Showing papers on "Professional development published in 2019"

Teachers’ perception of STEM integration and education: a systematic literature review

Abstract: For schools to include quality STEM education, it is important to understand teachers’ beliefs and perceptions related to STEM talent development. Teachers, as important persons within a student’s talent development, hold prior views and experiences that will influence their STEM instruction. This study attempts to understand what is known about teachers’ perceptions of STEM education by examining existing literature. Study inclusion criteria consisted of empirical articles, which aligned with research questions, published in a scholarly journal between 2000 and 2016 in English. Participants included in primary studies were preK-12 teachers. After quality assessment, 25 articles were included in the analysis. Thematic analysis was used to find themes within the data. Findings indicate that while teachers value STEM education, they reported barriers such as pedagogical challenges, curriculum challenges, structural challenges, concerns about students, concerns about assessments, and lack of teacher support. Teachers felt supports that would improve their effort to implement STEM education included collaboration with peers, quality curriculum, district support, prior experiences, and effective professional development. Recommendations for practice include quality in-service instruction over STEM pedagogy best practices and district support of collaboration time with peer teachers. Recommendations for future research are given.

Professional Development in Implementing and Sustaining Multitier Prevention Models: Implications for Response to Intervention.

Abstract: We provide an overview of the role professional development plays in multitiered prevention and intervention models. Specifically, professional development is discussed within the context of establ...

Virtual Patient Simulations in Health Professions Education: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis by the Digital Health Education Collaboration

Abstract: Background: Virtual patients are interactive digital simulations of clinical scenarios for the purpose of health professions education. There is no current collated evidence on the effectiveness of ...

Virtual Reality and Its Applications in Education: Survey

Abstract: In the education process, students face problems with understanding due to the complexity, necessity of abstract thinking and concepts. More and more educational centres around the world have started to introduce powerful new technology-based tools that help meet the needs of the diverse student population. Over the last several years, virtual reality (VR) has moved from being the purview of gaming to professional development. It plays an important role in teaching process, providing an interesting and engaging way of acquiring information. What follows is an overview of the big trend, opportunities and concerns associated with VR in education. We present new opportunities in VR and put together the most interesting, recent virtual reality applications used in education in relation to several education areas such as general, engineering and health-related education. Additionally, this survey contributes by presenting methods for creating scenarios and different approaches for testing and validation. Lastly, we conclude and discuss future directions of VR and its potential to improve the learning experience.

Narrative medicine as a medical education tool: A systematic review.

Abstract: Aim: Narrative medicine has been promoted as an innovative and effective means of stimulating medical students' professional development by teaching them to approach their patients' experiences of illness with more understanding and compassion. This systematic literature review aims to answer the following question: what evidence of effect is available in the literature about models for teaching narrative medicine? Methods: We conducted a narrative review of 36 articles and used the Best Evidence in Medical Education (BEME) Global Scale and Kirkpatrick Scale for strength and importance of evidence to categorize reported assessment strategies and to evaluate the effectiveness of their narrative medicine programs. Results: We found evidence that narrative medicine is an effective pedagogic tool with a clear and replicable structure and methodology. We also determined that a positive impact could be measured when pertaining to participation and modification of attitudes, knowledge, and skills. However, unequivocal evidence of the effect of narrative medicine on students' behavior or ongoing interaction with colleagues and patients is still lacking. Conclusion: While many recent publications describe the goals and virtues of a narrative-based approach, more research is needed to determine whether or not there is an ideological consensus undergirding this approach. In addition, it is still unclear whether the long-term impact of narrative medicine classroom interventions are felt by patients, or whether such interventions positively impact patient care.

The Essentials of Instructional Design: Connecting Fundamental Principles with Process and Practice

Abstract: The Essentials of Instructional Design, 4th Edition introduces the fundamental elements, principles, and practice of instructional design (ID) to students new to ID. Key procedures within the ID process—learner analysis, task analysis, needs analysis, developing goals and objectives, organizing instruction, developing instructional activities, assessing learner achievement, and evaluating the success of the instructional design—are covered comprehensively and enriched with descriptions and examples of how these procedures are accomplished using the best-known models. Unlike most other ID books, The Essentials of Instructional Design provides an overview of the principles and practice of ID without placing emphasis on any one ID model. Offering the voices of instructional designers from a number of professional settings and providing real-life examples from across sectors, students learn how professional organizations put the various ID processes into practice. This revised edition features new activities, quizzes, and content on professional development. Offering a variety of possible approaches for each step in the ID process and clearly explaining the strengths and challenges associated with each, this book prepares students with the information they need to make informed decisions as they design and develop instruction.

Mentorship of Women in Academic Medicine: a Systematic Review.

Abstract: Women remain underrepresented in academic medicine, particularly in leadership positions. This lack of women in leadership has been shown to have negative implications for both patient care and educational outcomes. Similarly, the literature demonstrates that female physicians are less likely to have mentors, despite the proven benefits of mentorship for career advancement. The objective of this review is to identify and describe models of mentorship for women in academic medicine. We searched PubMed, PsycINFO, Education Resources Information Center, and Cochrane Databases of Systematic Reviews following PRISMA guidelines in June 2017. We included original English language studies that described a mentorship program in the USA that involved academic medical doctorates and that were created for women or provided results stratified by gender. Our search returned 3625 results; 3309 references remained after removal of duplicates. Twenty articles met inclusion criteria. The majority of the programs were designed for junior faculty and used the dyad model of mentoring (i.e., one mentor/one mentee). Frequently cited objectives of these programs were to improve scholarship, promotion, and retention of female faculty. Program evaluations were primarily survey-based, with participant-reported satisfaction being the most frequent measured outcome. Most results showed very high satisfaction. Gender concordance between mentor and mentee did not impact satisfaction. Eight articles reported objective outcomes, including publications, retention, and promotion, and each of these demonstrated an improvement after program implementation. Our review suggests that mentorship programs designed for women, regardless of the model, are met with high satisfaction and can help promote and retain women in academic medicine. No clear best practices for mentorship emerged in the literature. Institutions, therefore, can individualize their mentorship programs and models to available resources and goals. These results demonstrate the importance of more widespread implementation of mentorship programs to more effectively facilitate professional development and success of women in academic medicine.

Evidence-based practice education for healthcare professions: an expert view.

Abstract: Internationally, evidence-based practice (EBP) is recognised as a foundational element of healthcare professional education. Achieving competency in this area is a complex undertaking that is reflected in disparities between ‘best EBP’ and actual clinical care. The effective development and implementation of professional education to facilitate EBP remains a major and immediate challenge. To ascertain nuanced perspectives on the provision of EBP education internationally, interviews were conducted with five EBP education experts from the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Definitive advice was provided in relation to (1) EBP curriculum considerations, (2) teaching EBP and (3) stakeholder engagement in EBP education. While a considerable amount of EBP activity throughout health profession education is apparent, effectively embedding EBP throughout curricula requires further development, with a ‘real-world’ pragmatic approach that engenders dialogue and engagement with all stakeholders required.

Categorising teachers’ use of social media for their professional learning: A self-generating professional learning paradigm

Abstract: The proliferation of online resources and an increase in accessibility has led teachers to go online to connect, share ideas and expand their own professional learning opportunities on social media platforms. Over the last five years there has been a resurgence in this field to research what teachers are doing in and with social media. Knowing that teachers are networking or collecting resources misses the fundamental premise for such action, which in turn, does little for understanding social media use as a professional learning activity. This study takes one step back, to investigate the reasoning for particular social media use. Through a qualitative paradigm, expert ICT teachers were interviewed about their conceptualisations of professional learning and related activities online. These recognized ICT-experts from Australia, Europe and United States of America were purposely selected due to a personal and professional impetus to maintain currency with innovative ideas in this ever-changing field. These expert teachers engaged in social media in different ways based on their conceptualisations of professional learning in these online spaces. The findings present a typology of reasoning based along two continuums, Self and Interactivity. These axioms defined four categories of teacher engagement online: Info-consumer; info-networker; self-seeking contributor; and vocationalist. A new paradigm of professional development is presented which has important implications for understanding the role of social media in teacher professional learning as well as in reshaping what we consider as effective professional development.

Developing student 21st Century skills in selected exemplary inclusive STEM high schools

Abstract: There is a need to arm students with noncognitive, or 21st Century, skills to prepare them for a more STEM-based job market. As STEM schools are created in a response to this call to action, research is needed to better understand how exemplary STEM schools successfully accomplish this goal. This conversion mixed method study analyzed student work samples and teacher lesson plans from seven exemplary inclusive STEM high schools to better understand at what level teachers at these schools are engaging and developing student 21st Century skills. We found of the 67 lesson plans collected at the inclusive STEM high schools, 50 included instruction on 21st Century skills. Most of these lesson plans designed instruction for 21st Century skills at an introductory level. Few lesson plans encouraged multiple 21st Century skills and addressed higher levels of those skills. Although there was not a significant difference between levels of 21st Century skills by grade level, there was an overall trend of higher levels of 21st Century skills demonstrated in lesson plans designed for grades 11 and 12. We also found that lesson plans that lasted three or more days had higher levels of 21st Century skills. These findings suggest that inclusive STEM high schools provide environments that support the development of 21st Century skills. Yet, more can be done in the area of teacher professional development to improve instruction of high levels of 21st Century skills.

Twelve tips to promote a feedback culture with a growth mind-set: Swinging the feedback pendulum from recipes to relationships

Abstract: Feedback in medical education has traditionally showcased techniques and skills of giving feedback, and models used in staff development have focused on feedback providers (teachers) not receivers (learners). More recent definitions have questioned this approach, arguing that the impact of feedback lies in learner acceptance and assimilation of feedback with improvement in practice and professional growth. Over the last decade, research findings have emphasized that feedback conversations are complex interpersonal interactions influenced by a multitude of sociocultural factors. However, feedback culture is a concept that is challenging to define, thus strategies to enhance culture are difficult to pin down. In this twelve tips paper, we have attempted to define elements that constitute a feedback culture from four different perspectives and describe distinct strategies that can be used to foster a learning culture with a growth mind-set.

Lesson Study: professional development (PD) for beginning and experienced teachers

Abstract: Central in this study is the professional development of beginning and experienced teachers collaborating in Lesson Study teams. Two high school teacher teams participated, a chemistry and a multid...

Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times

Abstract: Foreword by Yong Zhao Preface Acknowledgments About the Author A Day in the Life of a Digital Leader 1. The Evolving Educational Landscape 2. Why Schools Must Change 3. Keys to Leading Sustainable Change 4. Leading With Technology 5. Communication 6. Public Relations 7. Branding 8. Professional Growth and Development 9. Increasing Student Engagement and Enhancing Learning 10. Rethinking Learning Environments and Spaces 11. Discovering Opportunity 12. A Call to Action Appendix A: The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators Appendix B: Twitter Memo for Parents Appendix C: Student Media Waiver Appendix D: Professional Growth Period Model Developed at New Milford High School Appendix E: Integrating Digital Tools and Content to Develop Essential Literacies Appendix F: IOCS Rubric References Index

Mentorship in Medicine and Other Health Professions.

Abstract: Mentoring skills are valuable assets for academic medicine and allied health faculty, who influence and help shape the careers of the next generation of healthcare providers. Mentors are role models who also act as guides for students' personal and professional development over time. Mentors can be instrumental in conveying explicit academic knowledge required to master curriculum content. Importantly, they can enhance implicit knowledge about the "hidden curriculum" of professionalism, ethics, values, and the art of medicine not learned from texts. In many cases, mentors also provide emotional support and encouragement. It must be noted that to be an effective mentor, one must engage in ongoing learning in order to strengthen and further mentoring skills. Thus, learning communities can provide support, education, and personal development for the mentor. The relationship benefits mentors as well through greater productivity, career satisfaction, and personal gratification. Maximizing the satisfaction and productivity of such relationships entails self-awareness, focus, mutual respect, and explicit communication about the relationship. In this article, the authors describe the development of optimal mentoring relationships, emphasizing the importance of different approaches to mentorship, roles of the mentors and mentees, mentor and mentee benefits, interprofessional mentorships for teams, gender and mentorship, and culture and mentorship.

Revisiting five decades of educational technology research: A content and authorship analysis of the British Journal of Educational Technology

Abstract: Reflecting on 50 years of educational technology research, a content and authorship analysis was conducted of 1777 research article titles and abstracts, published in the British Journal of Educational Technology (BJET) from 1970 to Issue 3, 2018. A text‐mining tool (Leximancer) was used to identify key concepts and themes emerging throughout each of the five decades, which were then compared to those found in a previous analysis of Computers & Education, as well as the most cited BJET publications in each decade. The framework of West and Rich (2012) was then used to provide guidance on BJET’s rigour, impact and prestige. Common themes in BJET throughout the past 50 years have included the evolution of teaching and learning in distance education, the emergence of instructional design, misunderstanding between practitioners and learning designers, issues of pre and in‐service teacher education and technology uptake by educators and students, including the confidence to do so, the technology skills of educators and students, as well as a lack of institutional support to provide space and time for training and integration to occur. The authorship analysis revealed an encouraging increase in international identity over time, with 60% of articles in BJET published by an author outside of the UK over the past 50 years, and 79% in the past decade. Despite this, contributions from South America, the Middle East and Africa are vastly underrepresented, and authors from these regions need further support from the field. Suggested future research areas include finding alternative models of educator professional development, further exploration of the role of theory and policy, as well as the rise of co‐authorship and collaborative research.

Social Media in Higher Education: A Framework for Continuous Engagement

Abstract: Distance education or learning has been around for a long time and with the advent of mobile devices like the smart phone, it is inevitable that mobility impacts the distance education arena. Mobile learning in this article is defined as the “mobile” state of the learner. In theory, this amplifies the flexibility of distance and online learning, reducing the significance of geographic location while increasing that of contextuality. The affordances of mobility empower students to participate as part of context-aware ubiquitous learning. There are a diversity of contexts, methods, and technologies used. There is a need to have a stronger connection between mobile technology integration and a learning-theoretical framework to guide research, practice, and policy. It is important to integrate mobile and emerging technologies with education through an appropriate evidence-based learning design framework.

Digitalisation in higher education: mapping institutional approaches for teaching and learning

Abstract: This paper explores the digitalisation of teaching and learning understood as external processes, influenced by government and international trends and as internal processes within the institutions...

Strengthening Teachers' Professional Identities Through Faculty Development.

Abstract: Although medical schools espouse a commitment to the educational mission, faculty members often struggle to develop and maintain their identities as teachers. Teacher identity is important because it can exert a powerful influence on career choice, academic roles and responsibilities, and professional development opportunities. However, most faculty development initiatives focus on knowledge and skill acquisition rather than the awakening or strengthening of professional identity. The goal of this Perspective is to highlight the importance of faculty members' professional identities as teachers, explore how faculty development programs and activities can support teachers' identities, and describe specific strategies that can be used in professional development. These strategies include the embedding of identity and identity formation into existing offerings by asking questions related to identity, incorporating identity in longitudinal programs, building opportunities for community building and networking, promoting reflection, and capitalizing on mentorship. Stand-alone faculty development activities focusing on teachers' identities can also be helpful, as can a variety of approaches that advocate for organizational change and institutional support. To achieve excellence in teaching and learning, faculty members need to embrace their identities as teachers and be supported in doing so by their institutions and by faculty development.

Experimental Impacts of the "Quality Preschool for Ghana" Interventions on Teacher Professional Well-Being, Classroom Quality, and Children's School Readiness.

Abstract: We assessed the impacts of a teacher professional development program for public and private kindergartens in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. We examined impacts on teacher professional well-bei...

Beyond the struggles: a scoping review on the transition to undergraduate clinical training

Abstract: Context The transition to clinical training within medical school is often seen as a struggle and students remain in distress despite numerous efforts to minimise threats. Efforts to change this may be misdirected if they are based on narrow conceptualisations of transitions. The authors conducted a scoping review to explore existing conceptual perspectives regarding the transition within medical school from pre-clinical training to clinical training to suggest a research agenda and practical implications. Methods Between October 2017 and February 2018 the authors searched PubMed, MEDLINE, ERIC, PsycINFO, Web of Science and CINAHL for English language literature with no date limits and retrieved 1582 articles; 46 were included in this review. Two reviewers independently screened articles and extracted data. Data were then charted, analysed and discussed with the research team. Results The transition to clinical training was often described negatively as 'difficult', 'a problem' and 'a struggle'. Our analysis found that researchers in medical education conducted studies on the transition to clinical training from three conceptual perspectives: educational; social, and developmental. Most research approached the transition to clinical training as a problem to be addressed from an educational perspective through transition to clerkship courses and curriculum innovations. Some research was conducted from a social perspective, focusing on building relationships. Regarding development, authors found a few articles highlighting opportunities for personal and professional development by nurturing transferrable learning strategies and reflection. Conclusions This review provides an empirical base on which future research can be built to better understand and support medical students' ability to navigate change. Finding new perspectives to approach the transition to clinical training could allow researchers to look beyond preparing students for struggles.

Technology and writing: Review of research

Abstract: This review examined 29 empirical studies published in peer-reviewed journals from 2002 to 2017 that investigated the use of computers and information and communication technologies during writing instruction and related writing activities. Qualitative content analysis was employed to investigate how technology was used in the writing program, the impact of technology-mediated instruction on students' writing skills, and the barriers teachers faced in integrating technology into the writing curriculum. Results of the review demonstrated that computers and a range of digital technologies, applications, and web-based learning environments have been used to teach writing in K-12 educational settings. Technology-mediated writing instruction yielded improvements in students' composing processes and writing skills as well as their knowledge and use of new literacies. Students designed, produced, and presented a variety of multimodal and digital texts that represented their knowledge and understandings of literary material and contemporary social justice issues. The use of technology motivated student engagement and participation in writing assignments and increased social interaction and peer collaboration. Teachers faced a number of challenges in their efforts to integrate technology into the writing curriculum. Several recommendations are offered based on the results of this review. Relevant, high-quality teacher professional development on pedagogical uses of technology are urgently needed in order to promote technology-mediated writing instruction and build students' 21st century literacy skills. Institutional support is needed to ensure the availability of computers and appropriate applications in every classroom. Future research needs to identify how teachers can use multimedia and digital tools to improve writing instruction in the digital age, meet the objectives of the writing curriculum, and engage all students in the composing process. Continued exploration of how digital writing environments and online writing communities can support students’ competence as writers also is needed. Substantial investigative work is needed in the early childhood program.

Barriers Inhibiting Inquiry-Based Science Teaching and Potential Solutions: Perceptions of Positively Inclined Early Adopters

Abstract: In recent years, calls for the adoption of inquiry-based pedagogies in the science classroom have formed a part of the recommendations for large-scale high school science reforms. However, these pedagogies have been problematic to implement at scale. This research explores the perceptions of 34 positively inclined early-adopter teachers in relation to their implementation of inquiry-based pedagogies. The teachers were part of a large-scale Australian high school intervention project based around astronomy. In a series of semi-structured interviews, the teachers identified a number of common barriers that prevented them from implementing inquiry-based approaches. The most important barriers identified include the extreme time restrictions on all scales, the poverty of their common professional development experiences, their lack of good models and definitions for what inquiry-based teaching actually is, and the lack of good resources enabling the capacity for change. Implications for expectations of teachers and their professional learning during educational reform and curriculum change are discussed.