Education Commons^™

Reconsidering Professional Development Nnd Its Impact On Teacher Learning : An Examination Of Teacher Motivation In A Self-Directed Model Of Teacher Professional Development, Douglas M. Walker

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this study is to understand teacher perceptions of a self-directed professional learning model named Go Time. I examined the factors that influenced teacher learning and motivation to sustain learning in this model. This study contributes to the research on teacher professional development by examining a model that is self-directed and rooted in reflective practice. The study utilized a basic qualitative design in which 10 participants from a single school district participated in two rounds of semi-structured interviews. The purpose of the data collection was to understand teacher’s prior perceptions of professional development and their more current perceptions …

Exogenous Shocks And Teachers’ Motivation To Learn: Pandemic And Professional Development In The United States, Justin J. West Phd, Ann Marie Stanley, Aina K. Appova

International Journal for Research in Education

Abstract

In this article, we examine how the COVID-19 pandemic, an exogenous shock to the United States education system, shaped teachers’ readiness and willingness to engage in professional development (PD). We borrow the concept of exogenous shocks from economics and sociology to illustrate how education practice can be driven as much by factors outside the field (e.g., viral outbreaks) as by those within it (e.g., policy and scholarship). Using the four substantive domains in Appova and Arbaugh’s (2018) framework on teachers' motivation to learn in PD—teacher education and PD, educational psychology, andragogy and adult learning, and policy and accountability—we argue …

Possible Paths Forward For A Practice-Based Teacher Education Centered On Justice, Joshua Harlan Karr

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation seeks to address limitations of Practice-Based Teacher Education (PBTE) in relation to (1) narrow conceptions of practice and teacher learning, and (2) peripheralization of equity and justice. After aiming to understand the landscape of limitations in PBTE, this study situates itself within specific manifestations of these limitations that exist in common conceptualizations of teacher learning and practice-based pedagogies. To (re)emphasize the situated nature of practice and center equity and justice in PBTE, I theorize an expanded notion of teacher learning, develop design features for contextually situated pedagogies of practice (Grossman et al., 2009), and implement the design with …

A Mathematics Teacher's Learning Through Reflection-In-Action, Theodore J. Rupnow, David Barker

Perspectives In Learning

In this study, I investigated the learning of one secondary mathematics teacher through observations in two class periods. I analyzed his learning in relation to the communities of practice framework and found reflection-in-action was instrumental in his learning. I characterized the teacher’s reflection-in-action with the descriptors: developmental, hypothetical, and experimental. Developmental reflection-in-action involved the development of new understandings or practices. Hypothetical reflection-in-action involved imagined future situations. Experimental reflection-in-action involved repeated trials. I propose that the use of a cycle of reflection-in-action in professional communities may have a positive impact on teacher learning.

Supervision In Initial Teacher Education: A Scoping Review, Madlen Griffiths, Mandie Shean, Denise Jackson

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Supervision in initial teacher education is a pivotal component of professional experience, widely considered to be the most valued aspect of preservice teacher learning. Key to these experiences is the work of the university appointed supervisors who mentor the novices during their in-classroom learning. This is a dichotomous and often under-rated role, fraught with challenges, yet remains under-theorised and underresearched. Situated in a framework of readiness for teaching, this literature review provides a synopsis of the challenges facing the provision of quality teacher education programs and the supervision of preservice teachers and details the myriad of tasks undertaken by these …

Implementing A Professional Learning Community In A Private School In The Dominican Republic: An Instrumental Case Study, Miguelina Adelaida Coronado Cornelio

Dissertations

The initiative of turning schools into Professional Learning Communities (PLC) is being implemented by many schools and school systems in different countries. PLC processes have shown to be successful in enhancing teachers’ and students’ learning (Gumus, 2013; Michalak, 2009; Mullen & Schunk, 2010). The fact that the Dominican Republic (DR) is committed to improving the quality of education, the implementation of PLC processes seems to be a compelling option to reach this goal. The Dominican Ministry of Education has followed the guidelines that research in the U.S. and other countries have set and has recently adopted PLCs’ features and processes …

On Instructional Improvement: A Modest Essay, Helen M. Hazi

Journal of Educational Supervision

If we say we ‘deliver feedback to teachers,’ we most likely subscribe to a traditional approach to instructional improvement. In this approach the principal or supervisor treats the teacher as passive recipient who is expected to act on feedback that is too generic to be useful, and promotes a simplistic view of teaching and its improvement. In this essay I examine instructional improvement, a vague and taken-for-granted concept. I then identify what complicates our thinking about it, pose two competing approaches, and acknowledge our challenges. The essay concludes with a call to focus on teacher learning, if supervision scholars profess …

Towards A Complex Framework Of Teacher Learning-Practice, Kathryn J. Strom, Kara Mitchell Viesca

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Although many researchers agree that teaching is complex and contextually situated, dominant conceptions of teacher learning, and the enactment of such learning in practice, tend to be linear and reductionist. Because simplistic conceptualizations of teaching activity have far-reaching impact on teachers, students, and school systems, generating a complex theory of teacher learning-practice is nothing short of an ethical imperative. To tackle this task, we draw from an emerging body of teacher education scholarship that we consider the beginning of a ‘complex turn’. Drawing on this literature, we distill a set of conceptual shifts that, together, offer a set of theoretical …

Grassroots Professional Learning : The Homegrown And Human Dimensions Of Teacher Learning, Heather A. Frank Matteo

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study was prompted by the current climate of teacher accountability and educational reform efforts focused on teacher quality and effectiveness in the U.S. Initiatives, at both the national and state levels, reflect top-down professional development policies that tend to prioritize one-size-fits-all approaches to teacher development and ultimately serve to deprofessionalize teachers. As a result, little attention has been paid to understanding teachers’ professional learning in a grassroots sense. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how a group of elementary school teachers of literacy engaged collectively in grassroots professional learning in the context of top-down professional …

Teacher Learning And Continuous Professional Development., Fiona Faulkner, John Kenny, Coral Campbell, Cosette Crisan

Books/Book Chapters

This chapter discusses teacher learning and professional development of out-of-field teachers from the point of view of the literature. It examines what makes this kind of learning and development effective and explores the ideas surrounding the varying rationale for the introduction of such teacher learning and professional development opportunities. Classical approaches to professional development are discussed in addition to several emerging international models of professional development that are currently being employed in the Republic of Ireland, England and Australia for in-service out-of-field teachers of mathematics predominantly but also a range of other subject disciplines (in the case of South Korea). …

Hidden In Plain Sight : Knowledge Broker Teachers And Professional Development, Margaret M. Jusinski

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study was prompted by initiatives that addressed the need for teachers to engage in professional development that enables them to be 21st century ready. Recommendations put forth by government and business have stressed that professional development foster connected teaching and create networked educators by emphasizing peer-topeer collaboration and sharing. Despite this focus, little attention has been paid to the role that regular teachers play in becoming professional developers for their colleagues. My study investigated how four K-12 teachers, that I termed “knowledge broker teachers,” created new pathways for informal, teacher professional development in their schools.

Extending on the …

Intellectual And Physical Shared Workspace: Professional Learning Communities And The Collaborative Culture, Daniel Carpenter

CUP Faculty Research

Professional learning communities are one of the leading school reform movements. Schools have shifted to a collaborative culture where administrators and teachers physically and intellectually interact using a collaborative inquiry process for professional learning. The workspace interactions include shared leadership, decision-making, teaching and learning practice, and accountability measures. Attributes and characteristics of effective collaboration and professional learning communities greatly affect the outcomes of professional learning communities. An emergent framework is provided that includes attributes of effective collaboration and the characteristics of effective professional learning communities that merge into intellectual and physical shared workspace. Recommendations are provided on the role administrators …

Stories At Work : Restorying Narratives Of New Teachers' Identity Learning In Writing Studies., Rachel Gramer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rhetoric and composition has a long, robust history of studying how we train new writing teachers in our graduate/writing programs; yet we lack in-depth inquiries that foreground how new writing teachers learn. This dissertation traces five graduate students learning how to be and become writing teachers, using narrative as an object and means of analysis to study the tacitly internalized process of newcomer professional identity learning. In this project, I enact narrative as a feminist, interdisciplinary methodology to restory new writing teacher research narratives away from implicit deficit or explicit resistance and toward a more generative focus on newcomers’ motivated …

Beyond A Meeting: A Case Study Examining The Impact Of Data-Focused Professional Learning Communities On Teacher Practice And Student Learning, Deena W. Townsend

Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership Dissertations

The increased professional demands on educators without parallel increases in funding encourage schools to continually search for practical solutions to equip teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to improve their instructional effectiveness. This qualitative research study explored this issue by examining how participation in a data-focused professional learning community (PLC) affected teacher practice and perceptions along with determining how data-focused PLCs contributed to student learning outcomes. The study participants were a team of mathematics teachers from a public middle school in the southeastern United States serving grades sixth through eighth. The findings from this study were summarized through three …

Plurilingualism In Tesl Programs? Are We There Yet?, Danielle Freitas

Publications and Scholarship

With the emergence of a plurilingual paradigm shift in language teaching, questions concerning the extent to which language teacher education programs are effectively preparing language teachers to teach in our messy, heteroglossic, and multilingual world (Pavlenko, 2005) have assumed immediate relevance in the training and education of teachers. Despite the considerable number of TESOL/TESL programs qualifying teachers around the world, little is known about how these programs have adapted their pedagogy to meet the current reality of a plurilingual paradigm shift in language teaching. This research investigated the curriculum and pedagogy of a TESL Certificate course in Canada.

Utilizing An Experiential Approach To Teacher Learning About Afl: A Consciousness Raising Opportunity, Helen Dixon, Eleanor Hawe

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this article we focus on how an experiential based approach to teacher learning about assessment for learning (AfL) provided opportunities for teachers to examine: their deep-seated beliefs about effective learning (and teaching); how these beliefs permeated their day-to-day actions and interactions with students, and the consequence of these actions and interactions for student learning. It also pays attention to how teacher self-efficacy in the use of various AfL strategies was developed through a heightened awareness of the beneficial effects of these strategies on teachers’ own learning in particular.

Understanding The Impact Of A Global Universal Design For Learning (Udl) Virtual Classroom On Jamaican Educators Through The Lens Of How People Learn (Hpl), Kathryn W. Best

Theses and Dissertations

This case study examined learning components and outcomes of the UDL Virtual Classroom project, a web-based professional development program that was a collaboration between educators in the United States and Jamaica. The study applied the HPL lens (NRC, 2000) in order to understand the ways that Jamaican educator-participants perceived the integration of learner-centered learning, knowledge-centered learning, assessment-centered learning, and community-centered learning in the program itself, and also examined the impact of these components, despite numerous hurdles, on teachers’ mindsets and practices and the engagement and performance of students in their schools and classrooms. The researcher’s intent was to address the …

Teachers' Discourse On English Language Learners: Cultural Models Of Language And Learning, Amy Heineke

Amy J. Heineke

This qualitative case study explores teacher learning about English language learners (ELLs) in a small-group, school-based context at an urban elementary school inArizona. Sociocultural perspectives on teacher learning guided the analysis of teachers’ participation in a teacher study group over six months. The teacher study group aimed to support educators of ELLs at a time of new language policy implementation, which required ELLs to enroll in an English language development (ELD) classroom for four hours of skill-based English language instruction.

In the first semester of language policy implementation, I collected discursive data that showcased the social interaction of teachers and …

Problems Without Ceilings: How Mentors And Novices Frame And Work On Problems-Of-Practice, Jessica Thompson, Sara Hagenah, Karin Lohwasser, Kat Laxton

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Support for new forms of teaching expertise with rigorous and equitable outcomes for student learning is a particular challenge when communities of actors working together do not share a similar language or vision of teaching practice. For this project we coordinated activities in and outside of secondary science classrooms for Cooperating Teachers (CTs) and their Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) to inquire into a set of research-based teaching practices and tools. Using frame analysis we contrast three problems of practice addressed by 23 dyads: problems of developing novice teachers, problems of improving teaching, and problems of improving student learning. The last frame, …

Deconstructing An Online Community Of Practice: Teachers’ Actions In The Edmodo Math Subject Community, Torrey Trust

Torrey Trust

Professional Learning Of Teachers In Ethiopia: Challenges And Implications For Reform, Fekede Tuli Gemeda, Päivi Tynjälä Professor

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Abstract

Continuous professional development of teachers is of growing interest globally, as it is considered vital to cope effectively with ongoing changes and to improve the quality of education. This qualitative case study explores potential and actual barriers that hinder teachers’ professional development in Ethiopian schools. Data was collected via interviews and focus group discussions from 37 purposively sampled participants. The study reveals three major challenges in teachers’ development: 1) conceptions and conceptual issues related to teaching, professional development and mentoring, 2) management and leadership, and 3) teachers’ work conditions. The need to reconsider educational change management strategies, reform teacher …

Exploring Differences In Practicing Teachers’ Valuing Of Pedagogical Knowledge Based On Teaching Ability Beliefs, Helenrose Fives, Michelle M. Buehl

Department of Educational Foundations Scholarship and Creative Works

In this investigation, we assessed 443 teachers’ beliefs with the Teaching Ability Belief Scale (TABS) and the Importance of Teaching Knowledge Scale (ITKS). Using cluster analysis, we identified four groups of teachers based on their responses to the TABS reflecting Innate, Learned, Hybrid, and Requires Polish perspectives on the ability to teach. A comparative analysis, using the identified clusters, indicated differences in teachers’ valuing of teaching knowledge across the clusters. Teachers in the Learned cluster valued knowledge of theory significantly more so than other groups.

Pre-Service Teachers Learning To Generate Evidence-Based Hypotheses On The Effects Of Teaching On Student Learning, Cathery Yeh, Rossella Santagata

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study examines the development of a specific sub-skill for studying and improving teaching—the generation of hypotheses about the effects of teaching on student learning. Two groups of elementary preservice teachers (PSTs) were compared: one group that attended a typical mathematics-methods course and one that attended a course integrating analysis skills for learning from teaching. Data consist of PSTs’ comments on video clips of mathematics instruction administered before and after course completion. Findings reveal that PSTs at the beginning of the program struggled to generate hypotheses with relevant evidence, often equating teacher behavior or student correct answers as evidence of …

A Case Study Of The Roles And Perceptions Of Writing Coaches, Amy June Schechter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this intrinsic case study was to explore the roles, responsibilities, and perceptions of writing coaches, a form of embedded professional development, which had the opportunity to assist teachers in deepening their pedagogical knowledge of writing instruction. Furthermore, this inquiry sought to describe middle school teachers' (N = 235) perceptions of how writing coaches may have impacted their beliefs and pedagogy with regard to writing instruction. At the time I conducted this case study, no extant literature existed to describe the roles, responsibilities, or perceptions of writing coaches, and this inquiry sought to fill that void.

In an …

Beyond The Skilled Application Of Know-How: Pedagogical Reasoning As Phronesis In Highly Competent Teachers, Kathryn Boney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Given the teacher-as-technician view and the instrumentalist values that pervade professional schools, practices, and policy decisions (Kinsella & Pitman, 2012a; Zeichner, 2012) with regard to teacher qualification, evidence-based practices, and scripted curricula, there is growing concern that something of fundamental importance and moral significance is missing from the vision of what it means to be a professional, particularly in the field of education. In order to articulate teacher practical knowledge in a way that reflects the complexities of practice, a framework that captures the complexity of teaching practice and helps to define the type of knowledge beyond content and technique, …

Exploring Teachers' Perceptions Of Wikis For Learning Classroom Cases, Choon Lang Quek, Qiyun Wang

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper explores three potential affordances (social, technical and pedagogical) of wikis in the context of designing 32 teachers’ learning of classroom management cases. With the requirement of teachers’ case-based learning and the potential affordances of wikis considered, two learning environments for teachers’ case-based learning process were designed. Two groups of these teacher-participants posted their own written and audio cases, identified problems, discussed and proposed solutions with the input of their peers, in the respective wikis hosted in Google Sites and LAMS. These teachers’ perceptions of the wikis’ affordances to support their case-based learning were surveyed quantitatively. The …

The Value Of Aesthetic Teacher Learning: Drawing A Parallel Between The Teaching And Writing Process, Joanne Yoo

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Although teacher learning has often been overlooked in discussions surrounding classroom practice, it is believed that learning cultivates the resilience and vitality needed for teachers to thrive. Teachers have often been required to demonstrate a high level of skill and professionalism as they orchestrate tasks that maximise student engagement. Their work has consequently been compared to that of artists, who display their skills of craftsmanship as they construct meaningful learning activities, such as a keen sense of discernment, creativity and presence. The current article illustrates how learning to write reflectively can help teachers acquire the aesthetic skills needed to craft …

A Brief Examination Of Professional Development Models, Imran Chaudary

Imran Anjum Chaudary

This paper aims to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the major professional development models by examining their underpinning assumptions in the light of the particular bodies of scholarship from the field of education. For this purpose, nine professional development models have been chosen from the Kennedy (2005) and a framework of analysis has been constructed by modifying the criteria of effective professional development reported in the Fraser, Kennedy, Reid, and Mickinney (2007) and the Piggot-Irvine (2006). There is no ‘one right answer’! No one particular form or model of professional development is better than others to be adopted; rather, …

Teachers As Informal Learners: Workplace Professional Learning In The United States And Lithuania, Elena Jurasaite-O'Keefe, Lesley A. Rex

Curriculum & Instruction Faculty Publications

Historically, formal directive approaches to teacher learning, based upon a developmental expert-to-learner model, have dominated policy and research, with limited success. This study is based on a learner-centered view of teachers learning from the problems of their own teaching. It demonstrates the understandings that can result from teachers’ explanations of what they do and why when they encounter everyday situations that evoke their learning. Further, the microethnographic study renders these explanations as a framework for further research on teacher learning in informal school-related settings. The framework emerged from a constant-comparative analysis of the structure, language and content of a years’ …

A Study Of Primary School Teachers’ Professional Development Programme : The Translation Of Theory Into Practice In Schools, Tajuddin, Mohammad Khan

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Professional development programmes are criticized for not meeting the practical needs of teachers and teachers are blamed for going to their comfort zones despite their participations in professional development programmes. This qualitative case study explored effectiveness of the program of primary education certificate course looking into participant teachers’ new knowledge, skills and attitude gained from the programme and the implementation of their new learning into their respective classrooms. Nine teachers and 27 students participated in the study. Data was collected through semi-structured and open-ended interviews, classroom observations, documents analysis and focused group discussions with students.

The study reports a shift …