Professional development

About: Professional development is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 81108 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1316681 citations.

Teacher research for professional development

Abstract: Current in-service education and training programmes (INSET) are often found to be unsatisfactory due to the fact that they do not provide the teachers with opportunities to be actively involved in their development and to reflect on their teaching experiences. This study presents an INSET programme in which Turkish EFL teachers were provided with relevant theoretical knowledge along with guidance for research, reflection, and collaboration. Results of the study showed that although teachers faced difficulties in conducting and reporting their research, the programme had a positive impact on their professional development. Thus, a research-oriented programme of this kind may help to resolve the problems and difficulties associated with INSET programmes in general.

No silver bullet for inquiry: Making sense of teacher change following an inquiry‐based research experience for teachers

Abstract: Inquiry is seen as central to the reform of science teaching and learning, but few teachers have experience with scientific inquiry and thus possess very naive conceptions of it. One promising form of professional development, research experiences for teachers (RETs), allows teachers to experience scientific inquiry in the hopes that these experiences will then translate to inquiry in the classroom. As intuitively pleasing as these programs are, scant evidence documents their effectiveness. For this study, four secondary science teachers were followed back to their classrooms following a 6-week, marine ecology RET. The research employed qualitative and quantitative data collection to answer these questions: What were the teachers' initial conceptions and enactment of classroom inquiry, and how did they change after the RET?; How did changes in the nature and use of questions highlight changes in inquiry enactment?; and How were the teachers' changes linked to the RET and are there changes that cannot be explained by the RET experience? Teachers who entered the program with more sophisticated, theory-based understanding of teaching and learning were more apt to understand inquiry as a model and to use classroom-based inquiry throughout their teaching following the program. Implications for professional development are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed93: 322–360, 2009

The opportunities and effectiveness of the health promoting primary school in improving child health— a review of the claims and evidence

Abstract: School health programs have been part of schooling for most of this century. The health promoting school is a recently developed concept which seeks to provide a multifaceted approach to school health. Will it provide a better frame-work to assist schools address the health issues of their students? This paper examines the development of the health promoting school and identifies its structural components. It reviews the claims and evidence which have emerged from the school health research literature which focus on primary schools. Findings indicate health gains for primary school students are difficult to assess, and will most likely occur if a well-designed program is implemented which links the curriculum with other health promoting school actions, contains substantial professional development for teachers and is underpinned by a theoretical model. The paper concludes by discussing how improvements can be made in more accurately assessing the effectiveness of the health promoting primary school in improving school health.

Surveillance or Reflection: Professional Supervision in ‘the Risk Society’

Abstract: Supervision is an expanding professional practice in health and social care. To a large extent this is linked to the growing regulation of health and social care professions and the explicit linking of supervision to quality and accountability. Links can be demonstrated between the revitalization of supervision as a professional practice, focussed on practitioner development, and the impact of ‘the risk society’, which promotes greater surveillance of professional practice. This article reviews contemporary discussion of the practice of supervision in social work and draws on a small study that explored the experience of six expert practitioners of professional supervision in order to explore the impact of the ‘risk discourse’.

Mentoring for the New Millennium.

Abstract: The challenges and benefits of a formal mentoring program are considered within the context of learning organizations: specifically, graduate medical education and professional development. While no single definition addresses every aspect of mentoring, this process is a distinct one with established traditions and expectations. The core requirements of attraction, action and affect remain and are essential for this adult developmental process to be successful. This paper?s review of the literature supports the belief that mentoring has value, even into the next millennium, with some conceptual evolution. We are encouraging a paradigm shift from the traditional dyad model of mentoring to a triad model: organization, mentor, and prot?g?. The future development of outcome measures will be a necessary goal to demonstrate that both personal and organizational goals can coexist.