The Assessment of Professional Standard Competence of Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Hae-Gyun; Kim, Jung-Hyun; Kang, Jong-Gu

2008-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the level of competence needed for teachers of the visually impaired. The assessment was based on Professional Standard Competence developed by the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) for special education teachers in 2001. The researchers used questionnaires to acquire information about 190 South Korean…

A standards-based formative evaluation of a national professional development program for science teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raphael, Carol Greco

2002-09-01

The 1996 National Science Education Standards provided educators and policy makers with a major impetus for constructive change in science education. The Standards not only specified what science content should be taught, but also provided organization for future science curricula. A major theme that pervades the Standards is that the classroom teacher is the most important component of classroom change and that reform efforts should be directed at improving the teaching of science through professional development for science teachers. In response to the National Science Education Standards, the Science Teachers Organization (pseudonym) prepared a professional development program for science teachers that was intended to acquaint teachers with the Standards and bring about reform of science teaching by changing teachers' instructional strategies and procedures. This program, named Preparing Schools for Science (PSS), was designed for use in all of the 50 states, but was first introduced in a southwestern state referred to as Utopia in this dissertation. Using the Provus Method of Discrepancy Evaluation, a design and installation audit of the Preparing Schools for Science Program was performed. Suggestions for program improvement, as well as a complete evaluation design for the PSS Program, were presented. Specific program modifications suggested by the research included an improved organization of personnel to monitor and supervise the program, more sustained professional development workshops, a stronger network of support for teachers. Five major implications for future professional development programs emerge from this research. (1) A needs analysis should be conducted before a program is designed in order to ensure that the program meet the needs of those for whom it is intended. (2) The length and type of training are the most important factors in ensuring that teachers have sufficient time to incorporate and learn how to use new ideas. (3) Additional

Revisiting Professional Teacher Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watson, Amanda

2016-01-01

The Australian Society for Music Education's (ASME) involvement in the development of professional standards for music educators was a significant and active research time in the history of the Society. As ASME celebrates its golden jubilee, it is appropriate to revisit that history and consider the future prospects of subject-specific standards.…

Dollars, Distinction, or Duty? The Meaning of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards for Teachers' Work and Collegial Relations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anagnostopoulos, Dorothea; Sykes, Gary; McCrory, Raven; Cannata, Marisa; Frank, Kenneth

2010-01-01

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is the most prominent contemporary effort to professionalize teaching. Along with identifying exceptional teachers, the NBPTS seeks to alter teachers' work by establishing a cadre of expert teachers capable of and obligated to leading school improvement efforts. This article reports…

Common Pressures, Same Results? Recent Reforms in Professional Standards and Competences in Teacher Education for Secondary Teachers in England, France and Germany

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Page, Tina M.

2015-01-01

Over the last decade, the introduction of professional standards and competences in initial teacher education for secondary teachers in England, France and Germany has provided the cornerstone of education reform in all three countries. The precise number and specific content of a measurable set of skills for teachers have offered challenges for…

In Search of the Excellent Literature Teacher: An Inductive Approach to Constructing Professional Teaching Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Witte, T. C. H.; Jansen, E. P. W. A.

2015-01-01

This study makes a contribution to the development of empirically based, domain-specific teaching standards that are acknowledged by the professional community of teachers and which, therefore, have a good chance of being successfully implemented and used for professional development purposes. It was prompted by the resistance on the part of many…

The impact of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) professional development on the self-efficacy of science teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akella, Somi Devi M.

In 2012, the National Research Council introduced the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which were created to improve the K-12 education in the U.S. and stress the importance of providing professional development (PD) to acquire the knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy to design lessons to meet high standards of teaching and learning. Bandura's (1977) theory of self-efficacy posits that people are motivated to perform an action if they are confident that they can perform the action successfully. The purpose of this survey research was to investigate the impact of professional development on the self-efficacy of science teachers with regard to the NGSS practice of Analyzing and Interpreting Data as well as to probe teachers' perceptions of barriers to their self-efficacy in applying this practice. The study found that focused and targeted PD helped improve participants' self-efficacy in incorporating the NGSS practices and addressed several barriers to teacher self-efficacy. In response to findings, Akella's Science Teaching Efficacy Professional Development (ASTEPD) model is proposed as a tool to guide PD practice and, thus, helps improve teacher self-efficacy.

Year 3 of Implementing the Common Core State Standards: Professional Development for Teachers and Principals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kober, Nancy; McIntosh, Shelby; Rentner, Diane Stark

2013-01-01

Timely, ongoing, and effective professional development for teachers and principals will be critical to the successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). These voluntary state-developed standards in mathematics and English language arts (ELA) outline the knowledge and skills that students in grades kindergarten through 12…

Indigenizing Teacher Professional Development: Anticipating the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rhea, Zane Ma

2012-01-01

It is the Australian Government's intention that all teachers will have, as a minimum, a proficient level of demonstrable professional expertise in both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education and Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. A raft of government policies are giving shape to the engagement of the Australian…

Classroom Management and National Professional Standards for Teachers: A Review of the Literature on Theory and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Egeberg, Helen M.; McConney, Andrew; Price, Anne

2016-01-01

This article reviews the conceptual and empirical research on classroom management to ascertain the extent to which there is consistency between the "advice" found in the research literature and the professional standards for teachers and initial teacher education, in regards to knowledge and perspectives about effective classroom…

Accomplished Story Telling: English Teachers Write about Their Professional Lives (The Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia Project)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doecke, Brenton

2004-01-01

This paper draws on research that has recently been conducted in Australia on the possibility of formulating professional standards for teachers of English in primary and secondary schools. English teachers around the country have played a vital role in the project, writing stories in an effort to capture "accomplished" English teaching,…

The Use of Poster Sessions to Develop Professionalism, Domain Five of the Ecuadorian National English Teachers' Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morales J., María V.; Morales J., María A.

2017-01-01

This study describes the presence of professional skills found in poster session proposals in order to consider the use of poster sessions for developing the skills required by the 2012 Ecuadorian Standards for English teachers, specifically related to the fifth domain professionalism. Thirteen poster session proposals for a national English…

ICT Competency Standards for Teachers: Competency Standards Modules

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2008

2008-01-01

Both professional development programs for teachers currently in the classroom and programs for preparing future teachers should provide technology-rich experiences throughout all aspects of the training. Standards and resources within the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s project "Information and…

The Effects of Achieved National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification on the Marginality of Physical Education Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaudreault, Karen Lux; Woods, Amelia Mays

2012-01-01

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between achieving The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification and feelings of marginality of physical education teachers. Data sources included a focus group interview with 6 National Board Certified Physical Education Teachers (NBCPETs) and individual phone…

Professional development for science teachers.

PubMed

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.

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2018

2018-01-01

The "National Board for Professional Teaching Standards" ("NBPTS") establishes standards for accomplished teachers and awards professional certification to teachers who can demonstrate that their teaching practices meet those standards. Educators and experts in child development and related fields established the organization,…

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…

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,…

Australia's Supervising Teachers: Motivators and Challenges to Inform Professional Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nielsen, Wendy; Mena, Juanjo; Clarke, Anthony; O'Shea, Sarah; Hoban, Garry; Collins, John

2017-01-01

This paper offers an overview of what motivates and challenges Australian supervising teachers to work with preservice teachers in their classrooms. In the contemporary Australian context of new National Professional Standards for Teachers, a new national curriculum and new standards for Initial Teacher Education programs, what motivates and…

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.

Advanced Standards in Gifted Education Teacher Preparation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Association for Gifted Children, 2013

2013-01-01

After mastering initial standards for the preparation of teachers of the gifted, many educators in gifted education continue their professional growth toward mastery of advanced professional standards at the post baccalaureate levels. For some this means deepening their understandings and expertise and adding new responsibilities for leadership…

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…

Impacts of Professional Development on High School Mathematics Teachers as They Implement Common Core State Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saucedo, Ana A.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the perceptions of high school mathematics teachers regarding the support provided through professional development (PD) as they engage in the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). By means of a qualitative instrumental case study, eight high school mathematics teachers…

Professional Dialogue, Reflective Practice and Teacher Research: Engaging Early Childhood Pre-Service Teachers in Collegial Dialogue about Curriculum Innovation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simoncini, Kym M.; Lasen, Michelle; Rocco, Sharn

2014-01-01

While embedded in teacher professional standards and assumed aspects of teacher professionalism, willingness and ability to engage in professional dialogue about practice and curriculum initiatives are rarely examined or explicitly taught in teacher education programs. With this in mind, the authors designed an assessment task for pre-service…

On Teacher Professional Development: Improving Professional Qualifications and Membership in Professional Teacher Communities

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;…

Studying Motivational-Axiological Component of Professional Competence of a College Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gutsu, E. G.; Demeneva, N. N.; Kochetova, E. V.; Mayasova, T. V.; Belinova, N. V.

2016-01-01

Present article addresses the problem of changing requirements towards professional competencies of higher school teachers due to the introduction of new educational standards. Motivational-axiological component of college teacher's professional competence gets a central position. The article provides the authors' view upon the concept of…

A Comparative Analysis of Primary Teacher Professionalism in England and Finland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webb, Rosemary; Vulliamy, Graham; Hamalainen, Seppo; Sarja, Anneli; Kimonen, Eija; Nevalainen, Raimo

2004-01-01

Policy-makers' conceptions of teacher professionalism currently differ markedly in England and Finland. In England they are shaped by agendas associated with the drive to raise standards and "commercialized professionalism" whilst in Finland they are influenced by notions of "teacher empowerment". This article analyses findings…

Science Professional Learning Communities: Beyond a singular view of teacher professional development

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.

An Introduction to the Standards for Preparation and Professional Development for Teachers of Engineering

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…

Assessment of Clinical Teachers' Professionalism in Iran: From Residents and Fellowships' Perspective.

PubMed

Garshasbi, Sima; Bahador, Hamidollah; Fakhraei, Nahid; Farbod, Abolfazl; Mohammadi, Maryam; Ahmady, Soleiman; Emami Razavi, Seyed Hassan

2017-01-01

In the present study, professional conduct of clinical teachers in Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran was assessed by their residents (n=292) and fellowships (n=48) using a standard questioner called self-reported measurement equipment. This evaluation was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Professionalism was questioned in four domains including clinical teacher-patient, clinical teacher-student, inter-professional and clinical teacher-self relationships. Accordingly, mean scores of the teachers in cases of clinical teacher-patient; clinical teacher-student, inter-professional (teamwork) and clinical teacher-self relations were 61%, 62.2%, 60.6% and 57.6%, respectively. Generally, the teachers achieved 60.35% of the positive scores, and as a result, they were assessed intermediate in the professional behaviors. The residents and fellowships stated that they were not completely satisfied with their teacher's professional conduct and had hidden concerns. It shows that the clinical teachers in our project may not be ideal role models. As a result, developing a comprehensive professionalism and implementing regulations to ensure a successful professionalism are necessary. The precise evaluation of professional conduct in clinical faculty could encourage the maintenance of professional behaviors and potentially decrease negative role modeling and positively influence the hidden curriculums. Operational approaches to formulating regulations and appropriate measures for establishing professional ethics are of great importance.

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…

Teachers Talking Together: The Power of Professional Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nathan, Linda

2008-01-01

Schools that encourage teachers to do excellent work, as Boston Arts Academy (BAA) does, are "professional learning communities." A professional learning community exists when the entire faculty and staff, including the administration, work together towards a shared set of standards and assessments that are known to everyone, including…

Remembering Reflection in Pre-Service Teachers' Professional Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ditchburn, Geraldine M.

2015-01-01

In an Australian education policy environment where professional standards are determining the parameters of effective teaching and learning, it is important that we revisit ways to ensure reflection and collegial engagement are embedded in pre-service teachers' professional experience. This article reports on a university program initiative that…

Teacher Professional Development to Support Teacher Professional Learning: Systemic Factors from Irish Case Studies

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…

Perceived Importance of District Developed Teacher Evaluation Standards and Criteria as Measured by Teacher Values Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Jan Ellen Pfeiffer

2011-01-01

In 2009, a PK-12 public school district board of education approved a teacher evaluation tool developed by a volunteer team of teachers and administrators. The Learning Based Teacher Evaluation (LBTE) was constructed with six broad standards and fifteen specific criteria. The standards and criteria were assumed important to professional practice,…

Professional Development, Teacher Learning, and National Standards: A Mixed-Method Multiple-Case Study of the Professional Learning Experiences of Evangelical Christian School Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montoro, Vincent

2012-01-01

Today's educational environment requires teachers who understand teaching and learning, have strong content knowledge, and can make connections between life experiences and the curriculum. Teachers are expected to be continually learning to improve their practice. Professional learning is essential in this process. Research on professional…

The Effectiveness of Using Social Communications Networks in Mathematics Teachers' Professional Development

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…

Teacher Professionalization: Motivational Factors and the Influence of Age

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hildebrandt, Susan A.; Eom, Minhee

2011-01-01

This study examines motivational factors of teachers who have achieved a national standard of professionalization. Data were collected from National Board certified teachers in the United States (N = 453) using a two-part, web-based survey. Exploratory factor analysis found five motivators: improved teaching, financial gain, collaborative…

School District Professional Learning: Teachers' Perceptions of Instructional Leadership, Teacher Practice, and Student Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Avery, Christine M.

2013-01-01

This dissertation study includes an evaluation of a school district model of professional learning that aims to improve school administrators' instructional leadership skills and teacher practice to positively impact student learning. This study employs a valid and reliable survey instrument that measures professional learning standards. The…

Improving sexuality education: the development of teacher-preparation standards.

PubMed

Barr, Elissa M; Goldfarb, Eva S; Russell, Susan; Seabert, Denise; Wallen, Michele; Wilson, Kelly L

2014-06-01

Teaching sexuality education to support young people's sexual development and overall sexual health is both needed and supported. Data continue to highlight the high rates of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections, among young people in the United States as well as the overwhelming public support for sexuality education instruction. In support of the implementation of the National Sexuality Education Standards, the current effort focuses on better preparing teachers to deliver sexuality education. An expert panel was convened by the Future of Sex Education Initiative to develop teacher-preparation standards for sexuality education. Their task was to develop standards and indicators that addressed the unique elements intrinsic to sexuality education instruction. Seven standards and associated indicators were developed that address professional disposition, diversity and equity, content knowledge, legal and professional ethics, planning, implementation, and assessment. The National Teacher-Preparation Standards for Sexuality Education represent an unprecedented unified effort to enable prospective health education teachers to become competent in teaching methodology, theory, practice of pedagogy, content, and skills, specific to sexuality education. Higher education will play a key role in ensuring the success of these standards. © 2014, American School Health Association.

Rescuing Teacher Professionalism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillard, Derek

2005-01-01

If teachers are to reclaim any sort of agenda--let alone a radical one--they need to be taken seriously as professionals. Why aren't they? Derek Gillard surveys the history of teaching in England and argues that teacher professionalism was a short-lived phenomenon which has been in decline for thirty years. Far from rescuing it from the Tories,…

Factors Influencing Teacher Instructional Practice in Mathematics When Participating in Professional Development

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…

Perform or Else: The Performative Enhancement of Teacher Professionalism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liew, Warren Mark

2012-01-01

The Singapore Ministry of Education's Enhanced Performance Management System (EPMS) was instituted in 2005 as a system of professional accountability to enhance the standards and stakes of teacher professionalism in schools. This essay explores how the EPMS, with its underlying paradigm of performance management, functions as a "technology of…

National standards in science education: Teacher perceptions regarding utilization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fletcher, Carol Louise Parsons

The purpose of this naturalistic study was to determine what factors most influence middle school science teachers' intentions to utilize or ignore national standards, as a toot for reform in their classrooms, schools, or districts. Results indicate. that teachers with. minimal training were unlikely to use national standards documents due to their perceptions of a lack of support from peers, administrators and a high-stakes state accountability system. Teachers with more extensive training were more inclined to use national standards documents as philosophical guides for reform because they believed in the validity of the recommendations. Implications are discussed, chief among them that short-term professional development may actually do more harm than good if teachers retain or develop unexamined misconceptions about national standards recommendations as a result. In addition, due to the concerns expressed by teachers regarding state curriculum mandates and standardized testing, this study indicates that changes in these external factors must be instituted before teachers will commit themselves to standards-based reforms. It is suggested that staff development focus on opportunities for reflection and application which will promote conceptual change in teachers. A model predicated on the notion that the process of implementing reform is essentially an issue of promoting conceptual change in teachers is proposed. This model, termed the Reform Implementation as Conceptual Change, or RICC, focuses specifically on the cognitive processes teachers may go through when they are exposed to an innovation such as national standards. Stages such as integrated application, accommodation, assimilation, disconnection, and false accommodation, are described. The impact that professional development and training may have on the likelihood that teachers will experience these various stages is also discussed. This model serves as a theoretical framework for explaining why some

The Implementation of Standards-Based Teacher Evaluation in Vietnamese Secondary Schools: A Case Study in Dong Thap

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pham, Huy Q.

2013-01-01

Teacher quality has become a critical area of concern in Vietnamese education. Recently, new professional standards for teachers in secondary schools have been developed, piloted, and implemented. This study explores the perceptions of teachers, school principals, and other administrators about the new teacher professional standards, the…

The Teacher as a Professional in the Caribbean Today.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession, Morges (Switzerland).

The changing patterns of Caribbean society have affected and will continue to influence the concept of professionalism as it is applied to teaching. Teachers' organizations should promote the professional development of their members, as implied through acceptance of standards of personal conduct, competence on the job, and commitment to student…

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

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

Science Standards to their students. We will also describe the professional development and support system to develop teacher leaders and explain some of the challenges that accompany this approach of developing teacher leaders in the area of climate literacy.

Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards: How Instructional Coaches Mediate Standards-Based Educational Reform to Teacher Practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laxton, Katherine E.

This dissertation takes a close look at how district-level instructional coaches support teachers in learning to shifting their instructional practice, related to the Next Generation Science Standards. This dissertation aims to address how re-structuring professional development to a job-embedded coaching model supports individual teacher learning of new reform-related instructional practice. Implementing the NGSS is a problem of supporting professional learning in a way that will enable educators to make fundamental changes to their teaching practice. However, there are few examples in the literature that explain how coaches interact with teachers to improve teacher learning of reform-related instructional practice. There are also few examples in the literature that specifically address how supporting teachers with extended professional learning opportunities, aligned with high-leverage practices, tools and curriculum, impacts how teachers make sense of new standards-based educational reforms and what manifests in classroom instruction. This dissertation proposes four conceptual categories of sense-making that influence how instructional coaches interpret the nature of reform, their roles and in instructional improvement and how to work with teachers. It is important to understand how coaches interpret reform because their interpretations may have unintended consequences related to privileging certain views about instruction, or establishing priorities for how to work with teachers. In this dissertation, we found that re-structuring professional development to a job-embedded coaching model supported teachers in learning new reform-related instructional practice. However, individual teacher interpretations of reform emerged and seemed to be linked to how instructional coaches supported teacher learning.

Teachers' Professional Knowledge for Teaching English as a Foreign Language: Assessing the Outcomes of Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

König, Johannes; Lammerding, Sandra; Nold, Günter; Rohde, Andreas; Strauß, Sarah; Tachtsoglou, Sarantis

2016-01-01

Despite an increasing research interest in subject-specific teacher knowledge, the scientific understanding regarding teachers' professional knowledge for teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) is very limited. This study therefore applies standardized tests to directly assess content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and…

Robots Teaching Other Little Robots: Neoliberalism, CCSS, and Teacher Professionalism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Endacott, Jason L.; Wright, Ginney P.; Goering, Christian Z.; Collet, Vicki S.; Denny, George S.; Davis, Jennifer Jennings

2015-01-01

Recent quantitative research on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in schools across Arkansas has discovered that teachers' perceptions of job satisfaction, agency, and professionalism are significantly affected by their school leaders' openness towards autonomy, flexibility, and opinions of teachers (Matlock et al.…

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…

Reconsidering Research on Teachers' Professional Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beijaard, Douwe; Meijer, Paulien C.; Verloop, Nico

2004-01-01

The studies considered in this review of recent research on teachers' professional identity can be divided into three categories: (1) studies in which the focus was on teachers' professional identity formation, (2) studies in which the focus was on the identification of characteristics of teachers' professional identity, and (3) studies in which…

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.

Teacher Professionalization and Gender Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tabakin, Geoffrey; Densmore, Kathleen

1986-01-01

This article presents an overview of theories of teacher professionalization, a discussion of feminist theories and the definition of gender analysis, and an argument for the appropriateness of gender analysis of teacher professionalization. (MT)

Design and validation of a standards-based science teacher efficacy instrument

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kerr, Patricia Reda

National standards for K--12 science education address all aspects of science education, with their main emphasis on curriculum---both science subject matter and the process involved in doing science. Standards for science teacher education programs have been developing along a parallel plane, as is self-efficacy research involving classroom teachers. Generally, studies about efficacy have been dichotomous---basing the theoretical underpinnings on the work of either Rotter's Locus of Control theory or on Bandura's explanations of efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancy. This study brings all three threads together---K--12 science standards, teacher education standards, and efficacy beliefs---in an instrument designed to measure science teacher efficacy with items based on identified critical attributes of standards-based science teaching and learning. Based on Bandura's explanation of efficacy being task-specific and having outcome expectancy, a developmental, systematic progression from standards-based strategies and activities to tasks to critical attributes was used to craft items for a standards-based science teacher efficacy instrument. Demographic questions related to school characteristics, teacher characteristics, preservice background, science teaching experience, and post-certification professional development were included in the instrument. The instrument was completed by 102 middle level science teachers, with complete data for 87 teachers. A principal components analysis of the science teachers' responses to the instrument resulted in two components: Standards-Based Science Teacher Efficacy: Beliefs About Teaching (BAT, reliability = .92) and Standards-Based Science Teacher Efficacy: Beliefs About Student Achievement (BASA, reliability = .82). Variables that were characteristic of professional development activities, science content preparation, and school environment were identified as members of the sets of variables predicting the BAT and BASA

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…

Professionalism and the Post-Performative Teacher: New Teachers Reflect on Autonomy and Accountability in the English School System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilkins, Chris

2011-01-01

This paper explores the impact of the increasingly performative nature of the assessment of teachers' performance in England leading to the introduction of "Professional Standards for Teachers" in 2007. It reports the findings of a small-scale study of newly-qualified primary school teachers in the context of literature on teacher…

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…

Effects of professional development on the knowledge and classroom practices of elementary school science teachers

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.

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…

Teacher Perceptions of Their Curricular and Pedagogical Shifts: Outcomes of a Project-Based Model of Teacher Professional Development in the Next Generation Science Standards.

PubMed

Shernoff, David J; Sinha, Suparna; Bressler, Denise M; Schultz, Dawna

2017-01-01

In this study, we conducted a model of teacher professional development (PD) on the alignment of middle and high school curricula and instruction to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSSs), and evaluated the impact of the PD on teacher participants' development. The PD model included a 4-day summer academy emphasizing project-based learning (PBL) in the designing of NGSS-aligned curricula and instruction, as well as monthly follow-up Professional Learning Community meetings throughout the year providing numerous opportunities for teachers to develop and implement lesson plans, share results of lesson writing and implementation (successes and challenges), provide mutual feedback, and refine curricula and assessments. Following the summer academy, six female teachers were interviewed about their current conceptualizations of NGSS, the extent of curricular shifts made that are required by NGSS, their self-perceptions regarding their level of accomplishment in curriculum writing, and the benefits of the PD in reaching their goals related to NGSS. Interviews were supplemented with an analysis of lesson plans written while participating in the PD program. The interviewed teachers suggested that they had made important conceptual and pedagogical shifts required by NGSS as they participated in the PD, and also noted a variety of challenges as they made this shift. While all teachers were relative novices at NGSS curriculum writing before the PD, most of the teachers interviewed felt that they had achieved the status of an "accomplished novice" following the summer academy. An analysis of their written lessons suggested a great range in the extent to which teachers effectively applied their understanding of NGSS to write lessons aligned to NGSS. Interviewed teachers believed that the PD model was helpful to their development as science teachers, and all reported that there were no aspects of the PD that were not helpful. Even though most teachers obtained a basic

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…

Professional Development in Climate Science Education as a Model for Navigating the Next Generations Science Standards - A High School Science Teacher's Perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manning, C.; Buhr, S. M.

2012-12-01

The Next Generation Science Standards attempt to move the American K12 education system into the 21st century by focusing on science and engineering practice, crosscutting concepts, and the core ideas of the different disciplines. Putting these standards into practice will challenge a deeply entrenched system and science educators will need significant financial support from state and local governments, professional development from colleges and universities, and the creation of collegial academic networks that will help solve the many problems that will arise. While all of this sounds overwhelming, there are proven strategies and mechanisms already in place. Educators who tackle challenging topics like global climate change are turning to scientists and other like-minded teachers. Many of these teachers have never taken a class in atmospheric science but are expected to know the basics of climate and understand the emerging science as well. Teachers need scientists to continue to reach out and provide rigorous and in-depth professional development opportunities that enable them to answer difficult student questions and deal with community misconceptions about climate science. Examples of such programs include Earthworks, ICEE (Inspiring Climate Education Excellence) and ESSEA (Earth System Science Education Alliance). Projects like CLEAN (Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network) provide excellent resources that teachers can integrate into their lessons. All of these benefit from the umbrella of documents like Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science. Support from the aforementioned networks has encouraged the development of effective approaches for teaching climate science. From the perspective of a Geoscience master teacher and instructional coach, this presentation will demonstrate how scientists, researchers, and science education professionals have created models for professional development that create long-term networks supporting

New Professionalism in Austere Times: The Employment Experiences of Early Career Teachers in Scotland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hulme, Moira; Menter, Ian

2014-01-01

International concern to raise educational standards and improve teacher quality has directed attention to the need to sustain career-long professional learning. Teacher induction and early professional learning (during years 2-6) have been associated with patterns of attrition and improved pupil outcomes. As the economic crisis impacts on public…

The Effect of Using Some Professional Development Strategies on Improving the Teaching Performance of English Language Student Teacher at the Faculty of Education, Helwan University in the Light of Pre-Service Teacher Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Halim, Safaa Mahmoud Abdel

2008-01-01

The main aim of this thesis was to determine the effect of using a training program based on three professional development strategies; namely: action learning, peer coaching and study groups, on improving teaching performance of Faculty of Education, Helwan University EFL student teachers in the light of standards for teachers of English at…

"Being In" and "Feeling Seen" in Professional Development as New Teachers: The Ontological Layer(ing) of Professional Development Practice

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…

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)

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…

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…

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,…

Recognising Emotional Intelligence in Professional Standards for Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pugh, Eamonn Victor

2008-01-01

A project conducted in a primary school explored the hypothesis that student teachers could reflect upon feedback to improve their use of emotional intelligence in the classroom, thereby making consequent improvements to their teaching as defined by the required professional teaching standards. The small body of literature on the emotional…

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…

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…

Teacher Perceptions of Their Curricular and Pedagogical Shifts: Outcomes of a Project-Based Model of Teacher Professional Development in the Next Generation Science Standards

PubMed Central

Shernoff, David J.; Sinha, Suparna; Bressler, Denise M.; Schultz, Dawna

2017-01-01

In this study, we conducted a model of teacher professional development (PD) on the alignment of middle and high school curricula and instruction to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSSs), and evaluated the impact of the PD on teacher participants’ development. The PD model included a 4-day summer academy emphasizing project-based learning (PBL) in the designing of NGSS-aligned curricula and instruction, as well as monthly follow-up Professional Learning Community meetings throughout the year providing numerous opportunities for teachers to develop and implement lesson plans, share results of lesson writing and implementation (successes and challenges), provide mutual feedback, and refine curricula and assessments. Following the summer academy, six female teachers were interviewed about their current conceptualizations of NGSS, the extent of curricular shifts made that are required by NGSS, their self-perceptions regarding their level of accomplishment in curriculum writing, and the benefits of the PD in reaching their goals related to NGSS. Interviews were supplemented with an analysis of lesson plans written while participating in the PD program. The interviewed teachers suggested that they had made important conceptual and pedagogical shifts required by NGSS as they participated in the PD, and also noted a variety of challenges as they made this shift. While all teachers were relative novices at NGSS curriculum writing before the PD, most of the teachers interviewed felt that they had achieved the status of an “accomplished novice” following the summer academy. An analysis of their written lessons suggested a great range in the extent to which teachers effectively applied their understanding of NGSS to write lessons aligned to NGSS. Interviewed teachers believed that the PD model was helpful to their development as science teachers, and all reported that there were no aspects of the PD that were not helpful. Even though most teachers obtained a

Linking School Goals and Learning Standards to Teacher Evaluation and Compensation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathis, William J.

It is possible to tie teacher compensation to professional growth, without reference to standardized test scores. Tying pay to students' achievement scores does not account for the different levels of students, and teacher testing does not separate good teachers from bad. In Rutland Northeast, Vermont, each school has its own locally elected…

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,…

Oral Proficiency Standards and Foreign Language Teacher Candidates: Current Findings and Future Research Directions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glisan, Eileen W.; Swender, Elvira; Surface, Eric A.

2013-01-01

The renewed national focus on teacher quality and effectiveness has resulted in more rigorous standards that describe the knowledge and skills required of teacher candidates across all disciplines. In the area of foreign languages, three sets of professional standards address the oral proficiency of teachers in the target languages they teach…

[Professional burnout among university and high school teachers--comparative study].

PubMed

Swietochowski, Waldemar

2011-01-01

Professional burnout is a set of negative emotional and behavioral symptoms, observed in workers of widely understood human service occupations, including teachers. In spite of the considerable number of studies of burnout in teachers, a few of them concern university teachers. The aim of the article was to estimate the degree of burning threat in this professional group and to analyze individual determinants and dynamics of burning out in academic teachers. Gender, age, personality traits and temperament traits were given the status of main factors in the study. The role of the perceived social support was also analyzed. 97 academic workers of three state universities (University, Medical University and Technical University) in Łódź took part in the study; 100 teachers of high schools formed a comparative group. MBI General Survey was applied to measure dependent variables (burnout and its three components: Emotional Exhaustion, Cinicism and Professional Efficacy). The level of factors was measured with standard psychological tests: NEO-FFI and FCZ-KT. The Scale of Perceived Social Support was also applied. The results show considerably lower threat of the burning out syndrome in university than in high school teachers. Among individual factors only two temperament traits (emotional reactivity and perseveration) and one personality trait (extroversion) seem to be important determinants of professional burnout. The perceived social support does not prevent the progress of burnout syndrome. Based on the obtained results several practical conclusions were formulated. They refer mainly to preventive training for beginners in teaching and changes in the organization of academic teachers' work.

Understanding Teachers' Professional Learning Goals from Their Current Professional Concerns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Louws, Monika L.; Meirink, Jacobiene A.; van Veen, Klaas; van Driel, Jan H.

2018-01-01

In the day-to-day workplace teachers direct their own learning, but little is known about what drives their decisions about what they would like to learn. These decisions are assumed to be influenced by teachers' current professional concerns. Also, teachers in different professional life phases have different reasons for engaging in professional…

Professional Teaching Standards: A Comparative Analysis of Their History, Implementation and Efficacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Call, Kairen

2018-01-01

Since the publication of results from the first iteration of testing within the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the ensuing media consternation and political rhetoric about teacher quality in education systems around the world, professional standards for teachers have been considered, developed and implemented globally in…

Preliminary Analysis Report: Construct Validity Study of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bond, Lloyd; Smith, Tracy; Baker, Wanda K.

This study examined (1) whether students taught by National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)-certified teachers would produce higher quality work than students of teachers who attempted NBPTS certification but were not certified; (2) whether the observed classroom behaviors of NBPTS-certified teachers would be demonstrably…

Supporting Teacher Professionalism: Insights from TALIS 2013

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

OECD Publishing, 2016

2016-01-01

This report examines the nature and extent of support for teacher professionalism using the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013, a survey of teachers and principals in 34 countries and economies around the world. Teacher professionalism is defined as the knowledge, skills, and practices that teachers must have in order to be…

Survey of Professional Ethics of Teachers in Institutions of Higher Education: Case Study of an Institution in Central China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zheng, Lou; Hui, Song

2005-01-01

The standard of professional ethics among teachers directly determines the educational standards of a school; they are an essential component of education. In order to clarify the current situation with regard to the professional ethics of teachers in institutions of higher education, this article analyzes how society evaluates those ethics and…

Teacher Professional Learning in a Neoliberal Age: Audit, Professionalism and Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mockler, Nicole

2012-01-01

This paper examines the current shape of teacher professional learning, or in-service teacher education, in Australia. Increasingly, teacher professional learning is positioned as both a sure-fire solution to some of the intransigent educational problems of our time, as well as a policy problem in and of itself. In this paper I explore some of the…

A Survey of Pennsylvania School Principals' Perceptions of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification Process and the Leadership Roles of National Board Certified Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balbach, Amy Beth Mackie

2012-01-01

Throughout the 1980's, the notion of standards came to the forefront throughout the education world. Groups questioned how to define quality teaching. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards was developed to meet this need providing a voluntary national certification to identify accomplished teachers. Since its inception,…

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…

Analyzing Preservice Mathematics Teachers' Professional Noticing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amador, Julie M.; Carter, Ingrid; Hudson, Rick A.

2016-01-01

Recent research in mathematics education has highlighted the importance of teachers' abilities to professionally notice students' thinking. This study examined what preservice teachers professionally notice during lesson study to further describe their attention to students' mathematical thinking, their interpretations about students' reasoning,…

Perception of Science Standards' Effectiveness and Their Implementation by Science Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klieger, Aviva; Yakobovitch, Anat

2011-06-01

The introduction of standards into the education system poses numerous challenges and difficulties. As with any change, plans should be made for teachers to understand and implement the standards. This study examined science teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the standards for teaching and learning, and the extent and ease/difficulty of implementing science standards in different grades. The research used a mixed methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative research methods. The research tools were questionnaires that were administered to elementary school science teachers. The majority of the teachers perceived the standards in science as effective for teaching and learning and only a small minority viewed them as restricting their pedagogical autonomy. Differences were found in the extent of implementation of the different standards and between different grades. The teachers perceived a different degree of difficulty in the implementation of the different standards. The standards experienced as easiest to implement were in the field of biology and materials, whereas the standards in earth sciences and the universe and technology were most difficult to implement, and are also those evaluated by the teachers as being implemented to the least extent. Exposure of teachers' perceptions on the effectiveness of standards and the implementation of the standards may aid policymakers in future planning of teachers' professional development for the implementation of standards.

Options in Education, Transcript for November 3, 1975: College Enrollment, Standardized Testing, Hyperactive Children, Teacher Strikes, and Training to Be a Professional Golfer.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

George Washington Univ., Washington, DC. Inst. for Educational Leadership.

"Options in Education" is a radio news program which focuses on issues and developments in education. This transcript of the first show contains discussions of college enrollment, the controversy over standardized testing, hyperactivity in school children, the rash of teacher strikes, and how to become a professional golfer. Participants…

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

Implementing Professional Experiences to Prepare Preservice Science Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nuangchalerm, Prasart

2009-01-01

In the correlation between professional experiences of preservice science teacher and classroom managerial skills, professional experiences were designed to prepare science teacher in the future. The effects of program were described the result of implementing professional experiences of 67 preservice science teachers. Data were collected by using…

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.

Governing Teachers by Professional Development: State Programmes for Continuing Professional Development in Sweden since 1991

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…

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,…

Main Factors of Teachers' Professional Well-Being

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yildirim, Kamil

2014-01-01

The purpose of the study was to reveal the main factors of teachers' professional well being. Theoretically constructed model was tested on large scale data belong to 72.190 teachers working at lower secondary level. Theoretical model included teachers' individual, professional and organizational characteristics. Professional well-being…

Supporting Literacy in Preschool: Using a Teacher-Observation Tool to Guide Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNerney, Shelly; Nielsen, Diane Corcoran; Clay, Phyllis

2006-01-01

Teachers involved with professional-development opportunities inevitably differ in their content knowledge, access to resources, and instructional practices. The purpose of this study was to investigate how a standardized assessment observation tool, selected to gather summative information for grant-evaluation purposes about preschool teachers'…

Teachers' Experience from a School-Based Collaborative Teacher Professional Development Programme: Reported Impact on Professional Development

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…

Examining Professional Learning and the Preparation of Professionally Competent Teachers in Initial Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tang, Sylvia Y. F.; Wong, Angel K. Y.; Cheng, May M. H.

2016-01-01

The relative contributions of higher education and schools, and hence the conceptual and practical aspects of ITE, to student teachers' professional learning have been an issue of concern in teacher education. This article reports a mixed-methods study showing the relationship between student teachers' engagement with the practical and conceptual…

Professional "Development" and Professional "Learning": Bridging the Gap for Experienced Physical Education Teachers

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…

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.

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.

Teachers' professional development needs and current practices at the Alexander Science Center School

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

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…

Teachers' Professional Agency and Learning--From Adaption to Active Modification in the Teacher Community

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…

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.…

Reflecting on Teacher Professionalism: A Student Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crouse, Warren F.

2003-01-01

In this article, the author invites students to reflect on the characteristics of their own teachers. The author contends that this reflection can be a methodological process and model toward a better understanding of what identifies teachers as professionals. To "constructively reflect" on teacher professionalism, it is imperative that the four…

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…

Knowing Practice in English Teaching? Research Challenges in Representing the Professional Practice of English Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doecke, Brenton; Green, Bill; Kostogris, Alex; Reid, Jo-Anne; Sawyer, Wayne

2007-01-01

This article problematises representations of professional practice. It investigates assumptions behind received accounts of professional practice, including professional standards that purportedly capture what accomplished English teachers "should know and be able to do", "scientific" studies that construct accounts of classrooms from the…

National board certification as professional development: What are teachers learning?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lustick, David Scott

This study investigated the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards' (NBPTS) assessment process in order to identify, quantify, and substantiate possible learning outcomes from the participants. One hundred and twenty candidates for the Adolescent and Young Adult Science (AYA Science) Certificate were studied over a 2-year period using the recurrent institutional cycle research design. This quasi-experimental methodology allowed for the collection of both cross-sectional and longitudinal data insuring a good measure of internal validity regarding observed changes both between and within group means. Multiple assessors scored transcripts of structured interviews with each teacher using the NBPTS' assessment framework according to the 13 standards accomplished science teaching. The scores (aggregated to the group level) provided the quantitative evidence of teacher learning in this study. Significant changes in mean scores from pre to post are reported at the overall, standard group, and individual standard levels. Findings suggest that the intervention had an overall effect size of .475 upon candidates' understanding of science teaching related knowledge. More specifically, most learning was associated with the standards of Scientific Inquiry and Assessment. The results support the hypothesis that the certification process is an effective standards based professional learning opportunity. The learning outcomes discussed in this report (including the identification of Dynamic, Technical, and Deferred Learning categories) should inform debate between educational stakeholders regarding the financial and ideological support of National Board certification as a means of improving teacher quality, provide suggestions for the improvement of the assessment process, and contribute insight into the current divisive state of science education in public education.

Using National Board Standards To Redesign Master's Degrees for Teachers: A Guide for Institutions of Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isenberg, Joan Packer

This monograph is designed assist to teacher preparation institutions that want to use standards of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) to help teachers prepare for their National Board Certification process and simultaneously improve their advanced programs for teachers. Part 1, "Rationale for Using NBPTS Standards as a…

"Follow" Me: Networked Professional Learning for Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holmes, Kathryn; Preston, Greg; Shaw, Kylie; Buchanan, Rachel

2013-01-01

Effective professional learning for teachers is fundamental for any school system aiming to make transformative and sustainable change to teacher practice. This paper investigates the efficacy of Twitter as a medium for teachers to participate in professional learning by analysing the tweets of 30 influential users of the popular medium. We find…

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…

Factors within University-Based Teacher Education Relating to Preservice Teachers' Professional Vision

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stürmer, Kathleen; Könings, Karen D.; Seidel, Tina

2015-01-01

Preservice teachers' professional vision is an important indicator of their initial acquisition of integrated knowledge structures within university-based teacher education. To date, empirical research investigating which factors contribute to explaining preservice teachers' professional vision is scarce. This study aims to determine which factors…

Profiling Teachers' Sense of Professional Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canrinus, Esther T.; Helms-Lorenz, Michelle; Beijaard, Douwe; Buitink, Jaap; Hofman, Adriaan

2011-01-01

This study shows that professional identity should not be viewed as a composed variable with a uniform structure. Based on the literature and previous research, we view teachers' job satisfaction, self-efficacy, occupational commitment and change in the level of motivation as indicators of teachers' professional identity. Using two-step cluster…

Teachers' Continuing Professional Development in Primary Physical Education: Lessons from Present and Past to Inform the Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Armour, Kathleen M.; Duncombe, Rebecca

2004-01-01

There is a growing recognition that teachers' learning, and effective policies and structures to support it, should be at the heart of government polices to improve standards in education (Day, 1999). In England, the continuing professional development (CPD) landscape for teachers is changing; and professional development in physical education…

Perceptions of Secondary School Teachers and Administrators on Effective Professional Development Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sherrod, Ginnie

2014-01-01

Effective professional development programs have been linked with rigorous state standards and district school improvement goals. Despite efforts of local districts to meet state standards and district school improvement goals, there has been limited research at the local level that has compared administrators' and teachers' perceptions of…

Teachers' Views on Integrating Faith into Their Professional Lives: A Cross-Cultural Glimpse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahn, Joonkil; Hinson, Danny W.; Teets, Sharon T.

2016-01-01

AILACTE institutions are often linked to faith-based traditions, and teacher education candidates may attend these institutions as a result of their sense of calling to the profession. However, most graduates of teacher education programs teach in religiously neutral environments. With the high expectations of professional standards for the…

Teacher Professional Development Strategies in Australian Government and Professional Associations Documents

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…

German MedicalTeachingNetwork (MDN) implementing national standards for teacher training.

PubMed

Lammerding-Koeppel, M; Ebert, T; Goerlitz, A; Karsten, G; Nounla, C; Schmidt, S; Stosch, C; Dieter, P

2016-01-01

An increasing demand for proof of professionalism in higher education strives for quality assurance (QA) and improvement in medical education. A wide range of teacher trainings is available to medical staff in Germany. Cross-institutional approval of individual certificates is usually a difficult and time consuming task for institutions. In case of non-acceptance it may hinder medical teachers in their professional mobility. The faculties of medicine aimed to develop a comprehensive national framework, to promote standards for formal faculty development programmes across institutions and to foster professionalization of medical teaching. Addressing the above challenges in a joint approach, the faculties set up the national MedicalTeacherNetwork (MDN). Great importance is attributed to work out nationally concerted standards for faculty development and an agreed-upon quality control process across Germany. Medical teachers benefit from these advantages due to portability of faculty development credentials from one faculty of medicine to another within the MDN system. The report outlines the process of setting up the MDN and the national faculty development programme in Germany. Success factors, strengths and limitations are discussed from an institutional, individual and general perspective. Faculties engaged in similar developments might be encouraged to transfer the MDN concept to their countries.

School Leaders as Participants in Teachers' Professional Development: The Impact on Teachers' and School Leaders' Professional Growth

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…

Professional Development Needs of Primary EFL Teachers: Perspectives of Teachers and Teacher Educators

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…

Commodification of Teacher Professionalism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Werler, Tobias

2016-01-01

This paper investigates the hypothesis that teacher education in European welfare states is commodified due to its governance by neoliberal policy making. The starting point for the analysis is a discussion of the relationship between the welfare state and teacher professionalism. For this purpose, the concept of the ill-defined problem is…

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…

In-Service Training and Professional Development of Teachers in Nigeria: Through Open and Distance Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amadi, Martha Nkechinyere

2013-01-01

Education authorities have seemed to agree that increasing standards for preservice education of teachers will not necessarily lessen the need for continued in-service preparation and professional growth. No amount of time spent in college or university will complete the preparation of the teacher for classroom tasks. Teachers, like doctors,…

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…

Assessing professional behaviour: Overcoming teachers' reluctance to fail students.

PubMed

Mak-van der Vossen, Marianne; Peerdeman, Saskia; van Mook, Walther; Croiset, Gerda; Kusurkar, Rashmi

2014-06-17

Developing professional behaviour is an important goal of medical education in which teachers play a significant part. Many teachers can be reluctant to fail students demonstrating unprofessional behaviour. We hypothesize that supporting teachers in teaching and assessing professional behaviour and involving them in remediation will reduce this reluctance. In 2010, VUmc School of Medical Sciences Amsterdam introduced an educational theme on professional behaviour for the bachelor's and master's programmes in medicine with a special emphasis on supporting teachers in teaching and assessing professional behaviour and involving them in the remediation process. Information was extracted from the student database on the number of unprofessional behaviour judgments awarded over 2008-2010 (before the intervention), and 2010-2013 (after introducing the intervention), which was compared. To find out if teachers' reluctance to fail had decreased, qualitative feedback from the teachers was gathered and analysed. Since the implementation of the educational theme, the number of unprofessional behaviour judgments has risen. The teachers are positive about the implemented system of teaching and assessing professional behaviour, and feel less reluctant to award an unsatisfactory professional behaviour judgment. Supporting teachers in teaching and assessing professional behaviour and involving them in students' remediation appears to reduce their reluctance to fail students demonstrating unprofessional behaviour.

A Case Study of Interactive Whiteboard Professional Development for Elementary Mathematics Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Essig, Dawn

2011-01-01

In a northeastern US state, the higher the grade the level, the more students do not meet the state mathematics standards. Teachers need effective professional development in classroom strategies and tools, such as interactive whiteboards (IWB), to assist them in preparing students to meet state standards. Multimedia learning theory and…

Determinants of Teacher Professionalism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lam, Y. L. Jack

1983-01-01

Reports a study of the effect of variables at the personal, school, and district/division level on these aspects of the attitudinal professionalism of 1,205 Manitoba teachers: use of professional organization as major referent, belief in public service, belief in self-regulation, sense of calling to the field, and autonomy. (SB)

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

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.

Second Career Teachers and (Mis)Recognitions of Professional Identities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nielsen, Ann

2016-01-01

Since the late 1980s there has been an increase of "second career teachers" (SCTs), professionals that switch careers to become teachers. Little is known about SCTs and their sense of professional identity. Building from Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of power and cultural capital, the professional identities of teachers were examined…

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…

Teachers on Standards.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Chris, Ed.

2001-01-01

This theme issue on standards contains 11 articles written by teachers of English and language arts in Bread Loaf's primarily rural, teacher networks. These narratives describe how teachers in Alaska, South Carolina, Ohio, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Arizona, and New Mexico are implementing state content standards while honoring local contexts for…

Preparing "Professional" Science Teachers: Critical Goals.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dass, Pradeep Maxwell

This paper focuses on pre-service teacher education and elaborates on the critical importance of three attributes to the development of professional science teachers: (1) science teachers must be reflective practitioners of their profession; (2) all instructional practice and decisions of science teachers must be backed by a research-based…

Perception of Teacher Education and Professional Identity among Novice Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ezer, Hanna; Gilat, Izhak; Sagee, Rachel

2010-01-01

This study examines student teachers' perceptions of teacher education and its contribution to their professional life, when they become novice teachers during their internship period. The sample comprised 97 student teachers in their fourth year of studies for a BEd degree. Data were collected through questionnaires which included both a…

What Does Professional Rank Mean to Teachers? A Survey of the Multiple Impacts of Professional Rank on Urban and Rural Compulsory Education Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yuyou, Qin; Wenjing, Zeng

2018-01-01

Professional rank is an important indicator of the professional capacity of compulsory education teachers. A rational professional rank evaluation system plays an important role in mobilizing the enthusiasm of teachers, improving the overall quality of teachers, and promoting the development of education. Based on stratified random sample data…

Standards for Elementary Teacher Certification: A Fifty State Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dumas, Wayne; Weible, Thomas

A study of the minimum program standards established by 50 state education agencies for preparation and certification of elementary school teachers focused on the status of general education requirements, professional education requirements, and requirements for areas of concentration. Two reference points were employed in analysis of the…

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…

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.

Teachers Talking about Writing Assessment: Valuable Professional Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reid, Lesley

2007-01-01

This article argues that the engagement of teachers in collaborative discussions about assessment can provide a fruitful context for valuable professional learning. It is of interest to those who provide Continuous Professional Development (CPD) opportunities for teachers and teachers themselves. It looks particularly at the value of writing…

Who Are the Science Teachers That Seek Professional Development in Research Experience for Teachers (RET's)? Implications for Teacher Professional Development

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…

Beyond the Four Walls: Teacher Professionalism in Action.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrington, Diane

In the spring of 1986 the United Federation of Teachers and the Edwin Gould Foundation for Children embarked on a six-month study, visiting schools and talking with staff about what comprises and influences teacher professionalism. This booklet presents nine case studies that illustrate teacher professionalism in actual New York City public school…

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…

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.

Contextualizing Teacher Professionalism: Findings from a Cross-Case Analysis of Union Active Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Osmond-Johnson, Pamela

2016-01-01

This paper draws on data collected as part of a study of the discourses of teacher professionalism amongst union active teachers in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Ontario. Interviews revealed a triad of influences on the professionalism discourses of participants: engagement in teacher associations, the larger policy environment, and…

Virginia physical science teachers' content knowledge assessment and professional development preferences

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

Designing Higher Education Courses and other Professional Development to Engender Science Teachers' Enthusiasm to Embrace the New Generation Science Standards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Welstead, C.; Forder, S. E.

2014-12-01

This presentation is an overview of best practices in the design of continuing education courses and professional development workshops for Science teachers to enable them to transition to the NGSS; to share their enthusiasm in a way that engages students and leads to increased student achievement; and to become change agents in their educational settings and in their communities, in order to garner widespread support for an inquiry-based, NGSS-based curriculum. Proposed strands for teacher preparation programmes include a focus on higher level conceptual thinking; problem-solving opportunities for learning; inquiry-based learning; experiential learning and fieldwork; the authentic and effective incorporation of technology in teaching and learning; integrated and cross-curricular teaching and learning; learning that supports diversity and equity; and the appropriate, reliable and valid assessment of understanding. A series of three courses has been developed to prepare teachers in a graduate programme for implementing an inquiry-based, standards-based Science curriculum that incorporates the above-mentioned strands.

Connecting Research to Teaching: Professional Communities: Teachers Supporting Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adajian, Lisa Byrd

1996-01-01

Reviews research on importance of strong professional communities for supporting reform. National Center for Research in Mathematical Sciences Education (NCRMSE) found significant correlation between teachers' professional community and reformed mathematics instruction. Urban Mathematics Collaboratives (UMC), Quantitative Understanding: Amplifying…

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…

Using a Wiki in a Scientist-Teacher Professional Learning Community: Impact on Teacher Perception Changes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Hye Jeong; Miller, Heather R.; Herbert, Bruce; Pedersen, Susan; Loving, Cathy

2012-01-01

In this study, a wiki was integrated into a professional development model that systemically addresses early-career teachers' needs. This study was conducted to examine the impact of wiki-based professional development activities in a scientist-teacher professional learning community and focused on early-career teachers' perceptions of the role of…

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…

Self-Determination Theory and Middle School Mathematics Teachers: Understanding the Motivation to Attain Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawford, Amy K.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to use Self-Determination Theory as a framework to analyze middle school mathematics teachers' motivation to attain effective professional development concerning Ohio's Learning Standards as well as other instructional aspects that affect the classroom. Teachers are exceptionally busy meeting…

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…

Can a Competence or Standards Model Facilitate an Inclusive Approach to Teacher Education?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moran, Anne

2009-01-01

The paper seeks to determine whether programmes of initial teacher education (ITE) can contribute to the development of beginning teachers' inclusive attitudes, values and practices. The majority of ITE programmes are based on government prescribed competence or standards frameworks, which are underpinned by Codes of Professional Values. It is…

Social Justice Policymaking in Teacher Education from Conception to Application: Realizing Standard VI

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burns, Leslie David; Miller, sj

2016-01-01

Background/Context: This article describes the fundamental role of social justice in public education and professional teacher education. Purpose: The purpose of this policy analysis is to explicate the theorizing, conceptualization, formalization, and implementation of the first standard for social justice teaching and teacher education in U.S.…

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

The Problem of Correspondence of Educational and Professional Standards (Results of Empirical Research)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piskunova, Elena; Sokolova, Irina; Kalimullin, Aydar

2016-01-01

In the article, the problem of correspondence of educational standards of higher pedagogical education and teacher professional standards in Russia is actualized. Modern understanding of the quality of vocational education suggests that in the process of education the student develops a set of competencies that will enable him or her to carry out…

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

Investigating Rural Teachers' Professional Development, Instructional Knowledge, and Classroom Practice

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,…

Characteristics and Models of Effective Professional Development: The Case of School Teachers in Qatar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Tineh, Abdullah M.; Sadiq, Hissa M.

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of effective professional development and effective models of professional development as perceived by school teachers in the State of Qatar. This study is quantitative in nature and was conducted using a survey methodology. Means, standard deviations, t-test, and one-way analysis of…

Politics, Policy and Professional Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bodman, Sue; Taylor, Susan; Morris, Helen

2012-01-01

Standards-based reform of education is a dominant political discourse in many nations. In this paper we argue that the type of standards-based reform that is enacted has important implications for teacher agency and teacher professional development. Teacher professional development and identity is explored through theories of the teacher's role in…

Autobiographical Reflections for Teacher Professional Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choi, Tat Heung

2013-01-01

This article is based on the principle that teacher development is a life-long process when seeking to develop professional competencies. With the changing views of teacher education as background, the benefits to teachers associated with practice-oriented knowledge are predicated on a measure of empowerment through narration, self-expression and…

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.

Ambitious U.S. History Teachers Bringing Professional Development into the Classroom: A Mixed Methods Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kallemeyn, Leanne; Schiazza, Daniela; Ryan, Ann Marie; Peters, Julie; Johnson, Crystal

2013-01-01

Understanding how to engage history teachers in effective professional development, rooted in pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), is critical with the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. In this study, we utilized Grant and Gradwell's (2010) notion of ambitious teachers, which built upon Shulman's (1986) concept of PCK, to…

Teacher Professionalism: The Wrong Conversation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coulter, David; Orme, Liz

2000-01-01

Defining teachers as professionals in the same way that doctors or engineers are professionals is reductionist because such definition generally distorts the moral dimensions of teaching by using the wrong language (clients, customers), focusing on limited forms of knowledge, and ignoring the fundamental democratic character of education.…

Do less effective teachers choose professional development does it matter?

PubMed

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.

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.…

Teacher Assessment Literacy: A Review of International Standards and Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeLuca, Christopher; LaPointe-McEwan, Danielle; Luhanga, Ulemu

2016-01-01

Assessment literacy is a core professional requirement across educational systems. Hence, measuring and supporting teachers' assessment literacy have been a primary focus over the past two decades. At present, there are a multitude of assessment standards across the world and numerous assessment literacy measures that represent different…

Personal, Professional Coaching: Transforming Professional Development for Teacher and Administrative Leaders

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…

Uncovering a Hidden Professional Agenda for Teacher Educators: A Mixed Method Study on Flemish Teacher Educators and Their Professional Development

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…

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…

Examining the Technology Integration Planning Cycle Model of Professional Development to Support Teachers' Instructional Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hutchison, Amy C.; Woodward, Lindsay

2018-01-01

Background: Presently, models of professional development aimed at supporting teachers' technology integration efforts are often short and decontextualized. With many schools across the country utilizing standards that require students to engage with digital tools, a situative model that supports building teachers' knowledge within their…

Measuring the Professional Identity of Hong Kong In-Service Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheung, Hoi Yan

2008-01-01

A teacher professional identity scale was developed for Hong Kong in-service teachers to measure the professional identity of teachers. Most studies of professional identity have been qualitative. The present study tried to examine this important concept using a quantitative method. Based on various studies, one of the ways of understanding the…

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…

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…

Professionally Present--Highlighting the Temporal Aspect of Teachers' Professional Judgment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frelin, Anneli

2014-01-01

Novice teachers need to develop their professional judgment. Teaching is performed in the face of imperfect, complex but above all continuously emergent situations. These matters have not received adequate attention in theories relating to professional judgment and professionality in teaching or in the contemporary discourse of education policy.…

Segments and Stutters: Early Years Teachers and Becoming-Professional

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fairchild, Nikki

2017-01-01

There has been extensive research and analysis of the professionalization of early childhood educators/teachers. The recent promotion of a teacher-led workforce in England has further focused discussions on the modelling of early years teachers as professionals. In this article, the author develops an alternative analysis using the concepts of…

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

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…

Once Again SREB States Lead the Nation in National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Southern Regional Education Board, Atlanta, GA.

North Carolina and Florida lead the nation in total number of teachers with National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification. About 71 percent of all NBPTS certificates were awarded to teachers in Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states in 2000-01. Seven SREB states were among the top 10 states in number of teachers…

TVET Teacher Professionalism in Leadership Personality Formation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muhammad, Siti Nur Hidayah; Jaafar, Siti Norain

2015-01-01

This study aims to look at the professionalism of teachers in Technical and Vocational Education and their role as teachers. Applying leadership personality drove to the skills of the teachers. Therefore, this article is important in helping the teachers TVET build basic knowledge with respect to the leadership personality who should be planted…

Professional and Creative Development of Natural Geographic Course Teachers within the Process of Professional Retraining

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…

Professional Learning in Action: An Inquiry Approach for Teachers of Literacy. Common Core State Standards in Literacy Series

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riski, Victoria J.; Vogt, Mary Ellen

2016-01-01

Risko and Vogt provide a unique and progressive approach for engaging the professional learning of teachers of literacy, reading specialists, literacy coaches and instructional leaders, content specialists, and administrators. Their deliberate use of Professional Learning signals the importance of educators engaging in authentic and inquiry-based…

Professional identity and pedagogical discontentment in high school science teachers participating in a professional development institute

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

Teachers' Practices in High School Chemistry Just Prior to the Adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boesdorfer, Sarah B.; Staude, Kristin D.

2016-01-01

Effective professional development that influences teachers' classroom practices starts with what teachers know, understand, and do in their classroom. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) challenge teachers to make changes to their classroom; to help teachers make these changes, it is necessary to know what they are doing in their…

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…

Lesson Study as Professional Development within Secondary Physics Teacher Professional Learning Communities

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.

Enabling/Disabling English Teachers' Identities as Innovative Professionals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kempe, Elspeth; Reed, Yvonne

2014-01-01

In the extensive literature on teacher professional development, very little attention has been paid to the role of post-graduate study groups, or to the role of on-going professional conversations, in constituting and sustaining teachers' identities as innovative professionals. The purpose of this article is to suggest that on-going…

NASA's Kepler Mission: Lessons Learned from Teacher Professional Development Workshops

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Devore, E.; Harman, P.; Koch, D.; Gould, A.

2010-08-01

NASA's Kepler Mission conducts teacher professional development workshops on the search for exoplanets in the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. Each is supported by a Kepler team scientist, two Education and Public Outreach staff and local hosts. Activities combine a science content lecture and discussion, making models, kinesthetic activities, and interpretation of transit data. The emphasis is on inquiry-based instruction and supports science education standards in grades 7-12. Participants' kit includes 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. The Kepler Mission teacher professional development workshops are 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 events. In sharing our experiences, we hope to assist others, and to learn from them as well. 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.

Defining Teacher Leadership: Affirming the Teacher Leader Model Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cosenza, Michael N.

2015-01-01

Although there is no common definition for teacher leadership, the concept is continually advanced as a key component for both the success of schools and the professionalization of teachers (Boles & Troen, 1994; Dozier, 2007; Greenlee, 2007; Lieberman, 1987; Smith, 1999). Teachers need to be given opportunities to leave the isolation of their…

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…

Beyond Performativity: A Pragmatic Model of Teacher Professional Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lloyd, Margaret; Davis, James P.

2018-01-01

The intent and content of teacher professional learning has changed in recent times to meet the demands of performativity. In this article, we offer and demonstrate a pragmatic way to map teacher professional learning that both meets current demands and secures a place for teacher-led catalytic learning. To achieve this, we position identified…

Newly Qualified Teachers' Professional Digital Competence: Implications for Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gudmundsdottir, Greta Björk; Hatlevik, Ove Edvard

2018-01-01

The professional digital competence (PDC) of teachers is of growing importance in classrooms, now that digital resources and digital media are becoming important parts of teachers' everyday practice. This study explores how newly qualified teachers are prepared to use information and communication technology (ICT) in their initial teacher…

Calibrating Fundamental British Values: How Head Teachers Are Approaching Appraisal in the Light of the Teachers' Standards 2012, Prevent and the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act, 2015

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Revell, Lynn; Bryan, Hazel

2016-01-01

In requiring that teachers should "not undermine fundamental British values (FBV)," a phrase originally articulated in the Home Office counter-terrorism document, Prevent, the Teachers' Standards has brought into focus the nature of teacher professionalism. Teachers in England are now required to promote FBV within and outside school,…

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.

In the Round: Supporting Teachers' Authentic Professional Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strand, Matt

2013-01-01

This is a study of teachers' authentic professional learning at a public school in Poudre School District in northern Colorado. At Polaris Expeditionary Learning School, teachers and administrators have developed a form of school-based instructional rounds referred to herein as PLC rounds (professional learning community rounds). In PLC rounds,…

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…

Combining Marriage and Career: The Professional Adjustment of Marital Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rizvi, Afroz Haider

2016-01-01

In the paper, the researcher attempted to assess Professional Adjustment status and level of teachers according to their marital status on a sample of 792 teachers. Teachers have been classified into two categories viz. married and unmarried. To evaluate the status of professional adjustment of teachers, a tool viz. "Manual on Teachers…

The Impact of Adapting a General Professional Development Framework to the Constraints of In-Service Professional Development on the Next Generation Science Standards in Urban Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGee, Steven; Nutakki, Nivedita

2017-01-01

Urban school districts face a dilemma in providing professional development support for teachers in transition to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Districts need to maximize the quality and amount of professional development within practical funding constraints. In this paper, we discuss preliminary results from a…

The Impact of the Next Generation Science Standards on Future Professional Development and Astronomy Education Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buxner, Sanlyn

2013-06-01

The Next Generation Science Standards will have a profound impact on the future science education of students and professional development for teachers. The science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas laid out in the Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2011) will change the focus and methods of how we prepare teachers to meet these new standards. Extending beyond just the use of inquiry in the classroom, teachers will need support designing and implementing integrated experiences for students that require them to apply knowledge of content and practices. Integrating the three dimensions central to the new standards will pose curricular challenges and create opportunities for innovative space science projects and instruction. The science research and technology community will have an important role in supporting authentic classroom practices as well as training and support of teachers in these new ways of presenting science and technology. These changes will require a new focus for teacher professional development and new ways to research impacts of teacher training and changes in classroom practice. In addition, new and innovative tools will be needed to assess mastery of students’ knowledge of practices and the ways teachers effectively help students achieve these new goals. The astronomy education community has much to offer as K-12 and undergraduate level science educators rethink and redefine what it means to be scientifically literate and figure out how to truly measure the success of these new ways of teaching science.

Teachers' Perspectives of Professional Development for Effecting Change in Maori Medium Classrooms: A Mathematics Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawera, Ngawera; Taylor, Merilyn

2011-01-01

In 2010 twenty-three Maori medium schools were given the opportunity for professional development with the Draft Nga Whanaketanga Rumake Maori: Pangarau (NWRM) (National Standards Maori Medium: Mathematics. The study provided a unique opportunity to listen to teachers' views about their professional development as they sought to implement national…

Turning into Teachers before Our Eyes: The Development of Professional Identity through Professional Dialogue

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…

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,…

Head Start Classroom Teachers' and Assistant Teachers' Perceptions of Professional Development Using a Learn Framework

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…

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…

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…

Sensing as an Ethical Dimension of Teacher Professionality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edling, Silvia; Frelin, Anneli

2016-01-01

The purpose of this article is to theoretically discuss how teacher professionality, as an aspect of teacher professionalism, can be understood in relation to the notion of sensing within the "ethics of alterity" and the "ethics of dissensus," both of which express a desire to contest the various forms of violence in society.…

The Power of Reflective Professional Development in Changing Elementary School Teachers' Instructional Practices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cavedon, Carolina Christmann

With the new goal of K-12 education being to prepare students to be college and career ready at the end of high school, education needs to start changing at the elementary school level. The literature suggests that teachers need reflective professional development (PD) to effectively teach to the new standards and to demonstrate change to their current instructional practices. This mixed-method multiple-case study investigated the impacts of a reflective professional development (PD) in changing elementary school teachers' instructional practices. Teachers Instructional Portfolios (TIPs) were scored with a TIP rubric based on best practices in teaching mathematics problem-solving and science inquiry. The TIPs were also analyzed with a qualitative coding scheme. Case descriptions were written and all the collected data were used to explain the impacts of the reflective PD on changes in teachers' instructional practices. While we found no predictive patterns in relation to teachers changing their classroom practices based on the reflective PD, we claim that teachers' desire to change might contribute to improvements in instruction. We also observed that teachers' self-assessment scores tend to be higher than the actual TIP scores corroborating with the literature on the usage of self-assessment to evaluate teachers' instructional practices.

Examining the Relationship between Teacher Leadership Culture and Teacher Professionalism: Quantitative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parlar, Hanifi; Cansoy, Ramazan; Kilinç, Ali Çagatay

2017-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between schools' levels of having teacher leadership culture and teachers' professional behaviors. A total of 254 teachers working in primary and secondary schools located in Üsküdar district of Istanbul province participated in the study. The "Teacher Leadership Culture Scale" and…

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.…

Teachers' Perceptions of Preparedness Related to National Common Core State Standards for Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Tykier

2016-01-01

With the adoption of the National Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSSM) in many states and the lack of understanding and strategies to implement the new standards by classroom teachers, implementing effective professional development is vital. The focus of this qualitative case study was to provide insight into elementary school…

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.

Examining a math-science professional development program for teachers in grades 7-12 in an urban school district in New York State

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaszczak, Lesia

With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards in New York State and the Next Generation Science Standards, it is more important than ever for school districts to develop professional development programs to provide teachers with the resources that will assist them in incorporating the new standards into their classroom instruction. This study focused on a mathematics and science professional development program known as STEMtastic STEM. The two purposes of the study were: to determine if there is an increase in STEM content knowledge of the participants involved in year two of a three year professional development program and to examine the teachers' perceptions of the impact of the professional development program on classroom instruction. The sample included teachers of grades 7-12 from an urban school district in New York State. The scores of a content knowledge pre-test and post-test were analyzed using a paired sample t-test to determine any significant differences in scores. In order to determine mathematics and science teachers' perceptions of the impact of the professional development program, responses from a 22 item Likert-style survey were analyzed to establish patterns of responses and to determine positive and negative perceptions of participants of the professional development program. A single sample t-test was used to determine if the responses were significantly positive. The results of this study indicated that there was no significant increase in content knowledge as a result of participation in the STEMtastic STEM professional development program. Both mathematics and science teachers exhibited significant positive perceptions of items dealing with hands-on participation during the professional development; support provided by STEMtastic STEM specialists; and the support provided by the administration. It was concluded that both mathematics and science teachers responded positively to the training they received during the professional

Professional Insiders/Outsiders? Teacher Professionalism and the Primary School Physical Education Specialist

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooks, Caroline; DinanThompson, Maree

2013-01-01

This paper provides a context for exploring the positioning of Physical Education specialist teachers (PE specialist teachers) in primary schools in Queensland in the discourses of teacher professionalism. A critical analysis of literature on the history and status of the subject and its practitioners aims to contextualize discourses in and about…

Climate Change Professional Development: Design, Implementation, and Initial Outcomes on Teacher Learning, Practice, and Student Beliefs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shea, Nicole A.; Mouza, Chrystalla; Drewes, Andrea

2016-04-01

In this work, we present the design, implementation, and initial outcomes of the Climate Academy, a hybrid professional development program delivered through a combination of face-to-face and online interactions, intended to prepare formal and informal science teachers (grades 5-16) in teaching about climate change. The Climate Academy was designed around core elements of successful environmental professional development programs and aligned with practices advocated in benchmarked science standards. Data were collected from multiple sources including observations of professional development events, participants' reflections on their learning, and collection of instructional units designed during the Academy. Data were also collected from a focal case study teacher in a middle school setting. Case study data included classroom observations, teacher interviews, and student beliefs toward climate change. Results indicated that the Climate Academy fostered increased learning among participants of both climate science content and pedagogical strategies for teaching about climate change. Additionally, results indicated that participants applied their new learning in the design of climate change instructional units. Finally, results from the case study indicated positive impacts on student beliefs and greater awareness about climate change. Results have implications for the design of professional development programs on climate change, a topic included for the first time in national standards.

Teachers' Sensemaking about Implementation of an Innovative Science Curriculum across the Settings of Professional Development and Classroom Enactment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de los Santos, Xeng

2017-01-01

Designing professional development that effectively supports teachers in learning new and often challenging practices remains a dilemma for teacher educators. Within the context of current reform efforts in science education, such as the "Next Generation Science Standards," teacher educators are faced with managing the dilemma of how to…

An evaluation of a professional learning network for computer science teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cutts, Quintin; Robertson, Judy; Donaldson, Peter; O'Donnell, Laurie

2017-01-01

This paper describes and evaluates aspects of a professional development programme for existing CS teachers in secondary schools (PLAN C) which was designed to support teachers at a time of substantial curricular change. The paper's particular focus is on the formation of a teacher professional development network across several hundred teachers and a wide geographical area. Evidence from a series of observations and teacher surveys over a two-year period is analysed with respect to the project's programme theory in order to illustrate not only whether it worked as intended, by why. Results indicate that the PLAN C design has been successful in increasing teachers' professional confidence and appears to have catalysed powerful change in attitudes to learning. Presentation of challenging pedagogical content knowledge and conceptual frameworks, high-quality teacher-led professional dialogue, along with the space for reflection and classroom trials, triggered examination of the teachers' own current practices.

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' Professional Learning Goals in Relation to Teaching Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Louws, Monika L.; van Veen, Klaas; Meirink, Jacobiene A.; van Driel, Jan H.

2017-01-01

In this study, we explored the relationships between teachers' self-articulated professional learning goals and their teaching experience. Although those relationships seem self-evident, in programmes for teachers' professional development years of teaching experience are hardly taken into account. Sixteen teachers with varying years of experience…

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…

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

Productive Pedagogies and Teachers' Professional Learning in Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowes, Margot; Tinning, Richard

2015-01-01

This paper examines a professional development and learning intervention that sought to improve teachers' understandings of, and capacities to teach, "critical evaluation" in senior school physical education (SSPE). Physical education (PE) teachers and researchers formed a professional learning community (PLC) to deliver critical…

Active Learning Promoting Student Teachers' Professional Competences in Finland and Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Niemi, Hannele; Nevgi, Anne; Aksit, Fisun

2016-01-01

This study investigates student teachers' active learning experiences in teacher education (TE) in Finnish and Turkish contexts and attempts to determine how active learning methods' impact student teachers' professional competences. Student teachers (N = 728) assessed their active learning experiences and the professional competences they…

Professional development to differentiate kindergarten Tier 1 instruction: Can already effective teachers improve student outcomes by differentiating Tier 1 instruction?

PubMed

Otaiba, Stephanie Al; Folsom, Jessica S; Wanzek, Jeannie; Greulich, Luana; Wasche, Jessica; Schatschneider, Christopher; Connor, Carol

Two primary purposes guided this quasi-experimental within-teacher study: (1) to examine changes from baseline through two years of professional development (Individualizing Student Instruction) in kindergarten teachers' differentiation of Tier 1 literacy instruction; (2) to examine changes in reading and vocabulary of three cohorts of the teachers' students ( n = 416). Teachers' instruction was observed and students were assessed on standardized measures of vocabulary and word reading. Results suggested that teachers significantly increased their differentiation and students showed significantly greater word reading outcomes relative to baseline. No change was observed for vocabulary. Results have implications for supporting teacher effectiveness through technology-supported professional development.

Teacher Evaluation To Enhance Professional Practice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Danielson, Charlotte; McGreal, Thomas L.

This book shows how a school district's local teacher evaluation committee can design evaluation systems in which educators can achieve the dual purposes of accountability and professional development and even merge these purposes. A structural framework for designing the evaluation is proposed that locates teachers in one of three tracks: the…

Secondary science teachers' view toward and classroom translation of sustained professional development

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.

Professionalism of Preschool Teachers in Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Hungary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, Tiina; Veisson, Marika; Hujala, Eeva; Härkönen, Ulla; Sandberg, Anette; Johansson, Inge; Bakosi, Eva Kovacsne

2016-01-01

The current study investigated the ratings of Estonian, Finnish, Swedish and Hungarian preschool teachers and principals regarding the professionalism of preschool teachers within a cross-cultural context. According to reports commissioned by the European Commission and OECD, the professionalism of preschool teachers is a key factor in ensuring…

The Tundra Is the Text: Using Alaska Native Contexts To Promote Cultural Relevancy in Teacher Professional Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fickel, Letitia Hochstrasser; Jones, Ken

In summer 2000, the University of Alaska Anchorage and cooperating professional development schools organized four summer institutes to enhance teachers' cultural and subject matter knowledge. This dual focus was prompted by the new Alaska Content Standards and by guidelines for preparing culturally responsive teachers, developed by Alaska Native…

Classroom-Level Teacher Professional Development and Satisfaction: Teachers Learn in the Context of Classroom-Level Curriculum Development

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,…

Teachers' Professional Discretion and the Curricula

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boote, David N.

2006-01-01

At the heart of many current debates about curriculum and curriculum policy is an inadequately conceptualized and articulated notion of teachers' professional discretion. This paper begins to detail a normative and descriptive theory of the social and individual conditions required for the development of professional discretion. A better…

Examining the Relationships between the Level of Schools for Being Professional Learning Communities and Teacher Professionalism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cansoy, Ramazan; Parlar, Hanifi

2017-01-01

The objective of this study is to examine the relationships between the levels of schools for being professional learning communities and teacher professionalism based on teachers' perceptions. The participants were a total of 543 teachers working at elementary, middle and high schools in the Eyüp District of Istanbul. The data were gathered…

Understanding Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs about Professional Learning Communities and Professional Development

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…

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…

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…

Standards and Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zengler, Cynthia J.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe the professional development that has taken place in conjunction with Ohio adopting the College and Career Readiness (CCR) Standards. The professional development (PD) has changed over time to include not only training on the new standards and lesson plans but training on the concepts defined in the…

A Descriptive Correlational Study of Teacher Participation in Professional Development and Teacher Efficacy

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…

Beyond PD: Teacher Professional Learning in High-Performing Systems. Teacher Quality Systems in Top Performing Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jensen, Ben; Sonnemann, Julie; Roberts-Hull, Katie; Hunter, Amélie

2016-01-01

This report illustrates how four high-performing systems--British Columbia (Canada), Hong Kong, Shanghai (China) and Singapore--developed their teacher professional learning. The report and accompanying materials are designed as a resource for teachers, school leaders and policymakers wanting to improve teacher professional learning in their…

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.),…

National Board Certification as Professional Development: An Empirical Study of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Process, Final Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cavalluzzo, Linda; Barrow, Lisa; Henderson, Stephen

2014-01-01

This study responds to a request from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to analyze National Board certification among high school teachers in understudied subject areas and locales to help fill gaps in the research literature. The authors also were asked to use multiple indicators of performance. The research team selected two…

Professional Development between Iranian Distance Education PNU EFL University Teachers and Traditional Non-PNU EFL University Teachers

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…

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…

Schooling Teachers: Professionalism or Disciplinary Power?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bourke, Terri; Lidstone, John; Ryan, Mary

2015-01-01

Since public schooling was introduced in the nineteenth century, teachers in many western countries have endeavoured to achieve professional recognition. For a short period in the latter part of the twentieth century, professionalism was seen as a discourse of resistance or the "enemy" of economic rationalism and performativity. However,…

CALL Teacher Professional Growth through Lesson Study Practice: An Investigation into EFL Teachers' Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nami, Fatemeh; Marandi, S. Susan; Sotoudehnama, Elaheh

2016-01-01

Despite the abundance of research on the potential of lesson study for promoting teachers' professional growth through practice and collaboration, little is known on how language teachers perceive this strategy for their computer assisted language learning (CALL) professional development. In an attempt to contribute to this research base, this…

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…

Teacher Professionalization in the Age of Social Networking Sites

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kimmons, Royce; Veletsianos, George

2015-01-01

As teacher education students become professionals, they face a number of tensions related to identity, social participation, and work-life balance, which may be further complicated by social networking sites (SNS). This qualitative study sought to articulate tensions that arose between professionalization influences and teacher education student…

The Relationship between Teachers' Perceptions about Job-Embedded Professional Development and Teacher Efficacy in Implementing Technology

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…

Recommended Standards for Teacher Education. The Accreditation of Basic and Advanced Preparation Programs for Professional School Personnel.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Washington, DC.

The recommended standards for teacher education presented in this booklet are the result of a 3-year study conducted by the Evaluative Criteria Study Committee of AACTE. The recommendations are presented in two major sections, one concerned with standards for basic teacher education programs (programs for the initial preparation of teachers…

Teachers' Professional Identity: Contributions of a Critical EFL Teacher Education Course in Iran

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abednia, Arman

2012-01-01

This paper is a report on contributions of a critical EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher education course to Iranian teachers' professional identity reconstruction. Pre-course and post-course interviews with seven teachers, their reflective journals, class discussions, and the teacher educator's reflective journals were analyzed as guided…

In Support of Teachers' Learning: Specifying and Contextualising Teacher Inquiry as Professional Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardy, Ian

2016-01-01

Drawing upon research into a case study of teacher inquiry in one school in Queensland, Australia, recent theorising into professional practice, and relevant literature on teachers' learning, this article reveals the complexity and particularity of teacher inquiry processes in support of teachers' learning. Specifically, the research reveals how…

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).…

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…

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…

Professional Identity Tensions of Beginning Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pillen, Marieke; Beijaard, Douwe; den Brok, Perry

2013-01-01

This study reports on interviews with 24 beginning teachers about tensions they experienced regarding their professional identity. The interviewees reported a total of 59 tensions of tension that fell into three themes: (1) the change in role from student to teacher; (2) conflicts between desired and actual support given to students; and (3)…

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…

The Teacher as a Service Professional

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Myers, Donald A.

2008-01-01

The belief that teachers are professionals has become so pervasive during the past one third century that it is increasingly viewed as a fact. This article reviews the 13 characteristics of a profession advanced by sociologists of occupations, and it provides evidence that teachers fall far short of achieving them. However, it is noteworthy that…

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…

Teachers' Self-Directed Professional Development: Science and Mathematics Teachers' Adoption of ICT as a Professional Development Strategy

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…

Fostering Lifelong Learning--Evaluation of a Teacher Education Program for Professional Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finsterwald, Monika; Wagner, Petra; Schober, Barbara; Luftenegger, Marko; Spiel, Christiane

2013-01-01

Modern economics has placed lifelong learning (LLL) at the center of an intensive ongoing political debate. Evidenced-based interventions are needed, not only in continuing education courses for teachers, but also in schools. This paper introduces evaluation results of TALK, a teacher education program for professional teachers with the objective…

Recommended Standards for Teacher Education. The Accreditation of Basic and Advanced Preparation Programs for Professional School Personnel.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Washington, DC.

These recommended standards for teacher education are the result of a 3-year study conducted by the Evaluative Criteria Study Committee of AACTE in response to its mandate from the National Council on Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). The recommendations are presented in two major sections, one concerned with standards for basic teacher…

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…

Impact of National Board for the Professional Teaching Standards Certification on Student Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Belson, Sarah Irvine; Husted, Thomas A.

2015-01-01

A growing number of teachers have undertaken National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification training since its inception over twenty-five years ago. Previous empirical research on the impact of NBCTs on student performance has focused on state or district-level exams in individual states and found mixed results. This…

Professional Development for Teachers of English Language Learners: Discursive Norms, Learning Processes, and Professional Communities

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…

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

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…

Through the eyes of professional developers: Understanding the design of learning experiences for science teachers

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

Prospective Teachers' Ideas about Teacher Recruitment and Their Professional Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahin, Idris

2011-01-01

This research aimed to reveal how prospective teachers viewed their professional future and to discern how their lives would be affected in case they were not recruited as teachers. The research was conducted on senior students at Buca Faculty of Education. The sample of the research consisted of 149 senior students, including 82 girls and 67…

Changes in the Expertise of ESL Professionals: Knowledge and Action in an Era of New Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valdés, Guadalupe; Kibler, Amanda; Walqui, Aída

2014-01-01

This professional paper builds on the work of TESOL's issue briefs, "Implementing the Common Core State Standards for English Learners: The Changing Role of the ESL Teacher" (February 2013) and Overview of the Common Core State Standards Initiatives for ELLs (March, 2013). It discusses the shifting landscape surrounding the new Common…

Test Of Astronomy STandards TOAST Survey of K-12 Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slater, Timothy F.; Slater, Stephanie; Stork, Debra J.

2015-01-01

Discipline-based education research in astronomy is focused on understanding the underlying mental mechanisms used by students when learning astronomy and teachers when teaching astronomy. Systematic surveys of K-12 teacher' knowledge in the domain of astronomy are conducted periodically in order to better focus and improve professional development. These surveys are most often done when doing contemporary needs assessments or when new assessment instruments are readily available. Designed by Stephanie J. Slater of the CAPER Center for Astronomy & Physics Education Research, the 29-item multiple-choice format Test Of Astronomy STandards - TOAST is a carefully constructed, criterion-referenced instrument constructed upon a solid list of clearly articulated and widely agreed upon learning objectives. The targeted learning concepts tightly align with the consensus learning goals stated by the American Astronomical Society - Chair's Conference on ASTRO 101, the American Association of the Advancement of Science's Project 2061 Benchmarks, and the National Research Council's 1996 National Science Education Standards. Without modification, the TOAST is also aligned with the significantly less ambitious 2013 Next Generation Science Standards created by Achieve, Inc., under the auspices of the National Research Council. This latest survey reveals that K-12 teachers still hold many of the same fundamental misconceptions uncovered by earlier surveys. This includes misconceptions about the size, scale, and structure of the cosmos as well as misconceptions about the nature of physical processes at work in astronomy. This suggests that professional development in astronomy is still needed and that modern curriculum materials are best served if they provide substantial support for implementation.

Teacher Educators' Professional Development: Towards a Typology of Teacher Educators' Researcherly Disposition

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…

A Framework for Professional Ethics Courses in Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warnick, Bryan R.; Silverman, Sarah K.

2011-01-01

Evidence suggests that professional ethics is currently a neglected topic in teacher education programs. In this article, the authors revisit the question of ethics education for teachers. The authors propose an approach to the professional ethics of teaching that employs a case-analysis framework specifically tailored to address the practice of…

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…

Transfer of Online Professional Learning to Teachers' Classroom Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herrington, Anthony; Herrington, Jan; Hoban, Garry; Reid, Doug

2009-01-01

Professional learning is an important process in enabling teachers to update their pedagogical knowledge and practices. The use of online technologies to support professional learning has a number of benefits in terms of flexibility and scalability. However, it is not clear how well the approach impacts on teachers' classroom practices. This…

What Drives Teachers to Improve? The Role of Teacher Mindset in Professional Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gero, Greg Philip

2013-01-01

Teacher quality has received increasing focus over the past decade, yet, by some measures, teachers rarely improve after their first few years of teaching, and not all teachers seem driven to improve. Traditional models of professional learning have emphasized the processes that teachers take part in as a facilitator of their improvement. Research…

Chapter 2: Effective Professional Development--What We Now Know Calls for Professional Development for Teachers

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…

Informing Estimates of Program Effects for Studies of Mathematics Professional Development Using Teacher Content Knowledge Outcomes.

PubMed

Phelps, Geoffrey; Kelcey, Benjamin; Jones, Nathan; Liu, Shuangshuang

2016-10-03

Mathematics professional development is widely offered, typically with the goal of improving teachers' content knowledge, the quality of teaching, and ultimately students' achievement. Recently, new assessments focused on mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) have been developed to assist in the evaluation and improvement of mathematics professional development. This study presents empirical estimates of average program change in MKT and its variation with the goal of supporting the design of experimental trials that are adequately powered to detect a specified program effect. The study drew on a large database representing five different assessments of MKT and collectively 326 professional development programs and 9,365 teachers. Results from cross-classified hierarchical growth models found that standardized average change estimates across the five assessments ranged from a low of 0.16 standard deviations (SDs) to a high of 0.26 SDs. Power analyses using the estimated pre- and posttest change estimates indicated that hundreds of teachers are needed to detect changes in knowledge at the lower end of the distribution. Even studies powered to detect effects at the higher end of the distribution will require substantial resources to conduct rigorous experimental trials. Empirical benchmarks that describe average program change and its variation provide a useful preliminary resource for interpreting the relative magnitude of effect sizes associated with professional development programs and for designing adequately powered trials. © The Author(s) 2016.

Teacher Professional Development outside the Lecture Room: Voices of Professionally Unqualified Practicing Teachers in Rural Zimbabwe Secondary Schools

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…

A Quest for Legitimacy: On the Professionalization Policies of Sweden's Teachers' Unions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lilja, Peter

2014-01-01

The aim of this article is to contribute to the ongoing discussion on teacher professionalism by analyzing the professional strategies of Sweden's two teachers' unions from an organizational perspective. Drawing on institutional theory, the article argues that the teachers' unions' focus on strategies of professionalization has as much to do with…

Perceptions of Early Childhood Education Professionals on Teacher Leadership in Finland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heikka, Johanna; Halttunen, Leena; Waniganayake, Manjula

2018-01-01

This study investigated perceptions of early childhood education (ECE) professionals employed at three ECE centres on teacher leadership enactment in Finland. These professionals comprised childcare nurses, teachers and ECE centre directors. Theoretically, the study was anchored on an analysis of teacher leadership and distributed leadership…

Active Learning and Self-Regulation Enhance Student Teachers' Professional Competences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Virtanen, Päivi; Niemi, Hannele M.; Nevgi, Anne

2017-01-01

The study identifies the relationships between active learning, student teachers' self-regulated learning and professional competences. Further, the aim is to investigate how active learning promotes professional competences of student teachers with different self-regulation profiles. Responses from 422 student teachers to an electronic survey…

Signature Pedagogies in Support of Teachers' Professional Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker, Melissa; Patton, Kevin; O'Sullivan, Mary

2016-01-01

Signature pedagogies [Shulman, L. 2005. "Signature pedagogies in the professions." "Daedalus" 134 (3): 52--59.] are a focus of teacher educators seeking to improve teaching and teacher education. The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary common language of signature pedagogies for teacher professional development…

"That's Not Treating You as a Professional": Teachers Constructing Complex Professional Identities through Talk

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Jennifer L.

2008-01-01

Public debates about the role of teachers and teacher performance place teachers at the center of a range of national and local discourses. The notion of teacher professional identity, therefore, framed in a variety of ways, engages people across social contexts, whether as educators, parents, students, taxpayers, voters or consumers of news and…

Professional Learning Networks Designed for Teacher Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trust, Torrey

2012-01-01

In the information age, students must learn to navigate and evaluate an expanding network of information. Highly effective teachers model this process of information analysis and knowledge acquisition by continually learning through collaboration, professional development, and studying pedagogical techniques and best practices. Many teachers have…

Phenomenological Analysis of Professional Identity Crisis Experience by Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sadovnikova, Nadezhda O.; Sergeeva, Tamara B.; Suraeva, Maria O.

2016-01-01

The topicality of the problem under research is predetermined by the need of psychology and pedagogy for the study of the process of professional identity crisis experience by teachers and development of a system of measures for support of teachers' pedagogical activity and professional development. The objective of the study is to describe the…

Rural High School Mathematics Teachers' Response to Mathematics Reform Curriculum Integration and Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cox, Teodora B.

2009-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine rural high school mathematics teachers' responses to the initial implementation of Louisiana's "Comprehensive Curriculum" during their second year of involvement in a professional development program. The curriculum changes were the culmination of an alignment between standards,…

National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) support for the Next Generation Science Standards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buhr Sullivan, S. M.; Awad, A. A.; Manduca, C. A.

2014-12-01

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) represents the best opportunity for geosciences education since 1996, describing a vision of teaching excellence and placing Earth and space science on a par with other disciplines. However, significant, sustained support and relationship-building between disciplinary communities must be forthcoming in order to realize the potential. To realize the vision, teacher education, curricula, assessments, administrative support and workforce/college readiness expectations must be developed. The National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT), a geoscience education professional society founded in 1938, is comprised of members across all educational contexts, including undergraduate faculty, pre-college teachers, informal educators, geoscience education researchers and teacher educators. NAGT support for NGSS includes an upcoming workshop in collaboration with the American Geosciences Institute, deep collections of relevant digital learning resources, pertinent interest groups within the membership, professional development workshops, and more. This presentation will describe implications of NGSS for the geoscience education community and highlight some opportunities for the path forward.

Challenges Confronting Career-Changing Beginning Teachers: A Qualitative Study of Professional Scientists Becoming Science Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watters, James J.; Diezmann, Carmel M.

2015-03-01

Recruitment of highly qualified science and mathematics graduates has become a widespread strategy to enhance the quality of education in the field of STEM. However, attrition rates are very high suggesting preservice education programs are not preparing them well for the career change. We analyse the experiences of professionals who are scientists and have decided to change careers to become teachers. The study followed a group of professionals who undertook a 1-year preservice teacher education course and were employed by secondary schools on graduation. We examined these teachers' experiences through the lens of self-determination theory, which posits autonomy, confidence and relatedness are important in achieving job satisfaction. The findings indicated that the successful teachers were able to achieve a sense of autonomy and confidence and, in particular, had established strong relationships with colleagues. However, the unique challenges facing career-change professionals were often overlooked by administrators and colleagues. Opportunities to build a sense of relatedness in their new profession were often absent. The failure to establish supportive relationships was decisive in some teachers leaving the profession. The findings have implications for both preservice and professional in-service programs and the role that administrators play in supporting career-change teachers.

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'…

Mission and Professionalism: What Teachers Can Do.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ause, John

1985-01-01

The growing teacher shortage and increasing bureaucratization of schools make it imperative that new means be developed to make teaching more attractive as a profession. Teacher organizations, professional newsletters, informal discussion groups, networking, ad hoc pressure groups, and alternative schools might provide some route to reform. (KH)

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…

Professional Satisfaction of Secondary Education Teachers: The Case of Greece

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koutrouba, Konstantina; Michala, Myrto

2017-01-01

The present questionnaire-based study examines 379 Greek teachers' perceptions about professional satisfaction and dissatisfaction. According to the results, teachers are professionally satisfied when they, firstly, feel able to effectively establish behaviour and communication rules in their classrooms, secondly, respond to students' expectations…

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…

Professional development for primary science teaching in Thailand: Knowledge, orientations, and practices of professional developers and professional development participants

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

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.…

Professional Development of Elementary and Science Teachers in a Summer Science Camp: Changing Nature of Science Conceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karaman, Ayhan

2016-01-01

Many countries all over the world have recently integrated nature of science (NOS) concepts into their science education standards. Providing professional support to teachers about NOS concepts is crucially important for successful implementation of the standards. For this purpose, a summer science camp was offered to elementary and science…

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…

A correlation study involving a comparison of professional science teaching standards and student performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schum, Paul A.

If international report cards were issued today, to all industrialized nations world wide, the United States would receive a "C" at best in mathematics and science. This is not simply a temporary or simple cause and effect circumstance that can easily be addressed. The disappointing truth is that this downward trend in mathematics and science mastery by American students has been occurring steadily for at least the last eight years of international testing, and that there are numerous and varied bases for this reality. In response to this crisis, The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and The National Research Council (NRC) each have proposed relatively consistent, but individual sets of professional science teaching standards, designed to improve science instruction in American schools. It is of extreme value to the scientific, educational community to know if any or all of these standards lead to improved student performance. This study investigates the correlation between six, specific teacher behaviors that are common to these national standards and which behaviors, if any, result in improved student performance, as demonstrated on the Science Reasoning sub-test of the ACT Assessment. These standards focus classroom science teachers on professional development, leading toward student mastery of scientific interpretation, concept development, and constructive relationship building. Because all individual teachers interpret roles, expectations, and guiding philosophies from different lenses, effective professional practice may reflect consistency in rationale and methodology yet will be best evidenced by an examination of specific teaching techniques. In this study, these teaching techniques are evidenced by self-reported teacher awareness and adherence to these consensual standards. Assessment instruments vary widely, and the results of student performance often reflect the congruency of

Qualification Journey in Teacher Training: Case in Northern Cyprus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erden, Hale

2016-01-01

Problem Statement: The identification of professional teaching standards has great value on initial teacher training, hiring teachers, assessing teacher performance, as well as planning and organizing teacher professional development. In Northern Cyprus there are not any identified professional teaching standards. This study aimed at filling this…

Leading by Example: Teacher Educators' Professional Learning through Communities of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacPhail, Ann; Patton, Kevin; Parker, Melissa; Tannehill, Deborah

2014-01-01

There has been a limited interest in examining physical education teacher educators' role and practices in embedding professional responsibility and commitment to continued professional learning for both teacher educators and pre-service teachers in a physical education teacher education (PETE) program (MacPhail, 2011) Directed by a landscape…

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…

An Evaluation of a Professional Learning Network for Computer Science Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cutts, Quintin; Robertson, Judy; Donaldson, Peter; O'Donnell, Laurie

2017-01-01

This paper describes and evaluates aspects of a professional development programme for existing CS teachers in secondary schools (PLAN C) which was designed to support teachers at a time of substantial curricular change. The paper's particular focus is on the formation of a teacher professional development network across several hundred teachers…

School Health Promotion and Teacher Professional Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jourdan, Didier; Simar, Carine; Deasy, Christine; Carvalho, Graça S.; McNamara, Patricia Mannix

2016-01-01

Purpose: Health and education are inextricably linked. Health promotion sits somewhat uncomfortably within schools, often remaining a marginal aspect of teachers' work. The purpose of this paper is to examine the compatibility of an HP-initiative with teacher professional identity. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research design was…

Teacher Professional Development: Lessons Learned from Six Kepler Mission Workshops

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeVore, Edna; Harman, P.; Gould, A.; Koch, D.

2010-01-01

NASA's Kepler Mission conducted teacher professional development workshops on the search for exoplanets in the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. During late 2008 and into 2009, six workshops were conducted surrounding the launch of the Kepler Mission. These were a part of the Kepler Mission's outreach honoring the International Year of Astronomy. Each workshop was supported by a Kepler team scientist, two Education & Public Outreach staff and local hosts. Activities 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. The Kepler Mission teacher 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 evaluation results can be of use to other Education and Public Outreach practitioners who plan similar events. In sharing our experiences, we hope to assist others, and to learn from them as well. Future events are planned. Supported by NASA Grants to the SETI Institute: NAG2-6066 Kepler Education and Public Outreach and NNX08BA74G, IYA Kepler Mission Pre-launch Workshops.

"That's Not What I Am": Teacher Reflections on Purpose, Practice and Professionalism in the Swedish Free School System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milner, Alison

2015-01-01

In this article, four teachers reflect on what it means to work in a for-profit free school in Sweden. These narratives corroborate concerns about educational inequity and academic standards within the free school system. Equally, they reveal how teachers struggle to negotiate a professional identity within a competitive school market where social…

Professional Competencies of (Prospective) Mathematics Teachers--Cognitive versus Situated Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaiser, Gabriele; Blömeke, Sigrid; König, Johannes; Busse, Andreas; Döhrmann, Martina; Hoth, Jessica

2017-01-01

Recent research on the professional competencies of mathematics teachers, which has been carried out during the last decade, is characterized by different theoretical approaches on the conceptualization and evaluation of teachers' professional competencies, namely cognitive versus situated approaches. Building on the international IEA Teacher…

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.…

Building professional identity as computer science teachers: Supporting high school computer science teachers through reflection and community building

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ni, Lijun

Computing education requires qualified computing teachers. The reality is that too few high schools in the U.S. have computing/computer science teachers with formal computer science (CS) training, and many schools do not have CS teacher at all. Moreover, teacher retention rate is often low. Beginning teacher attrition rate is particularly high in secondary education. Therefore, in addition to the need for preparing new CS teachers, we also need to support those teachers we have recruited and trained to become better teachers and continue to teach CS. Teacher education literature, especially teacher identity theory, suggests that a strong sense of teacher identity is a major indicator or feature of committed, qualified teachers. However, under the current educational system in the U.S., it could be challenging to establish teacher identity for high school (HS) CS teachers, e.g., due to a lack of teacher certification for CS. This thesis work centers upon understanding the sense of identity HS CS teachers hold and exploring ways of supporting their identity development through a professional development program: the Disciplinary Commons for Computing Educators (DCCE). DCCE has a major focus on promoting reflection on teaching practice and community building. With scaffolded activities such as course portfolio creation, peer review and peer observation among a group of HS CS teachers, it offers opportunities for CS teachers to explicitly reflect on and narrate their teaching, which is a central process of identity building through their participation within the community. In this thesis research, I explore the development of CS teacher identity through professional development programs. I first conducted an interview study with local HS CS teachers to understand their sense of identity and factors influencing their identity formation. I designed and enacted the professional program (DCCE) and conducted case studies with DCCE participants to understand how their

A Report of the Nineteenth Annual Kansas College Conference and Teacher Education and Professional Standards Conference on Teacher Education; An Examination of Standards and Evaluative Criteria for the Accreditation of Teacher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kansas Advisory Council on Education, Topeka.

The major portion of this report consists of speeches examining the work of a committee appointed by The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) in 1966 to propose standards and evaluative criteria for the accreditation of teacher education. Speeches presented include: "NCATE Faces the 1970's" by Rolf W. Larson,…

Further Education Teachers' Accounts of Their Professional Identities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jephcote, Martin; Salisbury, Jane

2009-01-01

This study of further education teachers, conducted over a two-year period, captures the realities of their working lives and, in particular, draws attention to how teachers reconcile competing pressures. This contributes to the growing interest in and body of knowledge about teachers' lives and the formation of their professional identities. The…

Affordances of Teacher Professional Learning in Secondary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Admiraal, Wilfried; Kruiter, Joke; Lockhorst, Ditte; Schenke, Wouter; Sligte, Henk; Smit, Ben; Tigelaar, Dineke; de Wit, Walter

2016-01-01

It is commonly understood that teachers in secondary school should develop throughout their career in order to stay as an essential factor in student learning. Schools can offer opportunities to link teachers' professional learning to their school practice with a positive impact on teachers' motivation to learn and the effectiveness of their…

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…

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…

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.

From Professional Practice to Practical Leader: Teacher Leadership in Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Adrianne

2016-01-01

The primary purpose of this research is to illuminate perceptions and lived experiences of secondary teachers through their involvement in a Professional Learning Community (PLC). Teachers' experiences within a PLC were examined for patterns of cultivated leadership. The second purpose of the study was to identify variables that either promote or…

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…

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

Teacher as Writer: Entering the Professional Conversation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dahl, Karin L., Ed.

This book, featuring teacher writers from all levels of education, offers consciousness-raising stories of the teachers' first steps toward authorship, advice for all aspects of the Writing process, suggestions for conducting writing groups, and a wealth of insider information on how to develop quality articles for professional journals and get…

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…

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…

The Quality of Vocational Teachers: Teacher Education, Institutional Roles and Professional Reality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grollmann, Philipp

2008-01-01

What are quality vocational teachers? This article analyzes the different factors exerting an influence on the professional knowledge, practices and performance of teaching staff involved in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The international variety of vocational teacher education patterns, profiles and recruitment practices…

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…

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…

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…

Preparation and Professional Development of Teacher Educators in Tanzania: Current Practices and Prospects

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…

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…

Exploring the Professional Ideals of Christian Teachers from Conservative Protestant Schools in the Netherlands

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boele-de Bruin, H. L.; de Muynck, A.

2018-01-01

Professional ideals arise from personal worldviews and specify teachers' professional identities. This study aimed to explore how faith is present in the professional ideals of Christian teachers. The professional ideals of 107 Dutch teachers from conservative Protestant primary and secondary schools were explored using an open-ended…

Commentary: The Thrill of Professionalization and the Agony of Deletes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waite, Susan Field; Leavell, Judy A.

2006-01-01

Although some teacher educators hoped that the creation and use of standards would help to professionalize teaching, the discourse of standards and accountability is now being used to erode teacher education. Many teacher educators who anticipated the thrill of professionalization through standards are now experiencing the agony of deletes,…

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 Narrative Analysis of a Teacher Educator's Professional Learning Journey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vanassche, Eline; Kelchtermans, Geert

2016-01-01

This article reports on a narrative analysis of one teacher educator's learning journey in a two-year professional development project. Professional development is conceived of as the complex learning processes resulting from the meaningful interactions between the individual teacher educator and his/her working context. Our analysis indicates…

Teacher Professional Development with SOFIA from Inception to Flight

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hemenway, Mary Kay; Lacy, J.; Sneden, C.; EXES Teacher Associates, SOFIA

2012-01-01

Since January 1998 Texas science and math teachers have met several times per year in a program centered on SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. Initial meetings focused on astronomical instrumentation as the ground-based TEXES (Texas Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph) and its SOFIA successor, EXES, were developed and built. Sixty-nine different teachers have been involved in the seventy-nine Saturday meetings between January 1998 and October 2011. A typical meeting included an update on SOFIA, an expert talk on a science or technology topic, and a Standards-linked activity that they can carry back to use in their classrooms. Many of the participants have presented activities or reports to their colleagues. A variety of guest-presenters - faculty, staff, and graduate students as well as visitors (both in person and through videoconference) - enriched the program with their expertise. Some Saturday meetings included field trips to Waco to visit the SOFIA aircraft modification; other trips sent subsets of teachers to McDonald Observatory for TEXES' early observations, to Hawaii for observing runs on the IRTF or Gemini, and to various locations for American Astronomical Society meetings. The participants report their increased knowledge of astronomical concepts and of the culture of professional astronomy. By spreading the SOFIA EXES teacher program over such a long period, the staff has formed strong professional bonds with the participants while the participants have shared their experiences with each other. Support from USRA grant 8500-98-008; the National Science Foundation AST- 0607312, AST- 0607708, and AST-0908978; and SOFIA Education/Public Outreach through the SETI Institute 08-SC-1022 is gratefully acknowledged.

Continuing Professional Development in Context: Teachers' Continuing Professional Development Culture in Germany and Sweden

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'…

How to Activate Teachers through Teacher Evaluation?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tuytens, Melissa; Devos, Geert

2014-01-01

There is a general doubt on whether teacher evaluation can contribute to teachers' professional development. Recently, standards-based teacher evaluation has been introduced in many countries to improve teaching practice. This study wants to investigate which teacher evaluation procedural, leadership, and teacher characteristics can stimulate…

A Multi-Year Study of the Impact of the Rice Model Teacher Professional Development on Elementary Science Teachers

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…

Teacher Metacognition within the Professional Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prytula, Michelle P.

2012-01-01

A study of teacher metacognition within the context of the professional learning community (PLC) was conducted to understand how teachers describe their metacognition, what they describe as the catalysts to their metacognition, and how metacognition influences their work. Although the PLC was used as a context for the study, the findings include…

Advanced Skills Teachers: Professional Identity and Status

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fuller, C.; Goodwyn, A.; Francis-Brophy, E.

2013-01-01

The teaching profession continues to struggle with defining itself in relation to other professions. Even though public opinion positions teachers second only to doctors and nurses in terms of their professional status and prestige research in the UK suggests that teachers still believe that they have much lower status than other professions. With…

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…

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…

Professionalism: Teachers Taking the Reins

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Helterbran, Valeri R.

2008-01-01

It is essential that teachers take a proactive look at their profession and themselves to strengthen areas of professionalism over which they have control. In this article, the author suggests strategies that include collaborative planning, reflectivity, growth in the profession, and the examination of certain personal characteristics.

Teacher E-Professionalism: An Examination of Western Canadian Pre-Service Teachers' Perceptions, Attitudes, and Facebook Behaviours

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poth, Cheryl; McCallum, Kendra; Tang, Wei

2016-01-01

This study addresses the pressing need for attending to teacher e-professionalism, that is, the appropriate application of information and communication strategies when using digital media. The authors examine data patterns related to 113 pre-service teachers' perceptions of e-professionalism, attitudes towards existing technology-related…

Uncovering a Connection between the Teachers' Professional Development Program and Students' Learning

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…

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.

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…

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…

Disciplining Professionals: A Feminist Discourse Analysis of Public Preschool Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sisson, Jamie Huff; Iverson, Susan V.

2014-01-01

Educational reforms across the globe have had implications for the work of preschool teachers and thus their professional identities. This article draws on a feminist discourse lens to examine data collected from a recent narrative inquiry focused on understanding the professional identities of five public preschool teachers in the USA. This…

The Failure of Certification Program to Unify Indonesian Teachers' Perception on Teacher Professionalism: The Case of Bengkulu Junior and Senior High-School Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Safnil Arsyad, Imrannudin

2016-01-01

Teacher professionalism has become a very important topic for teachers in Indonesia including in Bengkulu since all teachers have been and will be certificated to be competent and professional teachers; however, they may still have various different perception on the topic. The purpose of this study is to know the perception of certificated…

Mathematics Teachers: Negotiating Professional and Discipline Identities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grootenboer, Peter; Ballantyne, Julie

2010-01-01

The professional practice of teachers is shaped and directed by their sense of identity (Beijaard, Verloop, & Vermunt, 2000). All teachers have some conception of themselves as pedagogues, but they also have identities which relate to the disciplines that they are required to teach. Here we report on a project that explored the nexus of…

Infusing Neuroscience into Teacher Professional Development

PubMed Central

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

Teacher Professionalism beyond Numbers: A Communicative Orientation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nordin, Andreas

2016-01-01

In the European neo-liberal policy context, there has been an increase in pressure on teachers to exercise a type of professional responsibility that contributes to the development of a competitive knowledge-based economy. From a communication theory perspective, this paper examines if it is at all possible to talk of professional responsibility…

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

Physical and mental workloads in professional dance teachers.

PubMed

Wanke, Eileen M; Schmidt, Mike; Leslie-Spinks, Jeremy; Fischer, Axel; Groneberg, David A

2015-03-01

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the level of mental and physical workloads in professional dance teachers depending on the trained students' age, technique level, or dance style. A total number of 133 professional dance pedagogues responded to an online cross-sectional questionnaire survey on self-assessment of physical and mental workloads occurring during dance units. The majority of dance teachers estimated their level of physical and mental workload to be almost as high as that of their students, with differences in physical and mental workloads observed depending on dance style, age of students, and technical level. More than 60% of the teachers were convinced that their occupation implies positive effects on their own health in terms of self-realization (78.2%), musculoskeletal system (66.9%), and social relationships (61.7%). Of all respondents, 58.6% stated that their musculoskeletal system was jeopardized by the physically demanding activity. This is followed by the fear of financial insecurity (50.4%). The majority of all dance teachers (males 65.4%, females 63.9%) would like to obtain further education on prevention against or dealing with physical workload. Physical and mental workloads play an important role in dance teaching. Coping with or preventing these loads could be keys to a lifelong, healthy career as a professional dance teacher. Future trials should look at clinical parameters of physical and mental load.

Professionalized Music Teacher Education: Swiss and French Students' Expectations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Güsewell, Angelika; Joliat, François; Terrien, Pascal

2017-01-01

The aim of this research was to investigate preservice music teachers' expectations of their curriculum, namely: (a) What content do they expect in view of their future professional activity? (b) Are their expectations in line with the principles of professionalized teacher education? (c) Are there any differences between the expectations of Swiss…

How Do Novice Teachers in Finland Perceive Their Professional Agency?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eteläpelto, Anneli; Vähäsantanen, Katja; Hökkä, Päivi

2015-01-01

This study investigated novice teachers' perceptions of their professional agency during the initial years of their work in schools. The research questions were: (i) How do novice teachers perceive their professional agency within their work, and what do they see as the main restrictions and resources affecting that agency? (ii) How do novice…

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

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…

Examining the Relationship between Teachers' Individual Innovativeness and Professionalism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parlar, Hanifi; Cansoy, Ramazan

2017-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between teachers' individual innovativeness and their teacher professionalism. The participants were 567 teachers working in elementary, middle and high schools located across Istanbul. The data were gathered through the "Individual Innovativeness Scale" and the "Teacher…

Teacher Transformation: An Exploration of Science Teachers' Changing Professional Identities, Knowledge, and Classroom Practices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whitacre, Michelle Phillips

This qualitative, multiple case study examines five teachers' experiences with a National Science Foundation-funded professional development (PD) program focused on science literacy. Using a three dimensional conceptual framework combining transformative learning theory, communities of practice, and sociocultural conceptions of identity it explores: the ways the "Science Literacy through Science Journalism" (SciJourn) project built professional community and influenced teacher learning; the influence of the project on participating science teachers' professional identities, knowledge, and classroom practices; and the ways teachers were or were not transformed by participation in the project. To this end, data from surveys and phenomenological interviews were analyzed through qualitative textual analysis and narrative analysis. Four of the teachers experienced a change in their stories to live by, aka, an identity shift. Three predominant themes emerged across these cases. These included a changed conceptualization of science literacy, the importance of student engagement and authenticity, and the value of SciJourn's professional development and community. The changed conceptualization of science literacy was particularly salient as it challenged these teachers' assumptions, led them to rethink how they teach science literacy, and also influenced them to re-evaluate their teaching priorities beyond the PD. Consequently, this study concludes that PD efforts should focus as much, or more, on influencing teachers' ideas regarding what and how they teach and less on teaching strategies. A close comparison between two teachers' diverging experiences with the program showed that student engagement played a significant role in teachers' perceptions of the value of project, suggesting that whether or not teachers sustain a new practice is closely tied to their students' feedback. Additionally, this analysis showed that a teacher's individualized needs and sense of efficacy

Elementary School English Teachers' Professional Learning from Teaching Demonstrations as Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chien, Chin-Wen

2017-01-01

This study used interviews, observations and documentary evidence to analyze the professional learning of sixteen elementary school English teachers and two expert teachers during the pre-observation conference, observation, and post-observation conference from three-step teaching demonstrations. This study has the following major findings. First,…

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…

Exploration of Values: Israeli Teachers' Professional Ethics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher, Yael

2013-01-01

The main purpose of this study was to explore Israeli teachers' professional ethics and values using the Facet Theory (Guttman in Psychmetrika 33:469-506, 1968). Since Israel does not have a teachers' code of ethics, such exploration can be a basis for constructing one. The study is mainly exploratory, and the main hypotheses that guided the study…

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…

The Interaction between Group Processes and Personal Professional Trajectories in a Professional Development Community for Teacher Educators

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…

Investigating the Impact of NGSS-Aligned Professional Development on PreK-3 Teachers' Science Content Knowledge and Pedagogy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tuttle, Nicole; Kaderavek, Joan N.; Molitor, Scott; Czerniak, Charlene M.; Johnson-Whitt, Eugenia; Bloomquist, Debra; Namatovu, Winnifred; Wilson, Grant

2016-11-01

This pilot study investigates the impact of a 2-week professional development Summer Institute on PK-3 teachers' knowledge and practices. This Summer Institute is a component of [program], a large-scale early-childhood science project that aims to transform PK-3 science teaching. The mixed-methods study examined concept maps, lesson plans, and classroom observations to measure possible changes in PK-3 teachers' science content knowledge and classroom practice from 11 teachers who attended the 2014 Summer Institute. Analysis of the concept maps demonstrated statistically significant growth in teachers' science content knowledge. Analysis of teachers' lesson plans demonstrated that the teachers could design high quality science inquiry lessons aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards following the professional development. Finally, examination of teachers' pre- and post-Summer Institute videotaped inquiry lessons showed evidence that teachers were incorporating new inquiry practices into their teaching, especially regarding classroom discourse. Our results suggest that an immersive inquiry experience is effective at beginning a shift towards reform-aligned science and engineering instruction but that early elementary educators require additional support for full mastery.

Developing a Professional Vision of Classroom Practices of a Mathematics Teacher: Views from a Researcher and a Teacher

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…

Teacher change and professional development: A case study of teachers engaged in an innovative constructivist science curriculum

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.

Enhancing Teachers' Technological Pedagogical Knowledge and Practices: A Professional Development Model for Technology Teachers in Malawi

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…

Codes of Ethics and Teachers' Professional Autonomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwimmer, Marina; Maxwell, Bruce

2017-01-01

This article considers the value of adopting a code of professional ethics for teachers. After having underlined how a code of ethics stands to benefits a community of educators--namely, by providing a mechanism for regulating autonomy and promoting a shared professional ethic--the article examines the principal arguments against codes of ethics.…

In Defense of Teacher Professionalism as a Policy Choice.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sykes, Gary

1991-01-01

Whereas democracy institutionalizes distrust, professionalism relies on trust. Responding to Berbules and Densmore, this article identifies strong normative reasons, grounded in the interests of children, for promoting teacher professionalism. Exorcising the evils of classic professionalism will eliminate neither equity nor quality problems.…

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…

The Relationship between Teacher Value Orientations and Engagement in Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ning, Hoi Kwan; Lee, Daphnee; Lee, Wing On

2016-01-01

The development of teacher professional learning communities (PLC) has attracted growing attention among practitioners, policy-makers and researchers. The aims of this study were to identify typologies of professional learning teams based on measures of professional learning engagement, and assess their linkages with teachers' value orientations.…

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…

With Portfolio in Hand. Validating the New Teacher Professionalism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lyons, Nona, Ed.

This book suggests that portfolios can become a new kind of credential of competent and effective teachers. The book includes 5 parts with 16 chapters. Part 1, "Prologue," offers: (1) "Portfolio Possibilities: Validating a New Teacher Professionalism" (Nona Lyons) and (2) "Teacher Portfolios: A Theoretical Activity"…

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…

Professional Identity Development of Teacher Candidates Participating in an Informal Science Education Internship: A focus on drawings as evidence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Katz, Phyllis; McGinnis, J. Randy; Hestness, Emily; Riedinger, Kelly; Marbach-Ad, Gili; Dai, Amy; Pease, Rebecca

2011-06-01

This study investigated the professional identity development of teacher candidates participating in an informal afterschool science internship in a formal science teacher preparation programme. We used a qualitative research methodology. Data were collected from the teacher candidates, their informal internship mentors, and the researchers. The data were analysed through an identity development theoretical framework, informed by participants' mental models of science teaching and learning. We learned that the experience in an afterschool informal internship encouraged the teacher candidates to see themselves, and to be seen by others, as enacting key recommendations by science education standards documents, including exhibiting: positive attitudes, sensitivity to diversity, and increasing confidence in facilitating hands-on science participation, inquiry, and collaborative work. Our study provided evidence that the infusion of an informal science education internship in a formal science teacher education programme influenced positively participants' professional identity development as science teachers.

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,…

The Importance of Environment for Teacher Professional Learning in Malta and Scotland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Attard Tonna, Michelle; Shanks, Rachel

2017-01-01

Current reforms in the Maltese and Scottish educational contexts can only be fully implemented if teachers radically transform the way they teach. Teacher professional learning is an important mechanism that policy-makers, school leaders and administrators have to achieve this. Teacher professional learning is, above all, situated within the…

Pre-service teacher professional development on climate change: Assessment of workshop success and influence of prior knowledge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Veron, D. E.; Ad-Marbach, G.; Fox-Lykens, R.; Ozbay, G.; Sezen-Barrie, A.; Wolfson, J.

2017-12-01

As states move to adopt the next generation science standards, in-service teachers are being provided with professional development that introduces climate change content and best practices for teaching climate change in the classroom. However, research has shown that it is challenging to bring this information into the higher education curriculum in education courses for pre-service teachers due to curricular and programming constraints. Over two years, the Maryland and Delaware Climate Change Assessment and Research (MADE-CLEAR) project explored a professional development approach for pre-service teachers which employed paired workshops that resulted in participant-developed lesson plans based on climate change content. The workshops were designed to provide pre-service teachers with climate change content related to the carbon cycle and to model a variety of techniques and activities for presenting this information in the classroom. Lesson plans were developed between the first and second workshop, presented at the second workshop and discussed with peers and in-service teachers, and then revised in response to feedback from the second workshop. Participant climate change content knowledge was assessed before the first workshop, and after the final revision of the lesson plan was submitted to the MADE-CLEAR team. Climate content knowledge was also assessed using the same survey for additional pre-service teacher groups who did not participate in the professional development. Results show that while the paired workshop approach increased climate content knowledge, the amount of improvement varied depending on the participants' prior knowledge in climate change content. In addition, some alternate conceptions of climate change were not altered by participant involvement in the professional development approach. Revised lesson plans showed understanding of underlying climate change impacts and demonstrated awareness of appropriate techniques for introducing this

Professional development strategies for teaching urban biology teachers to use concept maps effectively

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.

Understanding the Complexity of Teacher Interaction in a Teacher Professional Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sjoer, Ellen; Meirink, Jacobiene

2016-01-01

In this study, we examine a professional learning community of primary school teachers developing a joint school-based curriculum for science and technology (S&T) education. Team meetings were observed over the course of one school year and the participating teachers and school head were interviewed. An essential factor in the team's…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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