Teachers’ professional development for differentiated instruction in mixed-ability classrooms: investigating the impact of a development program on teachers’ professional learning and on students’ achievement

Recently there has been a considerable interest in the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework for effective technology integration (Koehler et al., 2013). Researchers have been measuring how effective their professional development efforts have been for the development of teachers’ TPACK (Graham et al., 2009; Guzey & Roehrig, 2009). So far research is based only on short-term courses, so longitudinal studies are needed to examine the TPACK development of teachers across time (Hoffer & Grandgenett, 2012; Koh & Sing, 2011). A two-year in-service training program of educational technology (60 ECTS), based on the TPACK framework, was developed at Tallinn University Haapsalu College to support in-service teachers to effectively embed ICT into their classroom teaching. The first group of teachers (n=20) enrolled in the program in January 2014. This paper reports some preliminary findings of a longitudinal action research, the main aim of which is to evaluate the impact of the in-service training program of educational technology on teachers’ TPACK. The key questions for this research were: how do teachers’ perceptions of their TPACK levels change after participating in the training program for a year; which of the seven knowledge domains of the TPACK framework develop more than others; what is the impact of different knowledge domains on teachers’ TPACK perceptions. The TPACK questionnaire developed by Schmidt et al. (2009) was used to measure in-service teachers’ self-assessments of their TPACK during the first meeting of the training program and at the end of the first academic year. The research results revealed increase in all the domains of the TPACK framework. There was significant development of the teachers’ TK and TPACK, but only limited growth in CK and PK. Strong positive correlations were found between TCK, TPK and TPACK in the post-course survey. Key words: ICT, in-service teachers, professional development, TPACK.

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Action Research and Teachers’ Professional Development: Examples and Reflections

International Educational Research ◽

10.30560/ier.v2n3p37 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. p37

Author(s):

Osama Al-Mahdi

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Action Research ◽

Teacher Professional Development ◽

Professional Learning ◽

Development Program ◽

Teachers College ◽

Potential Benefits ◽

Teacher Professional ◽

Teachers Professional Development ◽

Professional Capacity

Teacher professional development had received a growing interest in the past decades due to their importance in improving teachers' knowledge, skills and values. There are various approaches and types of teachers' professional development. This paper begins by discussing the definition, characteristics and models of teachers’ professional development. Then it outlines some ideas related to teacher professional learning communities (PLCs), communities of practice (CoPs), mentoring and coaching. Next, the paper focuses on action research as one of the widely used approaches in both research and teacher professional development. The potential benefits of action research in building teachers’ professional capacity is presented next. The paper concludes with a discussion about the implications of utilizing action research in the educational development program for school principals in Bahrain Teachers College.

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Enhancing Teachers’ Competencies through Professional Development Program: Challenges and Benefactions

Acuity : Journal of English Language Pedagogy, Literature and Culture ◽

10.35974/acuity.v5i1.2042 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 28-38

Author(s):

Dewi Listia Apriliyanti

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Professional Learning ◽

Learning Process ◽

Development Program ◽

English Teachers ◽

Professional Development Program ◽

Innovative Teaching ◽

Learning Development ◽

Teachers Professional Development ◽

Competence Test

Teachers’ professional development program is considered to play an important role in enhancing teacher competencies. An observational case study is conducted to observe teachers’ learning process and teachers’ outcomes after learning on the program. Five English teachers who have participated in the professional development program in Indonesia and passed the teachers’ competence test on the program have become key informants of this research. The objectives of the research are to investigate the learning process on the program and challenges faced by the teachers in implementing their teaching knowledge and outcome of teachers after participating in the program. The research has found three essential findings. First, the research found that pedagogic competences and professional competences have become the basic formulation for learning materials that are taught in the program. Second, the research found four obstacles and challenges to implement teachers’ knowledge from the program in their classroom, for instance, innovative teaching methods and creative lesson design. The third, the investigation also discovered the challenges and the benefactions in the implementation of professional learning development as one of the solutions in enhancing English teachers’ competences in Indonesia.

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Secondary School Teachers’ Professional Development in Australia and Shanghai: Needs, Support, and Barriers

SAGE Open ◽

10.1177/21582440211026951 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 215824402110269

Author(s):

Guangbao Fang ◽

Philip Wing Keung Chan ◽

Penelope Kalogeropoulos

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Secondary School Teachers ◽

New Technology ◽

Development Program ◽

Future Research ◽

Information And Communication ◽

Using Data ◽

Teachers Professional Development ◽

Scheduled Time

Using data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS; 2013), this article explores teachers’ needs, support, and barriers in their professional development. The research finds that Australian teachers expressed greater needs in information and communication technology (ICT) use and new technology training for teaching, while Shanghai teachers required more assistance to satisfy students’ individual learning and pedagogical competencies. More than 80% of Australian and Shanghai teachers received scheduled time to support their participation in professional development, whereas less than 20% of Australian and Shanghai teachers received monetary or nonmonetary support. In terms of barriers, Australian and Shanghai teachers reported two significant barriers that conflicted with their participation in professional development: “working schedule” and “a lack of incentives to take part.” This article reveals implications of the study in the design of an effective professional development program for Australian and Shanghai teachers and ends with discussing the limitations of the research and future research directions.

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Enhancing EFL Teachers’ Pronunciation Pedagogy Through Professional Learning: A Vietnamese Case Study

RELC Journal ◽

10.1177/0033688220952476 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 003368822095247

Author(s):

Loc Tan Nguyen ◽

Jonathan Newton

Keyword(s):

Professional Learning ◽

Classroom Practice ◽

Teaching Practice ◽

Teaching Skills ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Teachers Perceptions ◽

Efl Teachers ◽

Teacher Professional ◽

Teachers Professional Development ◽

The Impact

The role of teacher professional learning (TPL) in assisting teachers to teach pronunciation in English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) contexts has received little attention. The study reported in this paper extends this line of research by investigating how six EFL teachers at a Vietnamese university transform and integrate the pronunciation pedagogical knowledge they received from a TPL workshop into teaching practice. It then examines the teachers’ perceptions of the impact of the workshop on their knowledge gains and pronunciation teaching skills. Data were collected from seven lesson plans designed by the teachers, video recordings of 24 subsequent classroom observations, and six individual semi-structured interviews. The study adopted a content-based approach to qualitative data analysis. The findings show that the teachers were all able to translate TPL into classroom practice of pronunciation teaching. The findings further show that workshops designed and implemented in accordance with research-based TPL principles can be effective for promoting teachers’ knowledge of pronunciation pedagogy and refining their pronunciation teaching skills. The study has implications for ESL/EFL teachers’ professional development in pronunciation teaching.

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Internationalizing teacher education curricula: opportunities for academic staff development

On the Horizon ◽

10.1108/oth-07-2017-0053 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 157-169

Author(s):

Mónica Lourenço

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Staff Development ◽

Global Education ◽

Teacher Educators ◽

Teaching Practice ◽

Academic Staff ◽

Development Program ◽

Content Type ◽

Academic Staff Development ◽

The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of a collaborative workshop, aimed to support teacher educators in embedding a “global outlook” in the curriculum on their perceived professional development. Design/methodology/approach The workshop included working sessions, during a period of 13 months, and was structured as participatory action research, according to which volunteer academics designed, developed and evaluated global education projects in their course units. Data were gathered through a focus group session, conducted with the teacher educators at a final stage of the workshop, and analyzed according to the principles of thematic analysis. Findings Results of the analysis suggest that the workshop presented a meaningful opportunity for teacher educators to reconstruct their knowledge and teaching practice to (re)discover the importance of collaborative work and to assume new commitments to themselves and to others. Originality/value The study addresses a gap in the existing literature on academic staff development in internationalization of the curriculum, focusing on the perceptions of teacher educators’, whose voices have been largely silent in research in the field. The study concludes with a set of recommendations for a professional development program in internationalization of the curriculum.

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Neither the frying pan nor the fire: In search of a balanced authentic e-learning design through an educational design research process

The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning ◽

10.19173/irrodl.v15i2.1705 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Hanna Teräs ◽

Jan Herrington

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Design Research ◽

Development Program ◽

Research Process ◽

Learning Program ◽

Educational Design ◽

Educational Design Research ◽

E Learning ◽

Teaching Faculty ◽

The Impact

<p class="Abstract"><span lang="EN-GB">Teaching in higher education in the 21st century can be a demanding and complex role and academic educators around the globe are dealing with questions related to change. This paper describes a new type of a professional development program for teaching faculty, using a pedagogical model based on the principles of authentic e-learning. The program was developed with the help of an iterative educational design research process and rapid prototyping based on on-going research and redesign. This paper describes how the findings of the evaluations guided the design process and how the impact of the measures taken was in turn researched, in order to eventually identify and refine design principles for an authentic e-learning program for international teaching faculty professional development.</span></p>

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“Education Abroad” for International Student Advisors: What is the impact on their professional development?

Journal of International Students ◽

10.32674/jis.v9i1.258 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 306-319 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Wei Liu

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

International Education ◽

Comparative Research ◽

International Student ◽

Development Program ◽

Study Abroad Programs ◽

Education Abroad ◽

Education Professionals ◽

Staff Members ◽

The Impact

It is generally agreed that participating in study abroad programs, even short term, has positive impacts on students. But what would be the impact of an “education abroad” opportunity for staff members in international education? Reported in this paper is a 3-month long professional development program in a Canadian university for 52 international student advisors from 51 different Chinese institutions. Based on data from a survey and their comparative research reports, the study aims to glean the impacts of such an education abroad opportunity for international education professionals after their exposure to a different national context and different practices in international education. Findings of this study show that international comparison can serve as an effective approach to the professional development of international education professionals which enhances their historical, contextual and cultural understanding of their own work.

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From dialogue to a training field. The next challenge of professional learning of novice school principals in Israel

Yearbook of Pedagogy ◽

10.2478/rp-2018-0011 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 41 (1) ◽

pp. 161-170

Author(s):

Mali Nets

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Training Program ◽

Professional Learning ◽

School Principals ◽

Instructional Leader ◽

Integrative Approach ◽

Novice Principals ◽

Principal Development ◽

Northern District ◽

The Impact

SummaryYear 2008 was a dramatic turning point in Israel concerning the professional development of school principals. This shift is reflected in the conception of the principal as an „instructional leader”22, thus Israel has formally adopted the integrative approach to principal development that emphasizes principal’s work in the post-modern era alongside the development of individual „managerial identity”; and the reflective abilities to strengthen implicit knowledge23. The professional development of novice principals provides a significant touchstone in the examination of the new training program that has been underway for the tenth year. This program assisting novice principal through two central mechanisms: peer support and personal guidance provided by veteran and retired principals. Key data from the evaluation of the training program for the novice principals in the Northern District will be presented. The main challenges of the current training program will be discussed, with questions to consider changes to increase the impact of personal guidance on the managerial capabilities of novice school principals24.

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Teacher Learning Community and EFL Teacher Professional Development

International Journal of Learning and Teaching ◽

10.18178/ijlt.7.1.54-58 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 54-58

Author(s):

Hongmei Han ◽

◽

Jinghua Wang

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Learning Community ◽

Teacher Learning ◽

Academic Writing ◽

Teaching Practice ◽

Research Activities ◽

Efl Teachers ◽

Teachers Professional Development ◽

The Impact ◽

Teacher Learning Community

This study explores the impact of teacher learning community on EFL teachers’ professional development. The participants are 17 EFL teachers from Hebei University in China. A year-long study was conducted on these teachers' group leaning activities through participatory observation and in-depth interviews. The preliminary results are as follows: 1) Generally speaking, through conversation, interaction and online peer evaluation in learning community, participant teachers have improved professionally in terms of critical thinking, academic writing, reflective thinking and research awareness; 2) In learning activities of the community, the experienced teachers focused more on the construction of knowledge regarding research methodology, through interaction with others and participation in teaching-based research activities, to reconstruct their knowledge about teaching and research; while the novice teachers placed more emphasis on the reconstruction of knowledge regarding pedagogical theories and the way these theories are applied in teaching practice, through social interaction with other teachers.

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