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Full-Text Articles in Education
Teacher Inquiry: A Catalyst For Professional Development, Divonna Stebick, Jonathan Hart, Lauren Glick, Jaime Kindervatter, Jenna Nagel, Cathy Patrick
Teacher Inquiry: A Catalyst For Professional Development, Divonna Stebick, Jonathan Hart, Lauren Glick, Jaime Kindervatter, Jenna Nagel, Cathy Patrick
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research
Teachers seek and require meaningful professional development opportunities to truly grow in the profession. Teacher inquiry, or teacher research, is one way to accomplish professional development goals. Teacher inquiry is thought of as individualized, personalized, and meaningful professional development (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999). In this paper we articulate the learning of a cohort of certificated professionals engaged in a year-long project that included asking research questions, designing data collection tools, and developing an independent study to examine their questions. Nine certificated professionals participated in the year-long project representing various grade levels and experiences. Data was collected through teacher reflections and …
Systemic Approaches For Professional Development On Diverse Learners In Rural Communities, Elizabeth Thorne Wallington, Adrienne Johnson
Systemic Approaches For Professional Development On Diverse Learners In Rural Communities, Elizabeth Thorne Wallington, Adrienne Johnson
Educational Considerations
While rural communities are not monolithic, many have seen recent shifts in demographics from historically homogenous populations to more racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse residents (e.g. Sharp & Lee, 2017; Brenner, 2016). Without clear systems for addressing such changes, reactionary policies to address the accompanying conflict can establish marginalized communities, deficit-based perspectives, and structural inequities (Lee & Sharp, 2017). As an alternative approach, this paper outlines promising practices for systemic approaches to addressing the ongoing professional development needs for teachers in rural communities who are supporting students from increasingly diverse backgrounds. These practices provide the support and professional development that …
Renovating Science Professional Development To Meet Teachers’ Needs, Julie Thiele, Ollie Bogdon
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 …
Kansans Can: Redesign Professional Learning And Re-Licensure, Paul Erickson
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
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 …