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The Professional Development Of Rural School Principals: The Elements, Contexts, And Topics Desired By Principals In A Rural School District, Thomas Cothern

School Leadership Review

Abstract

Effective professional development for school principals is crucial to the successful administration of schools. This data from a mixed methods study to determine the elements, contexts, and topics found in the principals’ professional development in a rural school district in Louisiana. Educational leadership literature and studies have indicated professional development for principals should be ongoing and occur during all phases of the principals’ career. The participants in the study included the principals of the schools in the rural district.

The data collected through the survey used and the interview provided a glimpse of the professional development found in the …

Workplace English As Professional Development: The Uw-Madison Model, Karen Parrillo

MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL

University human resources departments dedicate themselves to providing relevant professional development to their institutions’ employees. However, few of these departments consider the language learning needs of employees who are nonnative English speakers. This paper introduces the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison)’s unique approach to meeting the English language learning needs of employees through its Cultural Linguistic Services (CLS) department within the Office of Human Resources (OHR). The CLS Workplace English Program features the development of contextualized learning materials, active participation of employees’ supervisors, dynamic scheduling, and on-the-job practice with authentic communicative tasks. The collaboration between CLS/OHR and other UW-Madison departments has …

Raising The Bar With Professional Development In The Use Of Distance Learning Tools, Victoria Brown, Jillian Powers, Ann Musgrove Dr., Daria Olden

FDLA Journal

Abstract: Strategic plans to increase online student enrollment and distance learning (DL) enrollment are driving professional development centers to change their approach to faculty preparation for designing, developing, and facilitating online courses. As it takes approximately three to five years to achieve change in teaching attitudes toward technology (Hall & Hord, 2014), understanding factors that influence faculty adoption of technology, their self-efficacy, and attitudes toward technology becomes indispensable. This paper describes a study that explored how different professional development (PD) options affect faculty self-efficacy and attitudes toward adopting distance learning tools for online instruction. The authors welcome a discussion on …

Norwegian Prison Officers´ Perspectives On Professionalism And Professional Development Opportunities In Their Occupation, Helene Marie K. Eide, Kariane G. Westrheim

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

Despite increasing attention towards education as a quality measure for correctional services, little research attention has been paid to the qualification and training of prison officers. This article investigates how Norwegian prison officers understand their own professionalism and opportunities for professional development in their occupation. The analysis reveals that prison officers regard professionalism in line with a core value of loyalty, and guiding principles of humanity and equality for incarcerated persons. Further, the analysis shows that prison officers express pride and job satisfaction in their profession, and satisfaction with their education. Still, several of the officers highlight the need for …

Teacher Learning And The Difficulties Of Moving Civic Education Forward. A Response To “Beyond The Invisible Barriers Of The Classroom: Iengage And Civic Praxis”, Avner Segall

Democracy and Education

In “Beyond the Invisible Barriers of the Classroom: iEngage and Civic Praxis,” the authors reported on the experiences teachers encountered during a weeklong Youth Engage Civic Institute Camp and the degree to which what teachers learned in the camp was able to move their thinking and practice toward a more critical, justice-oriented approach to civic education. The authors’ analysis thus “considers the ideological shifts the counselors [teachers] made and the likelihood that they will teach beyond the formal classroom as they return to more traditional environments” (Magill et al., 2020, p. 2). In that, the authors were interested not only …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 4, Issue 2

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full Fall 2020 issue (Volume 4, Issue 2) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence.

The Development Of A Portfolio For Academic Promotion And Tenure For Occupational Therapy Educators, David Levan

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

Advancement of occupational therapy educators is a significant achievement and important contribution to the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Vision 2025 and Centennial Vision. Successful promotion demands excellence and active engagement in faculty skill development, both of which are essential to student learning. The academic promotion and tenure process presents a new and unfamiliar expectation for entry-level and tenure-track occupational therapy educators. A multitude of institutional policies and procedures, formal and informal recommendations from administrators and colleagues, and lack of mentorship can make planning for academic promotion and tenure confusing and difficult. The purpose of this article is to provide …

Elementary Teachers’ Mental Images Of Engineers At Work, Rebekah Hammack, Juliana Utley, Toni Ivey, Karen High

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

The purpose of the current study was to determine the impacts of a multiple-day engineering-focused professional development program on elementary teachers’ perceptions of the work of engineers and their use of mathematics and science. Data were collected in the form of drawings of engineers prior to and immediately after the professional development program as well as an open-ended exit survey at the end of the program. Participants’ drawings were scored in the following areas: use of mathematics, use of science, and work of an engineer. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests revealed that the only significant change between measures was in ‘‘work of …

Online Certificate In Grandfamilies Leadership: Identifying And Fulfilling The Training Needs Of Grandfamily Practitioners, Jennifer Crittenden

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

This practice brief discusses the development and delivery of a unique online certificate program in grandfamilies leadership designed to serve the needs of a wide variety of grandfamily professionals and support personnel. To-date the program has engaged 177 learners from across the U.S. and Hong Kong representing a diverse set of organizations and professional and lay roles. Evaluation results from the first seven learner cohorts underscore the effectiveness of the program content as well as the utility of an initial program needs assessment to guide curriculum development. Practice implications for future continuing education efforts targeting grandfamily professionals and lay leaders …

Becoming A Highly Effective Elementary Teacher And How To Support Teachers' Development, Tim Pressley, Riley Isom, Chalon Johnson, Amy Barnes, Laura Mcauliffe

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

As teachers enter the field of teaching, teachers look to continue to develop in order to become highly effective teachers as they are often less effective than teachers with at least some experience (Boyd et al., 2008; Ladd & Sorenson, 2017). This development may occur through the support of mentors, administration, professional development (PD), as well as through trial and error, with the most development occurring during the first several years of teaching (Koedel & Betts, 2007; Rice, 2003). However, not all teachers develop into effective teachers. Some aspects that may affect a teacher’s effectiveness are the classroom environment, instruction, …

Supporting Professional Development Through Digital Principal Leadership, William Sterrett, Jayson W. Richardson

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

A core role of the K-12 school leader is to support and nurther the growth of others. That growth is commonly thought to be at the student level. However, school leaders must also focus on the growth of their teachers. School leaders are adjusting to a world where technology has crept into many aspects of the profession. And sometimes, technology innovation comes during a time of sudden disruption, such as the COVID-19 pandemic in Spring 2020 where digital learning and leadership become the new norm, even when uncertainty and change were omnipresent. As such, while it is clear that principals …

Emergent Model For Community Engagement: Developing Courses And Programs, Barbara S. Spector, Cyndy S. Leard

Journal of Global Education and Research

This retrospective emergent design qualitative evaluation study documents the development of a unique model for community engagement and engaged scholarship in higher education. The primary novel aspect of the model is participatory involvement of both the target audience for the program and representatives of various stakeholder groups who initiated, conceptualized, tested, assessed, and evaluated the courses and program with the professor. Members of the target audience and stakeholder groups also recruited participants, contributed to refining the courses and program to meet the needs of the stakeholder groups, and contributed to redesigning courses for online learning. The model emerged while developing …

Renovating Science Professional Development To Meet Teachers’ Needs, Julie Thiele, Ollie Bogdon

The Advocate

In order to meet the needs of elementary in-service teachers, renovated professional learning, including the components of the Effective Science Professional Development Model is vital. Increasing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, engaging teachers in investigations, school-year coaching with the underlying theme of collaboration are encompassed in the four key components of the renovated model. Experiences shared in the article, the successes and challenges of implementing professional development with the focus of shifting science education to hands-on investigations in doing science, provide leaders in science education the opportunity to explore effective professional development opportunities and utilize this model in their schools to …

Teacher Perceptions And Implementation Of A Content-Area Literacy Professional Development Program, Osha Lynette Smith, Rebecca Robinson

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

The Common Core State Standards recommend that all educators equip students with the literacy skills needed for college and careers. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine middle-level content-area teachers’ perspectives on a district-led literacy professional development program and their implementation of the literacy strategies they learned. The conceptual framework included Bruner’s constructivist, Bandura’s self-efficacy, and Knowles’s andragogy theories. These theories informed the investigation of adult learners’ perspectives regarding the way they learn and gain confidence in providing literacy instruction. Eleven English, math, science, and social studies teachers participated in the study through individual interviews. Data were …

Mentoring Secondary Novice Teachers To Develop Academic Language Of English Language Learners, Susan O'Hara, Joanne Bookmyer, Robert Pritchard, Robin Martin

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

This exploratory, qualitative study examines the foundational knowledge and instructional methods needed for academic language teaching of English language learners (ELLs). It also examines how mentoring practices can build secondary content-based novice teachers’ instructional capacity in this area. The study uses synthesized data from two independent studies to contextualize findings on essential instructional practices within the process of mentoring new teachers. Three themes emerged: novices need the foundational, theoretical and practical knowledge underlying essential practices for academic language development; essential practices must be articulated in detail for enactment by teachers; and balancing explicit and immersive academic language instruction is a …

Perspectives Of Professional Development On Supervision Skills, Roger "Mitch" Nasser

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Supervision skills are essential at all levels of administration in higher education. However, it is unclear where many professionals attain these skills. New professionals, who often supervise student workers, receive training during their graduate program experiences. Senior level professionals, those who run Student Affairs divisions or segments of those divisions, are often not questioned in their practices. Senior administrators are valued for decision making and strategic planning. Unfortunately, the final population, middle managers, do not receive training and may be expected to have skills upon arriving in a position. The following study examined perceptions of middle and senior administrators in …

Influential Fellows: A Professor And Writing Fellows Reflect On Identities, Feedback, And Communities, Sharlene Gilman, Paxton Beck, Nancy Zola

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Insufficient attention has been directed to first year and first generation developmental writing students whose courses involve embedded peer and near-peer tutors. This article explores the learning communities and learning and teaching identities mutually constructed by one professor of developmental composition and two Writing Fellows who are secondary English education majors through working together with our population, and how relationship dynamics impacted identities and curricular choices.

Analysis Of Elementary School English Teachers’ Professional Dialogue As Their Professional Development, Chin-Wen Chien

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This qualitative study analyzed the professional dialogue among 67 English teachers at seven elementary schools in New Taipei City in Taiwan. Based on the analysis of the documentation, observation, and interviews, the study has two major findings. First, the knowledge and skills covered in the professional dialogues of English teachers concerned planning, implementing, and managing instruction. Second, English teachers regarded their professional dialogues as effective and goal-oriented. In order to make professional dialogues into job-embedded professional development for English teachers, they must be goal-oriented and carried out in an environment of care and trust. Moreover, professional dialogue can take the …

Kansans Can: Redesign Professional Learning And Re-Licensure, Paul Erickson

Educational Considerations

Professional learning is and always has been a core expectation for educators. Educators, whether they are self-directed as intrinsically motivated learners or compliantly fulfilling requirements set by their employing districts and state departments, engage in professional learning throughout their careers. While educators engage in traditional means of professional learning in the form of workshops, conferences, mentoring, and graduate coursework, this study centered on educators’ professional learning efforts that are more informal and more personalized to their specific interests and passions. This professional learning often comes in the nonconventional forms of social media, professional learning networks, peer observations, and professional units …

Making The Case For An English Academy: Reflections On An Ongoing Endeavor, Geoff Bender

Educational Considerations

This article makes a case for the academy as a site for meaningful school-university dialogue in order to strengthen rapport across stakeholders in the teacher education process while generating crucial data for a teacher education program’s continuous improvement. Similar in some ways to its cousins, including the leadership academy and the professional development school, the academy model described here is distinguished from these related structures in its diverging purposes. While invested in bringing new professionals into the field, the English Academy keeps its linked teacher education program abreast of trends in public education that help shape that program’s work in …

Using Site Visits To Strengthen Collaboration, Victor Piercey, Rebecca Segal, Afroditi Filippas, Tao Chen, Soloman Kone, Rosalyn Hargraves, Jack Bookman, John Hearn, Debbie Pike, Kathy Williams Phd

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

The SUMMIT-P project is a multi-institutional endeavor to leverage interdisciplinary collaboration in order to improve the teaching of undergraduate mathematics courses in the first two years of college. One goal of this work is to establish collaborative communities among the institutions involved. As part of the project, institutions visit one another on site visits that are structured according to a common protocol. The site visits have been valuable to the project. Participating institutions report the exchange of actionable ideas and feedback; members of the grant leadership team have used the site visits to direct the overall project, and evaluators have …

Elaborating A Model For Teacher Professional Learning To Sustain Improvement In Teaching Practice, Pauline W. Thompson, Jeana A. Kriewaldt, Christine Redman

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

: Effective professional learning is acknowledged as a key lever to improve teacher practice. However, many studies report significant variation in the effectiveness of the types of programs on offer. Recently, there has been a move from the traditional single-event, passive approach to more collaborative and ongoing forms of professional learning. Interestingly, researchers have paid little attention to understanding the experience of professional learning from the teachers’ viewpoint. This research sought to develop this understanding by following the attitudes and behaviours of a group of secondary teachers as they participated in an ongoing professional learning program. This professional learning program …

Simulation-Based Learning To Improve Athletic Trainers’ Knowledge Of Exertional Sudden Death Conditions: A Pilot Study, Zachary K. Winkelmann, Elizabeth R. Neil, Kenneth E. Games, Stacy E. Walker, Lindsey E. Eberman

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: Continuing education for the practicing clinician typically involves reading peer-reviewed journals and attending professional conferences. These mechanisms do not allow for practice and real-time evaluation of healthcare skills. Simulation-based learning has been widely used in professional education yet is not common in the continued development of the clinician in their lifespan. Method: We used a cross-sectional, repeated measures pilot study. The participants included 11 athletic trainers (age=40±14 years; certified experience=17±14 years) that engaged in a multi-modal continuing professional development session that included a lecture, large-scale simulated learning experience, and debriefing session at a healthcare conference. The outcome measures included …

Local Wisdom In Regenerative Teacher Practices, Sue E. Smith, Jon C. Mason, Majella Bowden

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this article, teacher professional practice is conceptualised within a regenerative framing as a synthesis of intercultural perspectives drawn from wisdom traditions, placing ethics-in-action alongside reflection-in-action. Regenerative practice foregrounds the need for renewal connecting professional learning with lifelong learning. Global sustainability agendas also inform this endeavour, reminding us of our connectedness within living ecosystems while ‘local wisdom’ is considered a primary source to inspire regeneration. Ecological models of education are therefore explored to determine the nature and scope of regenerative practices. Isolation imposed by the global pandemic provided opportunity to reflect upon our own practices and how these inter-relational constructs, …