachers opportunities for dealing with mathematics problems and positioning themselves as students in a large-scale long-term professional development (PD) project. In this proposal, we aimed…
Professional development in inquiry-based science for elementary teachers of diverse student groups
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Lee, Okhee; Hart, Juliet E.; Cuevas, Peggy; Enders, Craig
2004-12-01
As part of a larger project aimed at promoting science and literacy for culturally and linguistically diverse elementary students, this study has two objectives: (a) to describe teachers' initial beliefs and practices about inquiry-based science and (b) to examine the impact of the professional development intervention (primarily through instructional units and teacher workshops) on teachers' beliefs and practices related to inquiry-based science. The research involved 53 third- and fourth-grade teachers at six elementary schools in a large urban school district. At the end of the school year, teachers reported enhanced knowledge of science content and stronger beliefs about the importance of science instruction with diverse student groups, although their actual practices did not change significantly. Based on the results of this first year of implementation as part of a 3-year longitudinal design, implications for professional development and further research are discussed.
Great Expectations: Teacher Learning in a National Professional Development Programme
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Armour, Kathleen M.; Makopoulou, Kyriaki
2012-01-01
This paper reports findings from an evaluation of a national continuing professional development (CPD) programme for teachers in England. Data showed that the localised implementation, opportunities for interactive learning, and "collective participation" were positive factors. Research participants reported difficulties, however, in…
Practernship: A Theoretical Construct for Developing Professionalism in Preservice Teachers.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Millwater, Jan; Yarrow, Allan
1997-01-01
Professors from Australia's Queensland University introduce the concept of a "practernship" that is a variation of typical internship/apprenticeship programs for preservice teachers. The "practernship" combines practice teaching and internship, encourages collaboration and professional development, and promotes a holistic,…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ponte, Petra; Ax, Jan; Beijaard, Douwe; Wubbels, Theo
2004-01-01
This article describes the design and results of a descriptive and explorative case study into the development of professional knowledge by teachers through action research and the facilitation of this by teacher educators. The theoretical framework of the study links the Anglo-Saxon Action Research tradition and the German "Allgemeine Didaktik."…
New Teacher Induction, Mentoring, and the Development of Self-Determined Professional Educators
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Olivadoti, Heidi C.
2012-01-01
This study examined the following research question: Are there any significant relationships between mentoring new teachers and their development as self-determined professional educators? While the explicit goals related to mentoring new teachers are to improve practice, address equity issues, and increase student achievement, the implicit…
Teacher Learning in the Digital Age: Online Professional Development in STEM Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Dede, Chris, Ed.; Eisenkraft, Arthur, Ed.; Frumin, Kim, Ed.; Hartley, Alex, Ed.
2016-01-01
With an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) training, "Teacher Learning in the Digital Age" examines exemplary models of online and blended teacher professional development, including information on the structure and design of each model, intended audience, and existing research and evaluation data. From…
Exploring Blended Learning for Science Teacher Professional Development in an African Context
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Boitshwarelo, Bopelo
2009-01-01
This paper explores a case of teacher professional development in Botswana where a blended learning solution was attempted. The analysis of the implementation environment reveals deficiencies in policy, schools (workplaces), and training providers. The paper concludes with three recommendations: 1) Schools should support ongoing teacher learning…
CLASS Reliability Training as Professional Development for Preschool Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Casbergue, Renée M.; Bedford, April Whatley; Burstein, Karen
2014-01-01
Use of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) is increasing across the United States as an important indicator of the quality of programs for young children. Professional development is required to facilitate teachers' understanding of the instructional behaviors upon which they will be judged. This study investigated the use of the…
The Tale of Two Virtual Teacher Professional Development Modules
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Keown, Paul
2009-01-01
Virtual communities of practice (VCoP) have been advocated for some time as a promising means of taking professional development to teachers in widely distributed locations. However, geography, and indeed education literature as a whole, contains very few examples where this has been achieved. This paper reports on two VCoP professional…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Regan, Tiffany Arnett
2017-01-01
The purpose of this descriptive case study was to identify teacher strengths and needs to create a site-specific professional development program for literacy. I was interested in studying how to identify teacher needs and strengths and explore the compatibility between teacher beliefs, current practice, and best practices in literacy. This study…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Shepardson, Daniel P.; Harbor, Jon; Cooper, Barbara; McDonald, Jim
2002-01-01
Professional development programs should provide teachers with experiences that develop their knowledge and skills to integrate environmental field studies into their school curriculum. Reports on a professional development model that engaged teachers in designing and conducting local environmental science research projects. (Author/YDS)
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Desimone Laura; Garet, Michael S.; Birman, Beatrice F.; Porter, Andrew; Yoon, Kwang Suk
2003-01-01
As part of national evaluation of Eisenhower Professional Development Program, examines management and implementation strategies contributing to high-quality inservice teacher professional development in mathematics and science. Finds higher quality professional development is related to management and implementation strategies such as continuous…
Professional Development Needs as Perceived by Minnesota Industrial Arts/Technology Teachers.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Johnson, Scott D.; Summers, Keith
1984-01-01
Describes a profile of professional development needs that was developed through a survey of 150 industrial arts/technology teachers in Minnesota. The greatest need was in the area of job environment: salary, job security, facilities and equipment, and discipline. (SK)
Job-Embedded Professional Development: Its Impact on Teacher Self-Efficacy and Student Performance
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Althauser, Krista
2015-01-01
A quantitative approach was used to investigate the impact of a district-wide, job-embedded mathematics professional development program on elementary teachers' general and personal efficacy. This investigation was based on the principles of mathematics professional development, efficacy theory, and student achievement. It was designed to…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Bilgin, Aysegül; Balbag, Mustafa Zafer
2016-01-01
This study has developed "Personal Professional Development Efforts Scale for Science and Technology Teachers Regarding Their Fields". Exploratory factor analysis of the scale has been conducted based on the data collected from 200 science and technology teachers across Turkey. The scale has been observed through varimax rotation method,…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Liao, Yin-Chan; Ottenbreit-Leftwich, Anne; Karlin, Michael; Glazewski, Krista; Brush, Thomas
2017-01-01
Studies have shown that when K-12 school districts implement a new technology initiative, it is not always accompanied by effective teacher professional development (PD). Many teachers have indicated that effective technology PD experiences should incorporate their individual PD needs. The authors surveyed technology-using K-12 teachers at two…
The State of Professional Development for Teachers of Beginning Readers in Florida's Rural Schools
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Helvenston, Susan S.
2013-01-01
This study reviews the state of professional development (PD) for teachers of beginning readers in Florida's rural schools. Teachers of beginning readers need to have a deep understanding of language, of how the reading process develops, and of effective pedagogy in early literacy. Few teachers begin their careers with sufficient knowledge and…
Professional Development for Mathematics Teachers: Using Task Design and Analysis
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lee, Hea-Jin; Özgün-Koca, S. Asli
2016-01-01
This study is based on a Task Design and Analysis activity from a year-long professional development program. The activity was designed to increase teacher growth in several areas, including knowledge of mathematics, understanding of students' cognitive activity, knowledge of good questions, and ability to develop and improve high quality tasks.…
Coaching Discourse: Supporting Teachers' Professional Learning
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Heineke, Sally F.
2013-01-01
Although coaching is used in many schools to facilitate teachers' professional learning, few studies look closely at coaching discourse. Exploring how coaching facilitates teachers' professional development, this study used tape-recorded coaching sessions and individual post-interviews to examine the one-on-one coaching interactions of 4…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Pyhältö, Kirsi; Pietarinen, Janne; Soini, Tiina
2015-01-01
The aim of this study was to examine teacher learning in terms of teachers' professional agency in the professional community of the school. Altogether 2310 Finnish comprehensive school teachers completed a survey. Results showed that teachers' active efforts to learn in the professional community and to promote school development cannot be…
Science teachers' learning in a context of collaborative professional development
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Faraji, Hassan
The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate and evaluate science teachers' learning in a context of Collaborative Professional Development, specifically in the Collaborative Program, which is under the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science Teaching (TRC). A non-positivistic, naturalistic approach was used to study five middle school science teachers from a large school district in South Central Texas that were involved in this program. The entire data collection process was conducted from June 1998 through September 2000. I distributed a 15-question survey to the five respondents prior to conducting in-depth interviews with them, between July 2000 and December 2000. I made five class observations, one per teacher, from March 2000 to May 2000. I started to analyze my qualitative data in June 2002. I returned to the write-up process in December 2002, and have continued to the conclusion. This study is intended to serve as a source of information and insight for many different people and groups, including current and prospective science teachers and administrators who are planning to participate in the TRC Results of the study showed eight findings: (1) An overwhelming preference for the kind of professional development respondents received in the Collaborative Program, over the kinds of workshops and seminars they has attended in the past; (2) Collaborative-style learning is initially intimidating and difficult for teachers, but ultimately valuable; (3) The teachers apply what they have learned in the Collaborative Program to their own classrooms; (4) Hands-on learning is something that both teachers and their students enjoy; (5) The Collaborative Program has invigorated their sense of themselves as teachers, and as science teachers specifically, and has built their confidence in teaching science; (6) The incentives for teacher participation in the Collaborative Program seem to be intellectual ones just as much as material ones; (7) The
Engineering Professional Development Design for Secondary School Teachers: A Multiple Case Study
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Daugherty, Jenny Lynn
2009-01-01
The complexity of engineering and its integration into K-12 education have resulted in a variety of issues requiring sustained empirical research (Johnson, Burghardt, & Daugherty, 2008). One particular area of need, given the emphasis on teacher effects on student learning, is to research engineering-oriented teacher professional development. A…
Elementary School Teacher's Perceptions of the Math Coach Approach to Professional Development
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Drust, Janice H.
2013-01-01
An increasingly popular way of supporting teachers is with instructional coaching, which involves the teacher working alongside an instructional coach in the classroom and participating weekly in professional development. Due to a challenge issued to educators from government leaders, schools and districts are considering the coaching model as an…
Professional Development of Secondary Science Teachers of English Learners in Immigrant Communities
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Manzo, Rosa D.; Cruz, Lisceth; Faltis, Christian; de la Torre, Adela
2011-01-01
This is a research study of secondary science teacher professional development, in which 30 teachers learned about and implemented a series of teaching strategies aimed at increasing the participation and learning of English Learners in schools serving largely Latino immigrant communities within California's Central Valley. This study focuses on…
Veteran Teacher Engagement in Site-Based Professional Development: A Mixed Methods Study
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Houston, Biaze L.
2016-01-01
This research study examined how teachers self-report their levels of engagement, which factors they believe contribute most to their engagement, and which assumptions of andragogy most heavily influence teacher engagement in site-based professional development. This study employed a convergent parallel mixed methods design to study veteran…
First-Year Effects of an Engineering Professional Development Program on Elementary Teachers
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Yoon, So Yoon; Diefes-Dux, Heidi; Strobel, Johannes
2013-01-01
The ultimate objective of teacher professional development (TPD) is to deliver a positive impact on students' engagement and performance in class through teacher practice via improving their content and pedagogical content knowledge and changing their attitudes toward the subject being taught. However, compared to other content areas, such as…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Karabenick, Stuart A.; Noda, Phyllis A. Clemens
2004-01-01
Research-based professional development is essential for districts and teachers across the nation that face the challenge of providing a quality education for increasingly diverse student populations. In this study, the researchers surveyed 729 teachers in one midwestern suburban district recently impacted by high numbers of immigrant and refugee…
NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
Doraiswamy, Nithya
This qualitative case study focused on the multifaceted issue of exploring science teacher leaders understanding and addressing of issues of diversity and equity with peers through professional development. The purpose of the study was to highlight the opportunities and barriers to the addressing of issues of diversity and equity through the work of a community of teachers leaders in science professional development. To frame this study, the researcher drew from the interdisciplinary field of multicultural education, transformative learning, and teacher leadership. In drawing out the connections from these vast bodies of literature, the study speaks to the need of both, creating teacher leaders in science education who are capable of meeting the twin demands of excellence and equity, and also attending to the challenges in the professional learning continuums of teachers leaders and their peers towards addressing issues of diversity and equity in science education.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Van der Klink, Marcel; Kools, Quinta; Avissar, Gilada; White, Simone; Sakata, Tetsuhito
2017-01-01
The attention being devoted to teacher educators as professionals and their professional development is unquestionably increasing. Whilst much of that attention is being directed at teacher educators in different countries, international comparisons have been quite rare to date. The research question addressed in this study was: "Do…
What It Takes To Be a Teacher: The Role of Personal and Professional Development.
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Freppon, Penny A.
This collection of papers focuses on teachers' personal and professional development, showing what teachers' learning, hopes, desires, struggles, and instruction look and feel like from inside the lives of effective teachers and in their classrooms. Topics include the types of resources and experiences effective teachers use, how these resources…
Professional Development and IELTS Training Course: A Case of EFL Teachers in Iran
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Ashraf, Hamid; Kafi, Zeinab
2016-01-01
The current study aimed at investigating the status of Professional Development (PD) through examining teachers' perspectives over how effective they consider exam specific teacher training courses (IELTS in this case) which aim at increasing their PD. To this end, a group of EFL teachers, from different language schools in Mashhad, Iran took part…
i-STEM Summer Institute: An Integrated Approach to Teacher Professional Development in STEM
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Nadelson, Louis S.; Seifert, Anne; Moll, Amy J.; Coats, Bradley
2012-01-01
The importance of STEM education to societal developments provides justification for assuring K-12 teachers are prepared to teach the related content. Inservice teacher professional development is critical to achieving the goal of enhanced student knowledge of STEM. Combining the need for increased capacity to teach STEM and the extant literature…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
White, Kelley Mayer
2016-01-01
For a majority of teachers, traditional professional development workshops lack relevancy and leave teachers on their own to implement what was learned. Workshops are frequently structured in ways in which teachers are seen simply as recipients of information handed down by trainers (a more passive role) versus those who reflect on and construct…
Teachers' Perceptions of Professional Development in Chilean State-Funded Early Childhood Education
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Gómez, Mariel; Ford, Laurie
2017-01-01
This article presents the results of a study on professional development in Chilean state-funded early childhood education. Based on a multiple-case study design and drawing on qualitative methods we explored teachers' perspectives on professional development at two early childhood educational centers. Two centers' directors and four early…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Alozie, Nonyelum M.
2010-01-01
Professional development for practicing science teachers has been a goal in education for the last two decades. Studies have shown that the quality of teacher instruction may be linked to teacher participation and involvement in professional development programs (Fishman, Marx, Best, & Tal, 2003). Furthermore, reflection during professional…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Lee, Daphnee Hui Lin; Chiu, Chi Shing
2017-01-01
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how principals' leadership approaches to teacher professional development arise from school banding and may impact upon teacher professional capital and student achievement. Design/methodology/approach: The case study is situated within the context of school-based management, comprising reflective…
ERIC Educational Resources Information Center
Patterson, Timothy
2015-01-01
Common sense thinking on international professional development suggests that the rewards for teachers are automatic. One of the most frequently advertised gains teachers are expected to see from participation includes the likelihood that they will have a transformative experience, whereby aspects of their personal or professional attributes are…