Showing papers on "Professional development published in 1997"

Designing Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics

Abstract: Foreword by Dennis Sparks Acknowledgments About the Authors Introduction What Has Happened Since the First and Second Editions The Enduring Challenges of Professional Development Carrying on Susan Loucks-Horsley's Work Purpose of the Book Changes in the Third Edition The Audience for This Book Organization of the Book How to Use This Book Values Shared by the Authors 1. A Framework for Designing Professional Development Inputs Into the Design Process The Design and Implementation Process 2. Knowledge and Beliefs Supporting Effective Professional Development Learners and Learning Teachers and Teaching The Nature of Science and Mathematics Adult Learning and Professional Development The Change Process 3. Context Factors Influencing Professional Development Students and Their Learning Needs Teachers and Their Learning Needs Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment Practices, and the Learning Environment Organizational Culture and Professional Learning Communities Leadership National, State, and Local Policies Available Resources Families and Communities Resources for Investigating Context 4. Critical Issues to Consider in Designing Professional Development Building Capacity for Sustainability Making Time for Professional Development Developing Leadership Ensuring Equity Building a Professional Learning Culture Garnering Public Support Scaling Up 5. Strategies for Professional Learning Selecting Strategies for a Professional Development Structures A Repertoire of Stratgies for Professional Learning 6. The Design Framework in Action Tapping the Knowledge Bases, Framing Beliefs: "We Stood on the Shoulders of Giants" Knowledge and Beliefs About the Nature of Learning and Teaching Mathematics and Science Equity Matters: "All Humans Are Educable" Knowledge and Beliefs About Teachers Knowledge of Effective Professional Development Knowledge of the Change Process Reflect and Revise: Experience as a Source of Knowledge Making Compromises Context The Professional Development Design Process Design Framework in Action: Cases References Index

Professional Learning Communities: Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement.

Abstract: Over the past several decades, both the public and education professionals have been vocal in their demands for new programs and practices in education. Simultaneously, these advocates have acknowledged that educators must come to an intimate understanding of the process of change in order for implementation to be successful and for the promises of new practices to be realized. During this period, an abundance of improvement processes were introduced to school practitioners in the hope that change would become less uncertain. For example, the effective schools research and its related school improvement process provided the foundation for many schools around the globe to think about and work on school change. Subsequently, many other models and programs designed to improve student performance were highly touted and marketed. Because the literature on successful school change proclaimed the importance of the principal, the role and the actions of the principal on behalf of school improvement were widely studied and reported. Despite the time and resources devoted to the study of and attention to many other aspects of change 3 in education, disappointment in the amount and extent of educational improvement has been widespread. A quick-fix mentality, especially prevalent in U.S. culture, resulted in many schools being poorly prepared for their plans for change and therefore implementing change in a superficial and less-than-high-quality way.This approach might be called the " microwave oven " theory of school improvement: Pop a new program in for four minutes with a hero principal to manage it and improvement is done.What then? Throughout my years of involvement in the school improvement process––as a participating faculty member in schools that sought increased benefits for students; as a student of school change and improvement, researching the factors that affect change; and as an external facilitator, supporting schools' efforts for improvement––I have seen many examples of unsuccessful change.Thus I began to wonder if there wasn't a better way to do things. During this time, I had the opportunity to work in a " learning organization " that matched Peter Senge's descriptions of such an organizational arrangement (1990). In that environment I experienced a nurturing culture 4 that encouraged a high level of staff collaboration in the effort to understand successful change processes. Subsequently, during a decade of valuable and productive research and development work at the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL), I was privileged to study the improvement efforts of a school …

Teaching With Technology: Creating Student-Centered Classrooms

Abstract: What happens between student and teacher when computers move into the classroom? Drawing from over 20,000 episodes in the longitudinal database of Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow, this book gives case studies and teacher testimonies, addressing teachers' perennial concerns: teacher learning and teacher beliefs about instructional change; redefining student and teacher roles; maintaining student engagement; reducing teacher isolation; managing the technology-rich classroom; and support for instructional change from school principals, school districts, technology trainers and colleagues

Investing in Teacher Learning: Staff Development and Instructional Improvement in Community School District #2, New York City.

Abstract: The context for this paper is a general concern among educational reformers and students of educational reform about the role of local school districts in the improvement of teaching and learning in schools.

The Jasper Project: Lessons in Curriculum, instruction, Assessment, and Professional Development

Abstract: During the past decade, members of the Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt University have worked with hundreds of teachers and thousands of students throughout North America in the context of the Adventures of Jasper Woodbury problem-solving series--12 videodisc-based adventures plus video-based analogs, extensions, and teaching tips designed to improve the mathematical thinking of students from grades 5 and up, and to help them make connections to other disciplines such as science, history, and social studies. The experience of developing the Jasper series, testing it in classrooms, and re-designing it based on feedback provided The Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt with extraordinarily rich opportunities to learn from teachers, students, parents, administrators, and other community members. This book was written for two reasons. First, it helped the authors to organize the thoughts and experiences of over 70 members of the Learning Technology Center who worked on the Jasper project, and to collaboratively reflect on their experiences and relate them to the broader literature in cognition and instruction. Second, this book gives others a change to learn from the experiences of the Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt. The book is anchored around their experiences with Jasper, but the issues explored are relevant to any attempt to improve educational practice. This book tells a coherent story that helps readers explore issues of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and teacher learning (professional development) within a single context (Jasper) and how all these topics are interrelated. It also helps readers see the relevance of research programs for improving educational practice. Throughout, the need for maintaining a balance of laboratory and classroom research is emphasized.

Enacting Project-Based Science

Abstract: Recommendations for reform in science education place a premium on students' understanding of scientific concepts and their ability to identify problems, conduct inquiry, and use information flexibly. They call for an appreciation for how ideas evolve and are validated. In this article we discuss changes in ideas about learning that underpin the reforms. We then describe our experiences with project-based science, a pedagogy that addresses the reform recommendations. Project-based science focuses on student-designed inquiry that is organized by investigations to answer driving questions, includes collaboration among learners and others, the use of new technology, and the creation of authentic artifacts that represent student understanding. Finally, we illustrate the challenges this type of innovation poses for teachers' classroom practice, for professional development, and for policy.

Cognition, Complexity, and Teacher Education

Abstract: Drawing on recent developments in complexity theory, ecology, and hermeneutics, Brent Davis and Dennis Sumara present an "enactivist" model of cognition and contrast it to popular notions of what it means to learn and think that pervade formal education. They illustrate their model by drawing from their experiences during a year-long study in a small, inner-city elementary school. According to this model, cognition does not occur in individual minds or brains, but in the possibility for shared action. An enactivist theory of cognition, the authors suggest, requires teachers and teacher educators to reconceive the practice of teaching by blurring the lines between knower and known, teacher and student, school and community.

Changing Places?: Flexibility, Lifelong Learning and a Learning Society

Abstract: Flexibility has become a central concept in much policy and academic debate Individuals, organizations and societies are all required to become more flexible so that they can participate in the ongoing processes of change involved in lifelong learning This book explores how the notion of a learning society has developed over recent years: the changes that have given rise to the requirement for flexibility, and the changed discourses and practices that have emerged in the education and training of adults With the growth in interest in adults as learners, (primarily to support economic competitiveness), the closed field of adult education has now been displaced by a more open discourse of lifelong learning This involves not only changing practices such as moving towards open and distance-based learning, but also changing workplace identities Learning settings are therefore changing places in a number of senses: they are places in which people change; they are subject to change; and they are changing to include the home and workplace as well as more formal settings This book takes an unusually critical standpoint: it challenges contemporary trends, explores the uncertainties and ambivalences of the processes of change, and is suggestive of different forms of engagement with them It will prove an important text for policy makers, workplace trainers and those working in the field of adult, further and higher education Richard Edwards is currently a Senior Lecturer in post compulsory education at the Open University

Real-life problem solving : a collaborative approach to interdisciplinary learning

Abstract: Understanding the Research on Problem-Based Learning What Is Problem-Based Learning as Co-Development (PBL-CD) and What Are the Benefits? Planning and Implementing Problem-Based Learning as Co-Development Applying PBL-CD to Langugage, Arts and Humanities Applying PBL-CD to Science and Mathematics Applying PBL-CD to Projects Involving Multiple Schools.

Understanding Teacher Education: Case Studies in the Professional Development of Beginning Teachers

Abstract: This text reports a study of 20 student primary teachers, 10 on a conventional PGCE course and 10 on a school-based articled teacher training course. documenting their learning experiences over a two year period, the authors explore the factors that facilitate or impede the students' learning as teachers. In drawing upon these case studies together with existing theoretical models of professional development, the authors distinguish several key characteristics of learning to teach and discuss the implications of these for the design of effective school- based teacher education courses.

Between Systemic Reforms and the Mathematics and Science Classroom: The Dynamics of Innovation, Implementation, and Professional Learning

Abstract: This review assembles studies and analyses of large-scale systemic reform initiatives aimed at mathematics and science education, especially those undertaken by state governments and the National Science Foundation. The review concentrates on qualitative investigations, which reveal whether and how these initiatives converge on the improvement of instruction. The evidence to date, though inherently incomplete, has much to say about the logic of systemic reforms, the avenues by which these reforms may reach the classroom, and the kinds of classroom-level impacts that are apparent so far or likely to occur in the near term. The implementation and effects of these reforms can be understood productively in the theoretical terms applied to the study of innovation and change, implementation of governmental policies, and professional and organizational learning.

Roles, responsibilities, and relationships in mentoring: a literature review and agenda for research

Abstract: Mentoring in the preparation and education of teachers is of interest and concern in many countries. In the USA, mentoring plays an important role in the inservice education of teachers (Little, 1992). In other countries, including England and Australia, the time that preservice or student teachers spend in schools on initial teacher education (ITE) courses has increased in recent years (Department for Education, 1992; Tisher, 1995) accompanied by necessary redistribution of responsibility and resources from higher education institutions (HEIs) to school. Schools and mentors are increasingly equal partners with the university in the preparation of new teachers. Some have greeted the shift with unreserved enthusiasm: It offer(s) the opportunity for a quantum increase in the power and effectiveness of ITT (initial teacher training) (Tomlinson, 1995, p. 2). Others have responded with alarm, warning that mentoring may become simply a label for a new bureaucracy of teacher training (Smith & Alfrod, 1993, p. 104). The mentoring literature illuminates the roots of both the enthusiasm and the alarm. The inadequacy of theory-practice models of teacher education (Goodlad, 1990) and the increased adoption of reflective practice approaches to teacher education (Schon, 1987) concentrate attention on the work of schools in ITE. For some, the moves toward school-based training are the overdue empowerment of teachers as equal partners in the education of student teachers (Wilkin, 1992b). Recent research into how student teachers learn to teach has increasingly emphasized the need for student teachers to recognize previously constructed images and beliefs about teaching and examine the impact of these history-based personal beliefs on their professional development (Calderhead & Robson, 1991; Cole & Knowles, 1993; Holt-Reynolds, 1992; Johnson, 1993; Watzlawick, 1978). This emphasis casts doubt on the applicability of traditional academic HEI environments as conducive settings for learning to teach (Elliott & Calderhead, 1993). Much literature on mentoring is either descriptive or declarative with little analysis or theoretical underpinning to the study and practice of mentoring. This paucity is cause for concern. The reasons for the largely pragmatic approaches characterizing much of the current literature are easily understood. For example, the speed with which legislation in England (Department for Education, 1992) had to be implemented led to an almost inevitable emphasis on the management of the transition. This emphasis was exacerbated by implementation happening within schools, institutions where the prevailing culture tends to be one where doing is given greater value than thinking (Fenstermacher, 1992; Richert, 1994). In consequence, several studies provide overviews of mentoring and its management (McIntyre, Hagger & Burn, 1994; Wilkin, 1992b), but few examine or analyze the intricacies of mentoring interactions (Glickman & Bey, 1990), how mentoring relationships operate between the individuals involved, or how and what student teachers learn from their mentoring experiences. In this article, I review literature relevant to an examination of the nature of these interactions between mentor and student teacher. This review has limited scope and does not represent a full or comprehensive review of all mentoring literature. I do not consider many important issues, such as mentors' pedagogical and subject knowledge, the impact of institutional cultures, and the management and implementation of mentoring programs. Approaches to Examining the Literature on Mentoring Four distinct but related approaches characterize research into mentoring. First, some writers have examined the particular expertise of the different personnel involved in the training of student teachers and developed distinct roles and responsibilities for those involved. Second, other writers have taken a functional approach, identifying the stages of development that student teachers go through and developing corresponding models of mentoring designed to meet the mentee's current needs. …

Content Reading and Literacy: Succeeding in Today's Diverse Classrooms

Abstract: Each chapter concludes with 'Summary,' 'Suggested Readings,' and 'References.' 1.Content Literacy and the Reading Process. Assumptions Underlying Content Teaching. What It Means to be Literate. The Reading Process. 2.Language, Diversity, and Culture. Language as a Vehicle for Teaching and Learning Content. Diversity in Language and Learning. Teaching and Learning in Culturally Diverse Classrooms. 3.Planning for Content Literacy. Instructional Decision Making. Structured Frameworks for Content Literacy Lessons. Beyond the Daily Plan: Unit Planning. 4.Assessment of Students and Textbooks. Assessing Students. Assessing Textbooks. 5.Creating a Favorable Learning Environment. Affective Characteristics. Tracking and Other Forms of Grouping. Instructional Resources. Homework. 6.Preparing to Read. The Role of Prior Knowledge. Assessing and Building Prior Knowledge. Activating Prior Knowledge with Prereading Guides. 7.Reading To Learn. How Students Learn. Questions and Questioning. Sensing and Responding to Text Structure. Constructing Meaning with Text. Integrating Other Language Processes. 8.Increasing Vocabulary and Conceptual Growth. Learning Words and Concepts. How Students Learn Vocabulary. Teaching Vocabulary. Developing Students Independence. Reinforcing Vocabulary. 9.Reflecting on Reading. Promoting Discussion and Reflection. Guiding Student Reflection. Writing as Reflection. 10.Studying and Learning Through Inquiry. Prerequisites for Effective Studying. Preparing for Tests. Using Study Strategies. Writing to Inquire. 11.Developing Lifetime Readers: Literature in Content Area Classes. Benefits of Using Literature in Content Areas. Encouraging Responses to Literature. Integrating Literature into Content Areas. Developing Awareness of Diversity through Literature. 12.Personalizing Professional Growth. Contrasting Models of Professional Growth. Culturally Responsive Professional Growth. Role of Research in Personalizing Professional Growth. Appendix A: Word Lover's Booklist. Appendix B: Read-Aloud Books for Content Areas. Appendix C: Culturally Conscious Trade Books. Author Index. Subject Index.

Professional Development Schools: Weighing the Evidence

Abstract: Foreword - Ann Lieberman Introduction Teacher Development in School Settings Student Learning and Inquiry Finding Time, Finding Money Professional Development Schools and School Reform Voices of Caution Equity Issues

Teaching medicine as a profession in the service of healing.

Abstract: As society, including the medical profession, moves into a new century, the rate of change in the relationship between professions and society is unprecedented. All societies need healers, and in the English-speaking world the services of the physician-healer have been organized around the concept of the professional. The great increase in both state control and corporate involvement has seriously intruded into the traditional autonomy enjoyed by both the medical profession and individual physicians, and further changes can be expected. More physicians are becoming either employees or managers in the state or corporate sector, while others are being forced to compete in a marketplace that rewards entrepreneurial behavior. It is the responsible behavior of the professional that will protect the role of the healer. Medicine has been rightly criticized for placing undue emphasis on both income and power and for protecting incompetent or unethical colleagues; and it has failed to accept responsibility for injustices or inequities in health care systems and has moved slowly to address new diseases or issues. Nonetheless, all evidence indicates that society still values the healer-professional and does not wish to abandon professionalism as a concept--it appears to prefer an independent and knowledgeable professional to deal with its problem rather than the state or a corporation. For this reason, medicine's professional associations and academic institutions must ensure that all physicians understand professionalism and accept its obligations. In doing so, the objective should be to encourage the moral and intellectual growth of physicians by setting standards based on higher aspirations than can or should be enforced. In facing the complex world of our future, such action will both serve society and maintain the integrity of the profession.

Student Teachers’ Lay Theories and Teaching Identities: their implications for professional development

Abstract: Summary This paper provides a detailed analysis of student teachers’ lay theories of teaching, and teaching identities, and assesses their implications for student teachers’ and teachers’ professional development. Understanding the critically formative influences in student teachers’ lives and the extent to which these are reinforced, reproduced and recast in and through student teachers’ lay theories has major significance for initial teacher education and ongoing professional development of teachers. The paper draws together the threads of this analysis around issues of teaching identities, their formation, continuity, tenacity and openness to change and assesses, through a postmodern lens, their implications for professional development of student teachers, beginning teachers and experienced professionals.

Indicators of Quality in Health Care

Abstract: Systems of Quality Assurance are necessary, partly to advance service and professional development, and partly to provide accountability. Such systems require criteria and standards on the basis of...

Medical students' professional identity: self‐reflection during the preclinical years

Abstract: Critical thinking, readiness for self-reflection and professional development have recently been emphasized as important goals of medical education. However, little is known about the developmental processes through which a medical student elaborates his or her personal experiences during the training, and about the way he or she gradually develops a professional identity. How does the student identify the opportunities and alternatives offered by the profession and finally commit to the professional values and goals he or she finds personally important? In order to grasp the essential characteristics of the personal development process in depth, qualitative, process-oriented and individually tailored methods are warranted. In this paper, the quality of professional self-reflection and identity formation during the preclinical training are described on the basis of two qualitative materials--learning logs and identity status interviews. Four types of learning log reports on the early patient contact course could be identified: 'committed reflection', 'emotional exploration', 'objective reporting' and 'diffuse reporting'. At the end of the preclinical training, the identity status of several students could still be characterized as diffuse or giving rise to only very tentative professional considerations.

Values in Health Care Professional Socialization: Implications for Geriatric Education in Interdisciplinary Teamwork

Abstract: Collaboration among different health professions will take on greater importance as geriatric care moves increasingly into the realm of quality of life and not simply life extension (Clark, 1995). Of necessity, quality of life deals with the qualitative dimensions of care, including values, meaning, attitudes, and preferences — all of which are created and shaped by life experience, professional training, and interaction between the individual and his or her broader social environment. In particular, the education and training of health care professionals shape their identities, values, and norms of practice in certain ways that may either enhance or inhibit effective communication and collaboration in clinical practice settings, where these skills are crucial to the effective care of elderly persons. This article proposes that the process of acquiring a professional identity and norms of practice is an ongoing dialectic of professional socialization that is both reflective and dynamic, in that it involves interaction between the self and others in the environment. The development of personal and professional values as they relate to patient care is an essential element of this identity and the hallmark of the artistry of professional practice (Schon, 1987). The implications of this interpretation of professional socialization are important to an understanding of communication between providers, as well as between providers and consumers of care. Such

Mathematics Teachers in Transition

Abstract: Contents: Preface. Part I: Introduction. B.S. Nelson, Learning About Teacher Change in the Context of Mathematics Reform: Where Have We Come From? Part II: Theoretical Perspectives on Studying Teacher Change. L. Goldsmith, D. Shifter, Understanding Teachers in Transition: Characteristics of a Model for Developing Teachers. M. Simon, Developing New Models of Mathematics Teaching: An Imperative for Research on Mathematics Teacher Development. T.J. Cooney, B. Shealy, On Understanding the Structure of Teachers' Beliefs and Their Relationship to Change. P.B. Campbell, The More Things Change...Gender, Change, and Mathematics Education. Part III: Context and Teacher Change. D. Jones, A Conceptual Framework for Studying the Relevance of Context to Mathematics Teachers' Change. M.K. Stein, C. Brown, Teacher Learning in Social Context: Integrating Collaborative and Institutional Processes With the Study of Teacher Change. W.G. Secada, L.B. Adajian, Mathematics Teachers' Change in the Context of Their Professional Communities. Part IV: Studies of Professional Development Programs in Action. C.A. Lubinski, P.A. Jaberg, Teacher Change and Mathematics K-4: Developing a Theoretical Perspective. M. Franke, E. Fennema, T.P. Carpenter, Changing Teachers: Interactions Between Beliefs and Classroom Practice. J. Stocks, J. Schofield, Educational Reform and Professional Development. P.F. Campbell, D.Y. White, Project IMPACT: Influencing and Supporting Teacher Change in Predominately Minority Schools. T.A. Romberg, Mathematics in Context: Impact on Teachers. C. Barnett, S. Friedman, Mathematics Case Discussions: Nothing Is Sacred. Part V: Summary and Synthesis. B.S. Nelson, Learning About Teacher Change in the Context of Mathematics Education Reform: Where Are We Going?

Training, development, education and learning: different or the same?

Abstract: Attempts to discuss the concepts of training, development, education and learning with regard to employees in terms of their substantive differences. Discusses how these concepts have evolved historically within human resource management and development (HRM/D) literature. Provides an analysis of how alternative models of HRM/D may influence the meaning given to these concepts in an organizational context. Concludes that it is perhaps more appropriate to view training, development and education as an integrated whole with the concept of learning as the glue which holds them together.

The Student Teacher Portfolio as Autobiography: Developing a Professional Identity

Abstract: In this study, we argue that student teacher portfolios are a viable, effective, and appropriate tool in documenting teacher growth and development and in promoting reflective, thoughtful practice. We show that the concepts of mediation, history, and conscious reflection, embodied in Vygotskian theory, provide a theoretical framework in which to understand and analyze portfolios in professional development programs. Specifically, this study traces the unique paths of two preservice foreign language teachers who, through anchored reflection mediated by the portfolio, constructed a professional identity out of the historical and cultural conditions of their classroom experience. Therefore, portfolios can go beyond a gatekeeping function to a means of informing teacher educators and forming the identities of novice teachers.

Cultural malpractice. The growing obsolescence of psychology with the changing U.S. population.

Abstract: With the changing demographics occurring in the United States, psychology must make substantive revisions in its curriculum, training, research, and practice. Without these revisions, psychology will risk professional, ethical, and economic problems because psychology will no longer be a viable professional resource to the majority of the U.S. population. In particular, this article discusses the need for psychology to address issues of ethnicity/culture, gender, and sexual orientation.

Mentoring and Supervision For Teacher Development

Abstract: I. INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY. 1. Supervision and Mentoring: An Overview. 2. Developmental Instructional Supervision as a Profession: From Reluctance to Promise. II. THREE DIMENSIONS OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT. 3. A Developmental Framework: The Teacher as an Adult Learner. 4. Promoting Development: A Framework for Action. 5. Concerns and Career Phases: Dimensions of Teacher Change. III. SUPERVISION AND COACHING FOR TEACHER DEVELOPMENT. 6. The Personal Domain. 7. The Interpersonal Domain. 8. Identifying Models and Methods of Instruction. 9. Promoting Growth Through Cycles of Assistance. 10. Data Collection. 11. Supervision and Post-Conferences: The Opportunity to Reflect on Action. 12. Supervision and the Coaching Process. 13. Guided Reflection: An Emerging Construct. 14. Systematic Documentation for Learning and Development. IV. CURRENT ISSUES AND FUTURE TRENDS. 15. Ethics and Supervision. 16. Teacher Development Research Issues and Methods. 17. Teacher Development and Revitalization Across the Career Span. Photo Credits. Index.