scholarly journals Union Contracts and Teacher Professional Development

2001 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Paul V. Bredeson

In this article, I report the results of an investigation that examined the impact of teacher union contracts on the development of professional learning communities in schools. There are three primary sources of data used in the study: 1) 100 written teacher union contract documents; 2) structured interview data from 21 educators (school superintendents, principals, directors of staff development, and teacher union representatives; and 3) focus group interview data from educational leaders in schools. The analysis and discussion focus on five areas related to teacher professional development with implications for policy and practice: explicit language covering opportunities for teaching learning in their work; governance and decision making structures, that is, specific provisions covering wages, hours, and conditions of employment; the description of legitimate and sponsored activities for the professional development of teachers; and the resources supporting the on-going professional growth of teachers. The findings indicate that rethinking, restructuring, and organizational re-culturing in schools are initial expressions of a new unionism that has the potential to lead to the development of more powerful professional learning communities in schools.

Author(s):  
Елена Фёдоровна МАТВЕЕВА

В статье поднимается проблема управления профессиональным развитием учителя в России и в Сингапуре; освещается опыт непрерывного повышения квалификации педагога в Сингапуре посредством создания профессиональных обучающихся сообществ; раскрываются особенности организации работы сингапурских профессиональных обучающихся сообществ в школах, принципы их функционирования. В сравнительном ключе актуализируются вопросы развития профессионализма педагога в России, опыт региональных практик повышении квалификации педагогов, неформального объединения педагогов, инновационных практик дополнительного профессионального образования. В итоге сравнительного анализа делается вывод о том, что опыт Сингапура по созданию и развитию системы непрерывного повышения профессионализма учителя через профессиональные обучающиеся сообщества может заслуживать более пристального внимания со стороны, как учёных-теоретиков, так и учителей-практиков и управленцев школ в России. The article touches upon the issue of management of teacher professional development in Russia and Singapore. The author refers to the experience of organization of teacher continual professional development through professional learning communities in Singaporean schools as one of the most effective in the world. The paper provides insight into their work organization and principles of operation, as well as describes the history of their development. The phases of teachers’ participation in professional learning communities in Singaporean schools are viewed within the present studies. Concurrently, the issues of teacher professional development in Russia, the emerging experience of teacher qualifications upgrading in regional practices and informal teacher communities, innovative practices of teacher complementary professional education are updated in a comparative manner. The author reveals some difficulties and achievements in this area. In the end of the comparative analysis it is stated that the experience achieved by Singapore in creating a highly effective system of teacher professional learning communities needs a more focused attention from academics, as well as from practicing teachers and school managers.


Author(s):  
Susan R. Adams ◽  
Ross Peterson-Veatch

The central focus of this chapter will be to describe the theory and practice of critical friendship in teacher professional development, paying special attention to the ways in which participants in small professional learning communities (PLCs) create spaces in which to experience discomfort together for the purpose of sustaining their own transformation as practitioners. Using protocols (prescribed turn-taking mechanisms) as social processes to negotiate and then arrive at explicitly named norms and agreements, PLCs that use critical friendship as their goal aim to create the conditions for personal and communal transformation of both their members and their institutional contexts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy A. Goodale

The focus of this article is on the evaluation and outcomes of a professional learning opportunity that focused on 13 current K–12 public school science educators in the United States. This teacher training concentrated on sustainability education that utilized marine sciences as a unifying concept. Findings from this training helped to identify models within teacher professional development in marine science that lead to comprehensive adoption of presented curricula. Four established models/frameworks of professional development were identified and their subsequent classroom implementation was evaluated. Results include adoption rates of the various session materials, the impact and effect size of differing variables (such as deliverables or standards alignment) among the four models and their frameworks and changes in perceptions towards sustainability initiatives. These outcomes underscore several methods and strategies for successful science teacher professional development implementation in regard to marine sciences.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-25
Author(s):  
Tom J. McConnell ◽  
Joyce M. Parker ◽  
Jan Eberhardt

Educational reform should include teacher professional development (PD) to help educators learn how to implement new programs. This article shares a research-tested model of PD that uses the analytic framework of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) to support professional learning. Evidence suggests that PBL is effective in changing content knowledge and pedagogical practice. To teach content, facilitators engage teachers in learning activities designed using common PBL structures. Stories about authentic phenomena present problems associated with specific concepts. Learners work in groups to analyze problems, seek additional information, and construct plausible solutions. This same approach can support Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to help teachers examine and revise their own teaching. In this model, teachers collaborate to identify “problems of teaching.” The group uses PBL to analyze information and solutions. Teachers research teaching strategies, test a proposed strategy, and analyze evidence to build new understandings of teaching.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Jane Twomey

This purpose of this paper is to deepen our understanding of a relational model of professional development that nurtures teachers’ interest in learning and professional growth through reading. This case study documents the impact of a teacher reading group that was created for the purposes of a larger study between 2005 and 2007 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Louisa, one of the six participants of this larger study, is the focus of this paper. Louisa’s practice of reading, interpreting, evaluating, and utilizing the on-line research she read individually and collectively with the other five participants of the study became a way for her to identify and critique important issues, reframe her experiences as a teacher, question her professional assumptions and beliefs, and begin to develop a new unit of study for her English as a Second Language students.


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