Section archive - Professional Development

This paper describes the professional development program Starting Right: Mathematics in Preschools. The article demonstrates how engaging preschool teachers with challenging tasks may promote their subject matter knowledge as well as their pedagogical content knowledge, leading to an interweaving of knowledge and practice.

The current paper presents the findings from the third study in a longitudinal research project examining newly qualified teachers’ (NQTs) motivation for teaching and how they retrospectively value their teacher education. The results indicate that teachers are motivated both by working with their subject matter and by teaching. However, this study reveals a high rate of attrition, with 40 percent having left the profession.

This article examines three possible influences on the impact of teacher professional development as a mechanism for improving teaching and learning. These influences are those from the individual teacher, those from the school and those from the activities in which teachers participate. Data were collected from a national sample of primary and secondary teachers in England. The results reveal that teachers in high performing schools participate in professional development activities that are longer in duration, more active and more collaborative in implementation. In contrast, teachers in the lowest performing schools report high levels of performance management conditions and participate in activities that are short in duration.

This article examines a hypothesized model of teacher orientation to learning and its relationship to teacher learning change. The results show that teachers bring an internal, external and collaborative orientation to their professional learning. The beliefs and practices associated with these orientations are also shown to have a moderate influence on teacher learning change.