Section archive - Professional Development

The present study investigated differences in contextual factors across schools and their influence on teachers’ decisions about science instruction. The findings show the influence of context on the sustainability of professional development outcomes. Additionally, it was found that principal support and collegial support are particularly important to teachers in sustaining science instruction. Finally, the study found that variations in school context also influence the extent to which state-level factors affect teachers’ decisions about science instruction.

This study focused on how elementary teachers described their professional growth after being involved in lesson study in a professional learning community with other teachers and university professors. The study also examined how they described the impact the program had on their teaching of mathematics. The results indicated that the participants valued the collaboration within the community of learners. The sharing of ideas, planning lessons together, and reflecting on teaching and student learning in a supportive environment appears to have been critical to teacher growth. The authors conclude that the findings indicate that while involvement in professional development to deepen teachers’ understanding of mathematics and their knowledge of how to teach mathematics is important.

This study explores how the teacher and the researcher constructed a relationship as they worked together to implement mathematical modeling tasks to use in the teacher's classroom. The authors described the roles and relationships between the teacher and the researcher. The authors conclude that the present study emphasizes a teacher’s active involvement in the research-teaching process.

This study presents an evaluation of a theory-based trajectory for professional development called FeTiP (FeedbackTheory into Practice). It aims to have an observable effect on teacher classroom behavior. The authors describe the effects of FeTiP on the feedback behavior of teachers and attempt to explain why these effects occurred. The findings reveal that teachers showed significant progress in the frequency of the feedback they provided after following FeTiP. In the post-tests, they also provided significantly more specific feedback, and their ratio of positive and negative feedback increased. The authors found no differences for age, gender, or experience in the total frequency of feedback, specific feedback, and the ratio of positive and negative feedback at the pre-test condition.