In a review of the professional development literature, the author of this paper highlights consensus findings about professional development approaches and raises important questions about assumptions underlying the different models. The paper is of special interest to ISE educators designing and leading professional development programs for other educators (formal and informal). It describes how particular PD approaches may provide or impede opportunities for critical reflection and ongoing learning.
In informal learning environments, science experts, explainers, and guides need support in their work to educate the general public in STEM topics. This study surveyed participants and trainers in communications training programs to determine the best methods for achieving such a purpose. The researchers suggest that training programs be practical, authentic and interactive, and provide participants opportunities for feedback.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Elizabeth Walsh
resourceresearchProfessional Development and Workshops
Teachers who participated in professional development aimed at increasing awareness of the cognitive and social functions of questioning social understanding and questioning practices led to teachers creating more student-centered classrooms. This research shows that, through discourse analysis, teachers were able to reflect on and adopt questioning strategies that led to students’ higher-level thinking, longer and more sophisticated responses, and self-evaluation.
This paper describes a teacher professional development initiative aimed at improving science and mathematics teaching and learning and which comprised 1700 schools by the second phase. The initiative fostered cooperation at the school and inter-school levels and involved teachers selecting “modules”—a framework of resources to support development which address previously identified problem areas.
The authors of this paper conducted an evaluation of two pilot credential programs both starting in Massachusetts in 2007, the School-Age Youth Development Credential (SAYD) and the Professional Youth Worker Credential (PYWC). Their reflections on the need for professional development for out-of-school time (OST) staff and youth workers show that the field of youth development at present is at crossroads. Based on the evaluation of these two pilot programs, the researchers advocate the establishment of a nationally recognized credential to professionalize the youth development field. The need
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Fan Kong
resourceresearchProfessional Development and Workshops
This article reports the results of a design research experiment in professional development for teachers of middle school mathematics. The authors report on how they developed their programs to account for three underlying conceptual challenges to their efforts: (1) the institutional contexts that teachers worked in, (2) the ways in which the learning developed in and through the community of practice, and (3) the relationship between teachers' learning in the program and teachers' teaching in their classrooms. Especially because of the different institutional cultures found in ISE versus
You for Youth (www.Y4Y.ed.gov) is a learning community and website started in 2008 for the grantees of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC), a U.S. Department of Education program that began in 1998 to support out-of-school time programs. The Y4Y project team describes how this project started as a response to the need for low-cost professional development in a wide range of skills, including conflict management, student engagement, and building relationships with the community. Inputs from practitioners, policymakers, evaluators, and other stakeholders were used in this