This paper discusses best practices in teachers’ professional development (PD) in the United States (U.S.). We begin by presenting a conceptual framework for effective professional development, which ...suggests five key features that make professional development effective—content focus, active learning, coherence, sustained duration, and collective participation. We then describe the findings from recent U.S. research that has tested the five features, with an emphasis on the results of rigorous randomized control trials. We discuss several insights gained from this work and that have helped refine the framework. They are that (a) changing procedural classroom behavior is easier than improving content knowledge or inquiry-oriented instruction techniques; (b) teachers vary in response to the same PD; (c) PD is more successful when it is explicitly linked to classroom lessons; (d) PD research and implementation must allow for urban contexts (e.g., student and teacher mobility); and (e) leadership plays a key role in supporting and encouraging teachers to implement in the classroom the ideas and strategies they learned in the PD. We then examine three major trends in how professional development for teachers is evolving in the U.S.—a move away from short workshops, linking teacher PD to evaluations, and the use of video technology to improve and monitor the effects of PD. Finally, we discuss the challenges faced by districts and schools in implementing effective professional development.
The objective of this article is twofold: (i) to provide a valid and reliable instrument to measure teachers' digital competence on the basis of the European Framework for the Digital Competence of ...Educators (also referred to as DigCompEdu) and (ii) to examine the relation between in-service teachers' digital competence and personal and contextual factors. For this purpose, a study was conducted with 1071 in-service teachers. The instrument was validated with respect to its factorial structure, and the relation between teachers' digital competence and personal and contextual factors was analysed using three different analyses: (i) simple linear regression, (ii) multiple linear regression, and (iii) machine learning. The results show that all the analyses conducted confirm the prevalence of personal factors over contextual ones, as well as their stronger predictive capacity. Gender and age differences were found, but the number of tools used for teaching and learning was the strongest predictor of teachers' digital competence, followed by ease of use, confidence in using digital technology, and openness to new technology. The article shows the soundness of the DigCompEdu framework and provides knowledge that could benefit teacher training programmes and inform policy and practice.
•A self-assessment instrument based on DigCompEdu was developed.•The relation between personal and contextual factors was analysed.•The analysis of relations used a novel approach: machine learning.•Personal factors are the strongest predictors of teachers' digital competence.
This study explores different perceptions of pre-service and beginning teachers’ professional identity in relation to their decisions to leave the profession. Teachers’ professional identity was ...further broken down into six factors: value, efficacy, commitment, emotions, knowledge and beliefs, and micropolitics. This study employed mixed-methods which included 84 participant surveys, and 27 interviews from four groups of participants at different stages of teaching. The findings of this study showed that pre-service teachers tended to have naïve and idealistic perceptions of teaching, and dropout teachers showed most emotional burnout. Implications for improvement of teacher education and retention of beginning teachers are discussed.
This study presents a review of research on teachers’ professional development (PD) as a policy instrument. The analysis and synthesis of 78 studies showed three main theoretical perspectives in ...previous research: theory on governance, accountability/professionalism, and organization/leadership. The studies supported conclusions drawn in earlier reviews that PD has a greater effect on teachers’ learning when it includes a focus on administrators’ learning, is coherent with other policy measures, builds on information from practice, and handles accountability measures with caution. Findings beyond the scope of earlier reviews were that states have increased their PD efforts, even when PD is formally the responsibility of local actors, and that the increase has been achieved by state grants or by linking PD to standards and evaluations. Suggestions for future research include investigations into the consequences of state PD interventions in local contexts and into how PD can contribute to and build upon teacher professionalism.
•A systematic review of teachers' professional development (PD) as a policy instrument.•Conclusions regarding effects on teachers' learning in earlier reviews were supported.•Findings went beyond the scope of earlier reviews regarding tendencies over time.•States' PD efforts have increased even when PD is local actors' responsibility.•Policymakers link PD to standards and evaluations for a greater influence on practice.
The purpose of this scoping review is to examine the literature regarding formally organised online teacher communities emphasising teachers' online professional development (oTPD) focusing on ...studies that took place between 2015 and 2019. By mapping and synthesising 52 empirical studies, a wide range of online programmes are represented. The analysis reveals oTPD as complex processes. Teachers’ internal factors were crucial in their dynamic interactions with the content, facilitators and peers. Scaffolding became the overarching category. Four main concepts were revealed as central for scaffolding oTPD: The teachers, their context, the online programme and facilitating a shared understanding.
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•Scaffolding became central in all phases of teachers' professional development.•The facilitator had a major role in guiding the teachers during the developmental process.•Lack of common understanding between the actors involved was a major challenge.•Internal factors, like teachers' interests and attitude, were crucial for professional development.•Personalized and flexible online programmes being close to the teachers' interests and needs were preferred.
This study examines teachers’ attitudes toward pedagogical changes regarding various teaching strategies concerning students, content, and the teacher’s educational orientation. Teachers’ attitudes ...toward such changes are examined at different stages of their professional development. The research question is: To what extent do teachers at different stages of professional developments hold different attitudes toward pedagogical changes?
The participants were 520 teachers in primary schools, junior high schools, and high schools.
Findings indicate significant differences between teachers’ attitudes toward pedagogical changes during different stages in their professional development.
Data accumulated can guide policy-makers in creating programs for greater efficiency at educational institutions.
► Significant differences were found between teachers at different stages of their professional development. ► Teachers at the Career Frustration stage and the Career Wind-Down stage acquired the lowest mean scores. ► Teachers at the Competency Building stage and the Enthusiasm and Growth stage had the highest mean scores.
Digital tools can guide and support teachers in professional development programmes. The aim of this study was four-fold: (1) to explore changes introduced in classroom methodology by secondary ...school teachers during their participation in a professional development programme, using the digital tool EVALOE-DSS, based on conversational methodology; (2) to analyse the impact of introducing conversational methodology in the development of students' oral competence; (3) to determine the relation between students' self-perception of oral competence and self-perceived emotional competence; and (4) to find out the teachers' opinion about their experience in the programme. The instruments used were the digital tool EVALOE-DSS, the Test of Self-Perceived Oral Competence, the Self-Report of Emotional Intelligence, the Trait Meta-Mood Scale, and a satisfaction questionnaire. The study was developed in four phases: initial intensive training, intervention using the digital tool for four months, students' assessments and teachers' evaluations. The results of teachers' self-assessments using the EVALOE-DSS showed that their self-assessment of classes significantly improved throughout their participation in the programme. In addition, students whose teachers participated in the programme were self-perceived as more competent at oral language, and this had a positive influence on their self-perception of emotional competence. Finally, teachers were positive about their participation in the training process using the EVALOE-DSS. In conclusion, this study seems to suggest that a professional development programme using a Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) tool could provide an important strategy for increasing teachers' oral language teaching quality and improving student learning.
This paper follows up on the impact of a distance learning teachers’ professional development program on their self-efficacy beliefs in the long term. Specifically, it measures the personal ...self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectancy beliefs of a group of 122 in-service elementary teachers before the start of the program, immediately after its completion, and two years later. The quantitative was used as the data collection method of the research. The results advocate that both the personal self-efficacy beliefs and the outcome expectancy beliefs of the research participants improved immediately after the program was completed and the former remained relatively improved two years after completion of the program, while the latter returned to the levels they had had before attending the program. Recommendations are made for future research.
This paper explores teachers' experiences of professional development in a creative writing group. The data was collected in a teachers' creative writing group and consist of semi-structured ...interviews and creative writing assignments. Reflexive thematic analysis and narrative analysis were applied to compose a nonfiction piece that describes the teachers' experiences of a 'year of creative writing'. Within the nonfiction piece, four themes were presented as findings of the study: social aspects, personal and emotional aspects, writer identity aspects, and pedagogical aspects. The results suggest that utilising creative writing methods in qualitative research can raise otherwise hidden voices and experiences that may be difficult to express through the academic language.
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