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Professional development

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


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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors 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 teachers?"
Abstract: 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 aspects or facets, which we prefer to call sub‐identities. We are interested to learn what sub‐identities might constitute the main identity of what we generically refer to as ‘teacher educators’ and, to achieve this, we set out to analyse the research literature relating to teacher educators to search for ways in which such sub‐identities might be explicitly or implicitly described. Based on the research literature we found four sub‐identities that are available for teacher educators: schoolteacher, teacher in Higher Education, teacher of teachers (or second order teacher) and researcher. We also found a view on teacher educators as teachers in a more generic w...

181 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Koehler et al. as discussed by the authors focused on the innovative uses of technology for teacher learning in K-12 education and highlighted the need for teachers to understand and manage the dilemmas associated with integrating technology into teacher education.
Abstract: This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. An internal Western Union memo, 1876 I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. IBM chairman Thomas Watson, 1943. There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. Ken Olson, founder, chairman and president of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Arthur C. Clarke (1963), English physicist and science fiction writer, p. We've come a long way and at an incredible pace. What was magic less than a generation ago is now part of everyday life. Digital technologies are changing the way we live, work, and learn. Their potential to transform K-12 education motivated our decision to devote a theme issue of Journal of Teacher Education to the innovative uses of technology for teacher learning. (1) Although optimistic about the possibilities new technologies offer to support K-12 learners' achievement, teachers' productivity, effectiveness in classrooms, and teacher learning, we also recognize that teaching and learning with new technologies represents a "wicked problem" (Koehler & Mishra, 2008). Rittel and Webber (1973) characterized wicked problems as problems that include a large number of complex variables--all of which are dynamic, contextually bound, and interdependent. The rapid growth of digital technologies, coupled with the complexity of classroom life, increases both the potential transformative power and the difficulty of problems associated with incorporating innovative technologies in teaching and teacher education. Our aim in organizing this theme issue was to explore these possibilities and complexities. Our call for this issue invited "research manuscripts that address how these technologies inform teacher candidates' understanding of real classrooms and veteran teachers' professional development ... that examine the unique opportunities and obstacles presented through these inventive uses of technology, or that provide evidence for their impact on teachers' learning and practice." Perhaps it is not surprising that our understanding of what it takes to integrate technology effectively into teaching and teacher education has grown through the process of putting together the theme issue. We now have a sharper sense of the relationship between issues involved in using technology to support teacher learning and those that must be addressed to support the uses of technology to foster K-12 student learning. In the big picture, innovative teacher educators are creating technology-rich approaches that promote the development of tech-savvy teachers--teachers who regularly use digital technologies to guide their own learning, recognize the pedagogical potential of technology to help children and youth understand content, and know how to embed new technologies in their instructional practices. We recognize that the call for this theme issue did not invite articles examining how teachers learn to embed technology in their classroom practice to teach content in powerful ways. The six articles in this issue tackle the role that new technologies--particularly video and online communities--play in learning to teach. Taken together, they examine the promise digital technologies hold to help teacher educators overcome persistent dilemmas encountered when designing scalable, sustainable programs to support teacher learning. The different approaches described in the articles illustrate why developing tech-savvy teachers is a "wicked problem" and why teacher education must be involved in understanding and managing the dilemmas associated with integrating technology into teacher education and K-12 classrooms. In the remainder of this editorial, we contextualize the issue's articles. We consider pedagogical affordances and constraints of digital technologies, uses of digital technology in teacher education and professional development, and the conceptualization of a new form of teacher knowledge related to integrating technology-technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK; Mishra & Koehler, 2006). …

181 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper reviewed recent consensus documents to define research-based practices in early reading instruction, with particular reference to the Texas Reading Initiative and the authors' research project in Houston and in Washington, DC.
Abstract: Recent consensus documents are reviewed to define research-based practices in early reading instruction. Examples of professional development that incorporates research-based practices are provided, with particular reference to the Texas Reading Initiative and the authors' research project in Houston and in Washington, DC. Data relating gains in teacher knowledge, ratings of teaching effectiveness, and student achievement are presented. Conditions essential to sustaining and scaling research-based reading instruction are discussed and major obstacles identified.

181 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors employed qualitative and quantitative methodologies to investigate effective approaches to technology integration in teacher-preparation curriculum, incorporating credential coursework and field placements.
Abstract: This study employed qualitative and quantitative methodologies to investigate effective approaches to technology integration in teacher-preparation curriculum, incorporating credential coursework and field placements. The study emphasized collaborative efforts among colleges of education and K-12 districts, implementation of technological innovations within the context of the school reform, and the role of technology in cultivating students' higher-order learning faculties. The findings of the study revealed a peripheral role of technology in teacher preparation experience, insufficient students' exposure to technology integration, positive shift in student attitudes toward technology use, and the pivotal role of mentor teachers in technology integration at the field placement sites. ********** Improved integration of technology in K-12 instruction has become a national imperative in the United States. Numerous state and federal governmental bodies have adopted legislation supporting the use of computers and the Internet as a tool to improve academic achievement (see International Society for Technology in Education [ISTE], 2002; California Commission on Teacher Credentialing [CCTC], 2002). However, even with the latest emphasis on technology, many public school districts are faced with an unwelcome surprise. After spending millions of dollars to connect their schools and their students to the Internet, their newly installed computers often sit unused. A key factor constraining effective use of technology in schools is teachers' limited expertise in the professional use of computers (Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology [PT3], 2002). Traditional teacher-preparation programs have not adequately provided preservice teachers with either effective models of technology use or sufficient experiences with technology integration in their professional education courses (Brown, 2003; Smerden et al., 2000), thus lending support to the views of many (Rowley, Dysand, & Arnold, 2005; Waddoups, Wentworth, & Earle, 2004) that preservice programs are falling short in the area of educational technology. There is a broad range of prior research documenting technology integration in teacher education (Adamy & Boulmetis, 2006; Best, 2002; Brown, 2003). However, most existing research addressing this topic focuses primarily on documenting changes in the way faculty use technology throughout credential coursework. The current study expands these findings by delineating the connection between the university and K-12 classrooms, thus attempting to shed a new light on preservice teachers' experiences in all aspects of teacher-preparation program, including field placements. INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY IN PRESERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION The concerns about integrating technology in preservice teacher education are well-documented in the literature. In a summary report that examined a number of meta-analytic studies, Brown (2003) concluded that the educational system has done an inadequate job of "empowering teachers to appropriately and effectively use computer-related technology in the classroom" (p. 3). Similarly, many researchers have voiced concerns that preservice teachers see minimal modeling of effective instructional strategies that incorporate technology into their professional education courses (see detailed discussion in Brown, 2006). Various grant programs such as Preparing Tomorrows Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) were developed to address these concerns by assisting future teachers to use technology for optimal learning and achievement. The PT3 program goal was to affect 600,000 teachers through 441 grants during the four years of the program, which ended in June 2003 (Market Data Retrieval, 2004). PT3 grantees developed goals, models, and tools that supported this national initiative. Numerous instructional technology studies reported on key findings that emerged from the PT3 related research (Adamy & Boulmetis, 2006; Best, 2002; Waddoups, Wentworth, & Earle, 2004). …

181 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a professional development project modeled on the professional development community focused on thinking education in a teachers college has been described, characterized by a safe environment which encouraged risk taking and mutual support, enabling significant change in college courses.

181 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20231,529
20223,496
20213,449
20204,267
20194,150
20183,947