Professional development

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

Rethinking Faculty Work: Higher Education's Strategic Imperative

Abstract: Preface. About the Authors. PART ONE: HIGHER EDUCATION' S CHANGING CONTEXT. 1. The Changing Context for Faculty Work and Workplaces. 2. Trends in the National Workplace. 3. Faculty Appointments and Faculty Members: Diversification, Growth, and Diversity. 4. The Academic Profession Today: Diverse Appointments to Meet Diverse Needs. 5. Attracting and Retaining Excellent Faculty. PART TWO: THE FRAMEWORK. 6. The Framework of Essential Elements. 7. Respect: The Foundation for the Essential Elements. 8. Shared Responsibility and Joint Leadership. PART THREE: THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS. 9. Equity in Academic Appointments. 10. Academic Freedom. 11. Ensuring Flexibility in Academic Appointments. 12. Professional Growth. 13. Collegiality. 14. Why Rethink Faculty Work and Workplaces? A Call to Action. References. Name Index. Subject Index.

Teacher learning: the key to educational reform

Abstract: This letter to the next president of the United States recommends the transformation of teacher in-service learning as a powerful means of education reform. Too often, professional development is p...

Diversity within Unity: Essential Principles for Teaching and Learning in a Multicultural Society:

Abstract: The authors offer these design principles in the hope that they will help education policy makers and practitioners realize the elusive but essential goal of a democratic and pluralistic society. WHAT DO WE know about education and diversity, and how do we know it? This two-part question guided the work of the Multicultural Education Consensus Panel, sponsored by the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington and the Common Destiny Alliance at the University of Maryland. This article is the product of a four-year project during which the panel, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, reviewed and synthesized the research related to diversity. The panel members are an interdisciplinary group consisting of two psychologists, a political scientist, a sociologist, and four specialists in multicultural education. The panel was modeled after the consensus panels that develop and write reports for the National Academy of Sciences. In such panels, an expert group studies research and practice and arrives at a conclusion about what is known about a particular problem and the most effective actions that can be taken to solve it. The findings of the Multicultural Education Consensus Panel, which we call essential principles in this article, describe ways in which education policy and practice related to diversity can be improved. These principles are derived from both research and practice. They are designed to help practitioners in all types of schools increase student academic achievement and improve intergroup skills. Another aim is to help schools successfully meet the challenges of and benefit from the diversity that characterizes the United States. Schools can make a significant difference in the lives of students, and they are a key to maintaining a free and democratic society. Democratic societies are fragile and are works in progress. Their existence depends on a thoughtful citizenry that believes in democratic ideals and is willing and able to participate in the civic life of the nation. We realize that the public schools are experiencing a great deal of criticism. However, we believe that they are essential to ensuring the survival of our democracy. We have organized the 12 essential principles into five categories: 1) teacher learning; 2) student learning; 3) intergroup relations; 4) school governance, organization, and equity; and 5) assessment. Although these categories overlap to some extent, we think readers will find this organization helpful. Teacher Learning Principle 1. Professional development programs should help teachers understand the complex characteristics of ethnic groups within U.S. society and the ways in which race, ethnicity, language, and social class interact to influence student behavior. Continuing education about diversity is especially important for teachers because of the increasing cultural and ethnic gap that exists between the nation's teachers and students. Effective professional development programs should help educators to 1) uncover and identify their personal attitudes toward racial, ethnic, language, and cultural groups; 2) acquire knowledge about the histories and cultures of the diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, and language groups within the nation and within their schools; 3) become acquainted with the diverse perspectives that exist within different ethnic and cultural communities; 4) understand the ways in which institutionalized knowledge within schools, universities, and the popular culture can perpetuate stereotypes about racial and ethnic groups; and 5) acquire the knowledge and skills needed to develop and implement an equity pedagogy, defined by James Banks as instruction that provides all students with an equal opportunity to attain academic and social success in school.1 Professional development programs should help teachers understand the complex characteristics of ethnic groups and how such variables as social class, religion, region, generation, extent of urbanization, and gender strongly influence ethnic and cultural behavior. …

Combining the Development of Practice and the Practice of Development in Teacher Education.

Abstract: This article describes and analyzes a program of work in elementary mathematics teacher education at the University of Michigan that has, for a decade, been a site for the development of approaches to preparing beginning K–8 mathematics teachers that are both aimed at practice and centered in content. Among the products of this work are video records, instructional tasks, and assessments, as well as structures for collective work on our courses. These materials and ways of working comprise a collection of resources for both the systematic improvement of the knowledge base for teacher education and the professional development of teacher educators. This practice‐based approach to the development of both our courses and their instructors has enabled us to improve professional instruction and to build knowledge that is useful beyond a particular course or the individuals who work in it. We begin by discussing 2 central problems of teacher education that our group has tried to address and then descri...