Group items tagged

Published by the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET), March 2012. This paper argues that, based on two recent studies, "job-embedded PD can be highly effective, but only when there is a sufficient infrastructure in place to support it." NIET's own program, TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement, is such a program. Cited studies: Biancarosa, G., Bryk, A.S., & Dexter, E.R. (2010, September). Assessing the value-added effects of Literacy Collaborative professional development on student learning. The Elementary School Journal, 111(1), 7-34. -- and -- Saunders, W.M., Goldenberg, C.N., & Gallimore, R. (2009, December). Increasing achievement by focusing grade-level teams on improving classroom learning: A prospective, quasi-experimental study of Title I schools. American Educational Research Journal, 46(4), 1006-1033

While this analysis seems somewhat biased (clearly written in support of NIET's own program), many of the characteristics of their program match work that KPI has done in PD.

By Leslie Harris O'Hanlon in Education Week; part of Technology Counts 2013: Building the Digital District, March 11 2013. O'Hanlon looks at ways that K-12 teachers are bringing technology into the classroom. While in some cases this is self-directed, there are districts and national initiatives to do as well. Online professional development is discussed.

Last paragraph is really important: "Teachers should find one thing that they would like to change or something they want to make better and look for ways to use a technology tool," [New Hampshire kindergarten teacher Maria Knee] says. And "teachers need to get outside of their school and see what is happening in other places. And be open to learning."

By Judi Fusco, Sarah Haavind, Julie Remold & Patricia Schank in Educational Media International vol 48 (3), 2011. A look at the results of 4 professional development seminars, using community of inquiry model. This is the abstract only. For full article, check with your library.

By Irene Hanraets, Joitske Hulsebosch & Maarten de Laat in Educational Media International, vol 48 (2) 2011. Looks at the idea of teacher professional development networks and networked learning. Abstract only available from this page. For full article, check with your library.

By Marybeth Green and Lauren Cifuentes in Journal of Interactive Learning Research, vol 22 (1), 2011. The major finding of this article seems to be that "online follow-up with peer interaction increased the likelihood of completion of the professional development task." Abstract only available on this page. For full article check with your library.

By Aliya Holmes, Barbara Signer and Antoinette MacLeod, Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, vol 27 (2) , n.d. This paper looks at a 5-week distance learning course offered for K-12 in-service teachers.

By Janet Macdonald and Anne Campbell in European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning [n.d.] Open University (UK) tutors work from home. This paper describes a case study of an OU initiative where the tutors received their professional development in online communities. To date, some 2000 tutors have been thus trained.

By Todd D. Reeves and Joseph J. Pedulla in Professional Development in Education, vol 37 (4), 2011. A look at the USA's e-Learning for Educators (EfE), specifically and at online professional development (OPD) more generally. NOTE: This page has abstract only. For full article, check with your library.

NOTE: OPD (online professional development) might be a good keyword.

Thesis by Holly Elaine Freeman for Northcentral University, November 2011. Freeman attempted to look at the effectiveness of online professional development for educators. This page includes the abstract only. For the full thesis, check with your library.

By Ian Quillen of the Digital Education (blog) in Education Week, September 2 2010. This study suggests that "Algebra I teachers who were trained in and used a program that allowed them to monitor students' progress on graphing calculators led to significantly improved achievement by their students on a researcher-designed test." This blog post (and the video link) both stress that it is the combination of technology AND professional development that has provided these positive results. \nNOTE: First link to Summary of Findings is a Texas Instruments report (TI produces the graphing calculator that is part of the study). However, the study was conducted with outside consultants, including SRI.

By Katie Ash in the Digital Education blog of Education Week, Sept 1 2010. Ash quotes a study by e-Learning for Educators that finds online PD improved teachers' "instruction and subject knowledge" and "produced gains in student achievement."

By Dakaria I. Aarons in Education Week, March 25 2010. The New Leaders for New Schools principal-training program has launched a new version of its online portal for the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC). The article reports that the portal is a "Web-based compendium of professional-development resources for principals, staff-development coaches, and teachers." The article links to the database. Full article is subscription only. For access, contact your local library.

An online only grad school for teacher preparation in NY state helps teachers in their own classrooms instead of in a teacher prep class outside of where they work. Videos of teachers teaching and other techniques are used to train teachers.

A program of the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales (Australia), this is an online project that aims to help teachers "gain a working understanding of successful online teaching pedagogies that they can apply in their own unique teaching situations."

Conference dates: July 11-14, 2011. Conference organizer Gary Stager. This annual convening is somewhat like an "unconference" and invites teachers to take on the role of learners for the duration. The focus is on personal project development, with lots of good resources in the form of guest speakers and "mentors." On this News page, you can see blog posts describing the conference. 2012 conference (5th annual) to be held July 9-12, 2012 in Manchester, NH.

Under the auspices of the US Department of Education, discussions are held via a listserve about professional development. This wiki contains an organized multi-day discussion on using video in teaching and staff development carried out through the list-serve. The list-serve is subscriber based but I guess both the discussion and accompanying wiki are open to the public. Issues for me: Should KPI consider offering the organized Jam transcript in the form of a wiki? Should it be open for discovery or only available to Jam participants?

Posted by Tony Bates to his blog on August 1, 2011. Bates, who runs a consultancy to teach about e-learning, argues that online learning is ever more important in post-secondary education (he writes from Canada, but his statistics are for all of North America), but that most post-secondary teachers have been trained very little in pedagogy and "teaching" at all, less so in online teaching and learning. He seeks comments and feedback to his argument.

Published by Edutopia, PD "courses" on a broad list of technology-related topics, ranging from how to use blogging or Xbox Kinect in your classroom, to blended learning.

Offered by The Sloan Consortium. Course description and pricing. Shopping cart.