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Innovating Professional Development Standards: A Shift To Utilize Communities Of Practice, Teresa Foulger

Essays in Education

This paper is a report on the findings of an action research study that explored a non-traditional professional development process involving five elementary teachers and a professional developer working as a collaborative community. The interactions within the group focused on the creation and teaching of a three week thematic unit across grade levels and classrooms. Although technology integration was the proposed new learning, instructional strategies and innovative ways to collaborate were also explored. Qualitative data analysis indicated that when professional developers pay close attention to the social nuances and emotional needs of participants, communities of teachers coming together for a …