International Portal of Teacher Education
The online resource of academic content on teacher training and teacher education
Search results for: Professional continuing education
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11 items
1
The current study aimed to examine the perceptions of primary school teachers in different periods of their professional life regarding what constitutes professional development and their experiences with reformed professional development courses.
Teachers (N = 45) were enrolled in the study from three professional life periods (entry-level, advanced, and expert) as defined by the Israeli Ministry of Education, largely on the basis of years of teaching experience.
Their perceptions were examined in semi-structured interviews.
Teachers in all periods of their professional life seek to learn material that they can apply in teaching, student learning, or assessment contexts in their schools and classroom.
Entry-level teachers overwhelmingly desire to pursue professional learning goals that extend beyond the current focus on classroom competence. Entry-level and advanced teachers express a preference to learn in workshops, which offer participatory learning experiences.
For expert teachers in Israel, consideration should be given to removing the compulsory nature of formal professional development, while enabling them to pursue courses beyond their discipline and according to their interests.
All three groups suggest that course content should be better mapped to teachers’ needs.
These findings are consistent with the life phase model of teachers’ professional development.
Published: 2020
Updated: Apr. 20, 2021
2
High percentages of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) drop out during their first 5 years in the classroom.
Often, formal support systems are put in place to overcome ‘practice shock’.
However, in this research, it was hypothesised that it is not the formal support structure put in place that determines whether starting teachers feel satisfied in their job and show perseverance but rather the amount of knowledge exchange that takes place.
This was confirmed by the results of a first quantitative study.
Then, a follow-up qualitative study showed that having the principal in the role of a mentor is often experienced as a mechanism of control or evaluation.
Starting teachers prefer to choose their own mentor.
They prefer their mentor not to be a superior but a close colleague whom they trust, who is teaching the same course in the same year.
The authors’ results have especially implications for onboarding of novice teachers.
Since social informal learning (e.g. through the exchange of feedback with colleagues) benefits newly qualified teachers, it is important to create a safe and warm learning climate in which knowledge exchange can flourish. Also, NQTs should be given the opportunity to choose their mentor.
Published: 2019
Updated: Nov. 29, 2020
3
This study examines formative evaluation recommendations that the authors made to four different professional development (PD) projects over three years. The results of this study show that formative feedback can impact PD design and implementation. The results of this study suggest that evaluation efforts can take on a new purpose – the PD of professional developers. The authors argue that as evaluators, they interpreted what they know about PD from the research and acted as conduits of empirical findings to the PD project teams. Hence, their recommendations reflected their own knowledge and beliefs about PD, which, as active teacher education researchers, were well rooted in the PD research literature.
Published: 2016
Updated: Oct. 11, 2018
4
Continuing Professional Development – Why Bother? Perceptions and Motivations of Teachers in Ireland
This article aims to focus on the motivating and inhibiting factors relating to teachers’ engagement with continuing professional development (CPD) and to analyse the data in relation to Herzberg et al.’s (1959) two-factor theory, as a means of drawing implications for the future provision of CPD in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The findings indicate that teachers’ intrinsic motivation to seek out their own CPD continues to apply to actually engaging in CPD. Teachers in this study expressed a preference both to seek out and to pursue CPD areas that they valued for their own personal reasons and in response to their own personal and/or professional needs. The findings demonstrate that intrinsic (personal) factors – namely career advancement, potential growth and achievement – were the chief catalysts in motivating teachers in this study to engage in CPD.
Published: 2016
Updated: Aug. 03, 2016
5
This article reports on the experiences of teachers who have had Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in Europe. The findings of this study reveal, in all three countries, similar discrepancies between the activities in which these teachers engage and the value they place on individual professional development. In most cases, teachers interviewed in this study identified not just a huge variation in their experience of professional development. According to these teachers, their professional development would appear to be neither systematic nor particularly successful. Furthermore, accountability is checked by the sorts of appraisals mentioned by many of these teachers. In many cases these are based on targets and observations, which can be used to apply pressure on individuals to take part in staff development, or indeed be used by teachers as its justification.
Published: 2013
Updated: Nov. 17, 2015
6
The purpose of the present study is to investigate the growth and development of a novice teacher participating in a Continuing professional development (CPD) project. Based on the findings of the current paper, the CPD project supports the professional development of a novice teacher in three areas. First, it helps develop teaching competencies. Second, it promotes positive socialization in organization and in the profession. Finally, it facilitates the development of one’s professional identity. This study illustrates the important challenges teacher educators face in finding new ways to create learning opportunities in teaching students and novice teachers. Such opportunities would be meaningful for teacher educators in their own professional development and growth.
Published: 2012
Updated: Mar. 31, 2014
7
Beyond Induction: The Continuing Professional Development Needs of Early-Career Teachers in Scotland
This article describes a research project which explored the CPD needs and priorities of early-career teachers and the barriers to their participation in Scotland. The project employed a three-staged methodology: nominal group technique interviews with teachers in four local authorities; a national online survey; and a stakeholder consultation exercise. The analysis of data led to the development of six strategic recommendations. These recommendations related to issues such as the different needs and work in different contexts of year two to six teachers, the responsibility of local authorities and schools to support year two to six teachers, ect'.
Published: 2011
Updated: Dec. 08, 2013
8
The current article provides an overview of the background and the processes at play in the current reshaping of teacher education in Scotland. The authors reviewed policy documents and reports regarding the teacher education system in Scotland. The article starts with the developments emanating in the past decade from the McCrone Report and finishes with the recent Donaldson Report. The article concludes that the teacher education system in Scotland has been strongly influenced by needing to connect with the two dominant existing policies relating, respectively, to teachers’ work and conditions and to curriculum reform.
Published: 2011
Updated: Nov. 05, 2013
9
This article investigates stakeholders’ views on the desirability of collaborative continuing professional development (CPD) and examines potential barriers from a Scottish perspective. This article draws on two empirical projects which each investigates the perceptions of Scottish teachers regarding CPD. The research discussed in this article suggests that a greater balance of forms and purpose of CPD is desirable. However, the policy context within which Scottish teachers currently work focuses on an individualized, standards-based framework.
Published: 2011
Updated: Dec. 29, 2011
10
This article describes Lebanese teachers’ views on Continuing Professional Development (CPD). The teachers expressed their views on what constitutes effective CPD, why this is needed and how this influences their practice. Findings showed that CPD in Lebanon focuses on workshops as coordinators conjecture, but there is no follow‐up for application of what is learned. Findings also indicate a need to have more structured and systematic CPD for all teachers with a focus on action research and mentoring.
Published: 2010
Updated: Jul. 26, 2011