Section archive - Professional Development

The purpose of this international and comparative study is to examine what professional learning activities teacher educators value and what factors affect their participation in these activities. The findings reveal that two types of teacher educators’ professional learning needs arise from the data: (i) those involving the development of educational capacities related to their day-to-day remit as a teacher educator and (ii) those required for progressing an academic career, with research and writing skills being the most salient. Furthermore, this study emphasises the ways in which teacher educators, as both teachers and researchers, want to be part of a collaborative community where they can feel supported, listened to, and share their practices and experiences.

This article examines the professional development (PD) of a group of urban physical education teachers as they moved from a learning community focused on a new curriculum in physical education to a community of practice (CoP) committed to intense, sustained and focused engagement on issues related to their teaching practice and personal growth as physical educators. The participants reported development of their teaching practice and pedagogical skills by applying the teaching strategies shared by colleagues in the community. The teachers came to recognise their ability to design lessons to engage students and to implement these lessons in ways that were challenging and exciting, supporting the notion of increased self-efficacy. Their focus was consistently on their students and how to impact their learning by developing their own knowledge and skills in order to provide a quality education.

The primary purpose of this study was to measure important characteristics of professional development that may influence its effectiveness. The second purpose was to determine if any of the characteristics of effective professional development predicted teachers’ use of new knowledge/skills. The results reveal that the professional development instrument appears to be a viable tool for capturing teacher perceptions about characteristics of professional development. The instrument could provide information for state and district leadership about the quality of teachers’ professional development.

This paper explores one thread from a longitudinal research programme: that relating to senior managers’ and teacher educators’ reported views and experiences of the collaboration and the impact of the co-constructive approach taken on professional development. It examines the impact of the approach taken to collaboration, which included the development and sharing of a pedagogical model for teacher education (ARM: action, reflection, modelling) and reflects on the value of this to professional learning and development. The findings suggest that co-construction of a programme can provide an effective approach to developing teacher education. In this collaboration, because the two elements of trust and shared understanding were achieved, the teacher educators in both countries were empowered to analyse critically what the UK participants brought in the context of local practice.