Section archive - Professional Development

In this action research, the author used a project as an approach to relinquish control and empower the students to organize a seminar for their professional development. The data revealed that a significant learning point for the student-teachers was that communication and interpersonal skills were important in getting results from the top management and people of authority. The project was a process of change and self-discovery for the student-teachers. Students had to get over their resistance towards unwanted responsibilities and accept that in the real world, irrespective of their preferences, the job has to be done.

The authors have implemented a structured approach to developing the habits of critical reflection. The authors' attempts to incorporate into these pre-service teachers' learning the ‘practice’ part of reflective practice have included the development of different kinds of practical and applied tasks. In turn, their attempts to incorporate the ‘reflective’ part of reflective practice have involved the embedding in assessment activities of different scaffolds for metacognitive reflection.

The authors examined the degree to which ongoing professional development (PD) for school teachers is associated with more effective teaching practices as measured through teachers’ behaviors in the classroom. The effects of participation in this program on three domains of teacher effectiveness, measured through classroom observations. The domains of teacher effectiveness are planning and preparation, classroom environment, and instruction. The implications of this study indicate that high-quality professional development does not always address all domains of teaching.

This study examines relationships between teachers’ participation in professional development and changes in instruction, and between instruction and student achievement growth, from third to fifth grade. The findings reveal that when teachers participated in professional development that focused on math content or instructional strategies in mathematics, they were more likely to teach in ways associated with student achievement growth.