Education Commons^™

Service-Learning As A Professional Development Tool, Lillian Wichinsky, Carolyn Turturro

Administrative Issues Journal

The authors examined students’ attitudes towards grant writing and program evaluation when service learning was integrated into the assignment. Over a two-year period, 71 graduate students participated in an online survey responding to both qualitative and quantitative items. Students overwhelmingly reported that they learned more through the servicelearning experience than they would have doing the assignment as an academic exercise. It is recommended that all disciplines seek out service-learning opportunities to promote professional development.

Federal Accommodation Policy In Practice: Implications For A Substantive Process, Lynn Hemmer, Candace Baker

Administrative Issues Journal

The design of governmental regulations creates an assumption that policy implementation is linear in nature and is unproblematic (Dorey, 2005). As states, local education agencies (LEAs), and eventually school leaders and teachers engage in the policy implementation process, it becomes evident that this hierarchal dissemination of policy results in various interpretations and actions (Spillane, 1996, 2002). In the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the 2001 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, the legislative language clearly states that students with disabilities are to participate in assessments with accommodations as described on their Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Research suggests …

The Massachusetts Early Education And Care Professional Development System Study: Year 1 Report, Anne Douglass, Lucinda Heimer, Winifred Hagan

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publication Series

The purpose of this report is to present the findings from the first year of the Massachusetts Professional Development System Study (MA PDS). This study examined the implementation of Massachusetts' new statewide model for professional development of the early education and care and out of school time workforce. The study was funded by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC).

This study examined the process of implementation of the new professional development system between August 2010 and June 2011. Implementation research is important because it provides insights into whether a new system is operating as intended and identifies …

Certification For What? Practitioner Perspectives On The Changing Landscape Of Adult Literacy Education, Suzanne Smythe

Adult Education Research Conference

The responses of 63 adult literacy educators to an online survey suggest that professional development and training to meet the diverse contexts and practices in the field must attend to the embedded inequalities in access to quality literacy education for low income learners, and the marginalization of adult literacy work, which persists even as successive governments hail the importance of literacy education for citizenship and employment.

Transformative Professional Development In Unlikely Places: Twitter As A Virtual Learning Community, Kathleen P. King

Adult Education Research Conference

This case study reveals new dimensions of transformative learning occurring through informal learning opportunities. The research results demonstrate that the individual’s learning spans understanding, networking, professional identity development, and transformative learning. Specifically, virtual online communities facilitated through social media provide professional networks and social relationships beyond the scope of the individual’s usual interactions and experience. Discussion and recommendations include using social media and virtual communities as instructional strategies for graduate studies and continued learning beyond formal education. The educational significance includes facilitating transformative learning in informal learning contexts, and using social media and online communities for professional learning.

An Investigation Of Support, Goals, And Incentives Among Minority And Nonminority National Board Certified Teachers, Melissa Salana Collins

Dissertations

National Board Professional for Teaching Standards play a pivotal role in the classroom of National Board Certified Teachers (NBCT). NBCTs have been recognized for increasing student achievement. There are more than 90,000 NBCTs in schools across the United States, but the ratio of nonminority to minority NBCTs, according to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards report of 2004, was 89% to 11%. The intent of this study was to examine the levels of support among minority and nonminority NBCTs to determine which combination of support factors and incentives would best predict the successful completion of the NBCT process by …

Teacher Professional Development And Its Effects On Reading Instruction, Kristen Lea Suarez

Dissertations

The world of education is an ever-evolving profession. We, as a society, have learned so much about education and how we can better benefit our students. Students depend on education to equip them with the tools needed to become successful. This dissertation addresses the need for and adequacy of today’s teacher professional development in Reading instruction and how that training can translate into more meaningful classroom education.

The writer surveyed elementary Reading teachers in grades 3-6 from two school districts in southern Mississippi to determine their perceptions concerning various elements of the professional development training they received during the 2009-2010 …

The Merit Of Intensive Leadership Development Programs On Building-Level Administrators' Sustainability, Sonja Jean Robertson

Dissertations

With recent research identifying the propensity and ability of principals to lead as a key culprit of school and district failure, it would seem that one of the most reasonable steps should be to better determine how effective specially designed leadership development programs in the area of educational leadership are at not only equipping principals and school-based leaders, but at creating a foundation and a prevailing culture for longevity or sustainability in those positions. If the development of principals and other school-based leaders is vital to the improvement of schools, the effectiveness of the measures implemented to bring about that …

Effective Professional Development Practices For Adult Educators, Jessica Lureen Mcgee

All Graduate Projects

Professional development has evolved from a one day workshop that is isolated from the school setting, into a process that is on-going based at the school site. In order for professional development to be effective in the school environment, administrators need to take adult learners' needs into account when planning training. Professional development needs to be ongoing in the school setting, meeting the needs of the adult learners and evaluated by its effects on student achievement. The administrator is an instructional leader who provides support for staff to continue their growth. This handbook will provide administrators with resources to assist …

Funding Teacher Education: A Catalyst For Enhancing The Universal Basic Education In Imo State Of Nigeria, Martin Okoro

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

.

Teacher Satisfaction With Professional Development In Rural Elementary Schools In New York State, Adeline Imperiale Basil

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract