Building coherence for instructional improvement through professional development

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 864-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Leisy Stosich ◽  
Candice Bocala ◽  
Michelle Forman
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Instructional Improvement ◽  
Joint Work ◽  
Developmental Approach ◽  
Team Collaboration ◽  
Organizational Conditions ◽  
The Impact

This study explores how six school leadership teams in a rural district in California responded to professional development (PD) designed to strengthen leadership practices and organizational conditions in schools for improving teaching and learning. Specifically, the PD was intended to address the problem of practice identified by the schools: teachers needed to learn to work in new ways to support students in meeting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Researchers used design-based implementation research (DBIR) to understand the connection between the design and implementation of the PD model and the impact on participating schools. Findings suggest that in developing PD programs, three challenges need to be addressed in designing experiences for educators that strengthen their capabilities to lead instructional improvement: maintaining the connection between organizational processes and instructional practice; approaching school leadership team collaboration as joint work; and utilizing a developmental approach to improvement. The article concludes by exploring the potential of DBIR for designing and refining models for school leaders’ professional learning.

scholarly journals Hastening slowly: insights about teacher development from an evaluation of courses at the WCED’s Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Meyer ◽  
Lydia Abel
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
School Level ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Leadership Institute ◽  
Service Training ◽  
Education Administrators ◽  
The Impact

In the area of teacher professional development, South African education administrators face the challenge of reconciling two imperatives that have entirely different implications for programme time frames and budgets. On the one hand, there is an urgent need to improve the pedagogic content knowledge of many teachers to improve the overall standard of teaching and learning in the public school system. Considering the scale and urgency of the matter, centralised course-based in-service training seems to be the only affordable alternative. On the other hand, researchers have long warned that once-off course-based training on its own has limited impact on teachers’ practice, and has to be accompanied by further professional support in the school and classroom, or be abandoned in favour of more enduring professional learning communities. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has grappled with this dilemma in the Department’s various professional development initiatives for teachers, a mainstay of which is the training offered by the Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute (CTLI). This paper presents some of the data and findings from an external evaluation that ORT SA CAPE conducted in 2011–2012 of courses offered by the WCED at the CTLI. The hierarchy of INSET outcomes proposed by Harland and Kinder (1997) was applied to record changes in the practice of 18 teachers at eight schools. The progress of five of the teachers is discussed to illustrate the interplay between school-level factors and the experiences of individual teachers which influenced the impact of CTLI training on their teaching.

scholarly journals The role of leadership in developing and sustaining teachers' professional learning

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 149-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona King
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Disadvantaged Schools ◽  
Key Features ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Education Discourse ◽  
Specific Contribution

A prominent feature of education discourse relating to teachers' practice has been the call for increased emphasis on professional development (PD). This paper is part of a wider project which explored the impact of a collaborative PD initiative on teachers' teaching and learning in five urban disadvantaged schools in Ireland. It focused on the impact of PD and critically on sustainability from which emerged important issues of leadership. This article focuses on the specific contribution that leadership made to the sustainability of the practices in the schools. It aims to identify three key features of how principals contribute to sustaining PD practices.

scholarly journals Classroom Observation: Linking Teacher Evaluation and Professional Development in TESOL

2018 ◽  
Vol III (II) ◽  
pp. 168-195
Author(s):  
Sayyed Rashid Shah ◽  
Roohul Amin ◽  
Hussain Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Evaluation ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Classroom Observation ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Impact

This study examines the impact of increasingly challenging nature of classroom observation as part of teacher evaluation in English Language Teaching (ELT). This paper highlights the complex nature of evaluative classroom observation systems in various educational contexts. It also considers various issues that embody the challenging nature of classroom observation and teacher evaluation in connection to the professional development of teachers. In a small-scale study of Teaching of English to the Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) professionals in Saudi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, it adopts an interpretive approach and utilizes semi-structured interviews to collect data. The results, presented in four major themes provide a detailed account of teachers’ perceptions of the role of classroom observation in their professional learning and development. However, this development has not occurred due to the observation as a tool to elevate teaching and learning standards, alternatively, the managerial demands and the fear of being fired or transferred to remote campuses have stimulated teachers to develop professionally and offset this challenge. Despite their personal drive to professionalize themselves in a collaborative and professional culture, the challenge of observation still prevails owing to the teachers’ lack of autonomy and some insufficiently trained observers’ subjective approach.

scholarly journals Building Teacher Capacity within the Evolving Assessment Culture in Canadian Education

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don A. Klinger ◽  
Louis Volante ◽  
Christopher Deluca
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Classroom Assessment ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Teacher Capacity ◽  
Canadian Education ◽  
Assessment Culture ◽  
The Impact

Lost in the focus on large-scale educational assessments for accountability purposes is the important role of teachers' classroom assessment practices. Teachers must understand the use of both large-scale and classroom assessment practices and theories, and professional development remains the primary method to develop these assessment capacities. However, traditional models of professional development typically have little, if any, effect. In recognition of the importance of building teachers' assessment capacity, and the limitations of traditional professional development, the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, Canada, developed a Classroom Assessment Workshop Series to begin to build a systemic assessment framework for teachers. Through pre- and post-series surveys with 300 participants, and interviews and focus groups with facilitators, the authors' review and research explored the impact of the series on teachers' beliefs, self-efficacy, and knowledge of assessment practices and theory. The authors also explored the challenges that teachers experienced as they worked to understand and implement current conceptions of assessment. While teachers certainly valued the community created through the series and the opportunities to share their experiences, the findings found that teachers struggled to understand the theoretical foundations and use these foundations to further develop their own assessment practices. The research highlights the need for teachers to embrace a philosophy that integrates formative assessment practices and theories into their teaching and learning while also identifying the challenges associated with creating such an assessment culture. Current models of professional development may be more aligned with principles of effective professional learning, but truly changing teachers' classroom assessment practices may require a much more prolonged effort than those being provided.

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

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.

Data Use Practices for Improved Mathematics Teaching and Learning: The Importance of Productive Dissonance and Recurring Feedback Cycles

2016 ◽  
Vol 118 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolley Bruce Christman ◽  
Caroline B. Ebby ◽  
Kimberly A. Edmunds
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Mathematics Instruction ◽  
Instructional Improvement ◽  
Data Use ◽  
Student Thinking ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
Teacher Sensemaking

Background A growing number of studies argue that data use practices in schools have not sufficiently attended to teachers’ learning about students, subject matter, and instruction. The result has been changes in instructional management (e.g., student grouping, assignment of students to tutoring) rather than instructional improvement. Further, there is a paucity of research on how teachers make sense of data and their ensuing instructional actions. Purpose We report findings from qualitative research on an intervention designed to put teacher learning about mathematics instruction center stage in data use practices. The research sought to understand what happened as teachers made sense of data in their professional learning communities (PLCs), what changes they made in their mathematics instruction, and why they made the changes. Research Design The theoretical foundation for the research is situative theory, which conceptualizes teacher growth as “a process of increasing participation in the practice of teaching, and through this participation a process of becoming knowledgeable in and about teaching.” A case study approach was chosen to illuminate the complex interrelationships among intervention components and their influence on teachers: (1) between individual teacher sensemaking about data and collective sensemaking in PLCs and (2) between sensemaking and instructional changes. Additionally, case study methodology facilitates theory building grounded directly in data by providing nuanced accounts of the phenomena under study that uncover concepts and coherently relate them to one another. Teacher interpretation of data is ripe for theory building. Findings The case study of Ms. Walker illustrates in rich detail the developmental nature of her growth and the important roles of dissonance, collegial discussion, and productive dissonance in that process. Due to considerable progress in both her questioning strategies and her ability to build on student thinking to focus on important mathematical ideas, Ms. Walker was able to move beyond surface instructional adjustments to demonstrate substantial instructional improvement. Conclusion/Recommendations We argue that a fuller understanding of how teachers experience dissonance, and the supports necessary to make that dissonance productive, can enrich the design and implementation of data use practices. The research also offers an example of the contribution that microprocess studies can make to research on data use practices. We encourage researchers to attend carefully to teacher sensemaking and interrogate the concepts of dissonance and productive dissonance in future theory building about data use practices.

Creating Ongoing Online Support Communities through Social Networks to Promote Professional Learning

2013 ◽  
pp. 754-772
Author(s):  
Maria Elena Corbeil ◽  
Joseph Rene Corbeil
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Graduate Courses ◽  
Professional Network ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

Professionals who want to remain competitive in their fields are turning to Web 2.0 to learn the knowledge and skills they need in order to do their work more efficiently and effectively. Through a detailed description of how one instructor transformed his online graduate courses into dynamic, interactive, ongoing online learning communities that extended beyond the classroom, this chapter provides academics and practitioners a model for establishing a professional network that learners can participate in, and replicate in their workplaces for their professional development and informal learning. An overview of the role of social networking in creating professional development and informal learning opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship, knowledge brokering, and ongoing online support communities, as well as the results of a survey conducted on students’ perceptions of the impact of the social networking strategies and tools on their professional development and informal learning in and out of class will also be discussed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document