Benjamin Hicks

Teacher Leadership #EDGR 540

Dr. Sharon Evans Brindle
October 7
th
2014

Professional Development For Educators Annotated Bibliography

To begin my research as part of Grand View Universitys Masters in Teacher Leadership
program I would like to investigate what scholarly work has been done about the
effectiveness of professional development for teachers. In my current teaching position I
have been fortunate to experience some very innovative professional development
activities but I have also felt that often the in-service time set aside for teachers has not
been relevant or effectively used.

As part of my role as a teacher leader within my school I would like to help develop
meaningful professional development opportunities. The first step in that process will be
to look at what other researchers have found in regards to quality learning opportunities
for educators. Following is an annotated bibliography with some reviews of current
research and thought in this area.




Blitz, C. L. (2013). Can online learning communities achieve the goals of traditional
professional learning communities? What the literature says. (REL 2013-003).
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences,
National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Education
Laboratory Mid-Atlantic. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs

This article was a report and literature review looking into the topic of whether or not
online collaboration can serve as a successful PLC replacement or enhancement for
teachers who might not have time or access to be able to meet face to fact with other
instructors in their curricular or grade areas. While not strictly professional development
per se, I thought it would be useful both for the citation of a variety of educational
research as well as perhaps looking into the effectiveness of online delivery of
professional development programs.

Overall the article summarized the research as advocating that online PLCs can be
effective, especially as they may be more flexible than a scheduled in person meeting and
may promote increased self-reflection by participating teachers. Other sources cited said
that online PLC work might be challenged by lower levels of engagement of peers and
teachers not contributing as regularly as if they met face to face. The article also pointed
out that online interaction among teachers is relatively new and so what strategies might
be the most successful are still works in progress.

I think there is a lot of potential for both online PLC work and online delivery of
professional development, especially in rural areas or smaller schools where
opportunities to interact with peers can be hard to find. I also, however, think that online
work should be a supplement to, not a replacement for, in person collaboration since most
of the teaching that we do with our students is in person so it makes sense that we
practice those skills with our peers.

Cooper, B. (2013). Teaching the what as well as the how: content-rich OST professional
development. Afterschool Matters, 18(3), 1-8.

The topic of this article was advocating for high quality professional development not
just for regular classroom teachers but for educators working with students in all areas.
The particular topic it framed the argument in was improving the staff training for
teachers working with after school chess programs, but it also cited several other articles
and research studies done on what makes for effective teacher development overall.

Key ideas highlighted by the author included making sure training includes external
perspectives and fresh ideas, and training that is very specific to the content area being
taught. In this case, they discussed best methods for teaching chess, but my take away
from that was that we need to differentiate professional development for teachers by
subject and content area more often.

For example, math teachers should be learning about current developments in their field
while social studies teachers would best be served by investigating new and innovative
lessons that would specifically enhance the teaching of their content areas. The article
also suggested several ideas that I agreed with, including explicit modeling
(demonstrating) of content specific activities, discussing best practices with colleagues,
and time for teachers to reflect on how best to implement their new learning into their
own classrooms.

Ledford, A. (2011). Professional development for character education: an evaluation of teachers'
sense of efficacy for character education. Scholar-Practitioner Quarterly, 5(3), 256-273.

Most of the time when educators think about professional development they picture
learning about new strategies and methods to use in their classrooms to enhance their
teaching of content and skills. This article describes a research study done about another
key yet perhaps overlooked area that teachers are responsible for- character education. It
did a survey in a large school district to determine if the professional development the
teachers received in the area of character development was effective in improving their
skills in this important aspect of education.

The statistical analysis done in this research indicated that participating in some type of
character education training or professional development did increase both teachers
ability to incorporate character education into their classrooms and their confidence in
their skills at working with character education. The study also showed that some type of
training associated with a university, whether it be a class students took during their pre-
service training or a program developed and administered by a university were the most
effective, more so than school based staff development programs.

The results were further broken down by grade level and showed that elementary teachers
were the most familiar with and confident in their character education skills. I think this
shows that perhaps it would be wise to incorporate more character education training for
middle and high school teachers. If I end up developing my research into ideas for
improving professional development experiences I will be sure to keep in mind the area
of character development.

Nishimura, T. (2014). Effective professional development of teachers: a guide to actualizing
inclusive schooling. International Journal Of Whole Schooling, 10(1), 19-42.

I almost didnt continue reading this article after reading the abstract, as it appeared to be
geared specifically towards special education teachers, but I am glad I did as it references
a wide variety of other research on professional development for teachers. This article
does include some examples of effective ways to teach staff at a school about improving
their ability to include special education students into regular classrooms. More valuable
for my learning was some of the thoughts on what constitutes effective professional
development overall. Included in these thoughts was a fairly comprehensive list of
articles and research that will be helpful to me if I should choose to pursue this topic
further.

Some of the ideas that I agreed with about best practices in professional development
include being individualized and school based, utilizing some type of
coaching/mentoring/collaborating, and embedding what is learned into teachers daily
lives. The article continued on to discuss several models of coaching that can be used
between educators in schools.

The author summarized her views on effective professional development as including for
teachers: engagement, reflection, and empowerment- all of which I agree with. The final
part of the article was a more specific description of one professional development
program geared towards inclusive education, in which they used the framework outlined
above to evaluate its effectiveness.

Noonan, S. (2013). How real teachers and professors learn: threshold crossing and concepts in
professional learning. International Journal Of Educational Leadership Preparation,
8(2), 110-128.

This discussion of research focused more on individual teachers and their development of
skills and expertise rather than whole school delivered professional development
programs. The author interviewed a number of teachers in an attempt to determine what
the major events or factors were in their careers as teachers. She used a theory known as
threshold crossing that advocates that in order to learn something and master a skill set
people cross certain thresholds, or big barriers that one has to overcome to move on to the
next stage of mastery.

While it didnt talk about a lot of specific professional development strategies that
schools could use or improve upon, I did enjoy reading the different interviews with
teachers at different stages of their careers. There were several commonalities that
teachers cited as being threshold moments that perhaps could be worked into a
professional development program. Common themes included building positive
relationships with students, developing lessons that increase student engagement, and
providing meaningful feedback to students about their progress.

Petrie, K., & McGee, C. (2012). Teacher professional development: who is the learner?.
Australian Journal Of Teacher Education, 37(2), 59-72.

This journal article considers the very important question of how effective traditional
teacher professional development is at meeting the needs of individual teachers. Although
it is from Australia, I think the ideas discussed do apply directly to teachers in America as
well. The authors also reference several American studies and authors who have written
about the effectiveness of professional development programs. The particular study that
this article was based on looked at the effectiveness of professional development at
effecting change in the practices of elementary school physical education teachers.

I agreed with many of the findings of this study. They emphasized the importance of
differentiating professional development programs for both individual schools and
teachers just as they are expected to do for their students in the classroom. A first year
struggling teacher needs a much different professional development experience than a
veteran teacher who is board certified. Many of the early out professional development
activities I have been a part of have either not been differentiated at all or simply by
grade level or content area, not taking into account levels of experience, past knowledge,
interests, or areas of need for improvement on the teachers behalf. The article also
pointed out teachers often struggle with being asked to implement too many new ideas at
once, which dilutes their ability to do any one with integrity.

Rivera, M., Manning, M. M., & Krupp, D. A. (2013). A unique marine and environmental
science program for high school teachers in Hawai'i: professional development, teacher
confidence, and lessons learned. International Journal Of Environmental And Science
Education, 8(2), 217-239.

This article was interesting to me and sparked a lot of ideas about the format that most
current professional development received by teachers is in. It discussed a four-week
intensive program that teachers in Hawaii participated in. The program was offered to a
small group of teachers and consisted of two main portions: First, the teachers actually
did in-depth science research projects in conjunction with professionals currently
working in the areas they taught. Second, the teachers then worked together to develop
high quality lesson plans based on scientific inquiry and investigation. The teachers who
participated in the program were shown to have a higher level of comfort and confidence
in their skills and ability to teach high-quality lessons related to the topics that they had
researched.

This format appeals to me for several reasons. Often during our teacher in-service days or
early-out times we barely begin working on a topic before it is time to go. I think
participating in an intensive program in the summer or over a break when you did not
have to worry about all of the other demands on a teachers time would be helpful. Also,
access to working with professionals in your area of study would allow teachers to have a
greater depth of understanding of their subject matter, which would hopefully be passed
along to their students. The article did acknowledge the time and financial restraints that
would make it difficult to have all teachers participate in this type of professional
development, but perhaps rotating different teachers through such a program would allow
everyone to participate over a matter of a few years.

Scanlon, D., Gallego, M., Duran, G., & Reyes, E. I. (2005). Interactive staff development
supports collaboration when learning to teach. Teacher Education And Special
Education, 28(1), 40-51.

I was excited to find this article. Although it is several years old, I think it speaks directly
to what I am wanting to research further as part of our program: that much of the current
practice in the area of teacher staff development is not terribly effective, but as teacher
leaders we must take ownership for improving that process and making it more relevant
to our ability to improve our classroom practices. Within the article there are several
references to studies and research projects that outline the challenge of making staff
development relevant to teachers. Cited was the need to make training responsive to
teachers needs as well as capitalizing on teachers desires to work together and share
ideas.

Further helpful to me as I consider researching the area of best practices in teacher
training was a summary of five models of staff development. These included sessions that
were individually guided, observation/assessment, development/improvement process,
inquiry, and training. After a quick assessment of each model, the article discussed how
the most common model, training, might actually be the least effective.

Then, and this is what sets this article apart from many of the others I have read, a better
method was proposed, researched, implemented, and evaluated. Making staff
development more interactive was the aim of the program described, with the goal of
placing more ownership and involvement in the hands of the teachers who were
participating.

The article concluded with a description of the research methods, an analysis of the data,
and a summary of their findings, which indicated that teachers participating in the more
interactive model of staff development showed much more consistent ability to
implement the practice in their own classroom that they had learned in the staff
development sessions.






Shroyer, M., & Yahnke, S. (2012). Kansas State University professional development school
partnership: improvement for all. School-University Partnerships, 5(1), 13-16.

The main theme of this article was to examine the effectiveness of having a university
partner with local school districts to cooperate on the preparation of new teachers as well
as their continuing professional development programs for all educators. This article was
not based on as statistically rigorous research as some of the others I have read, primarily
referencing some surveys and descriptions of programs that Kansas State University has
with local school districts.

The authors of the article were both professors at Kansas State, so likely they were
seeking to affirm their programs worth and effectiveness. I did think the idea of having a
formal partnership between a universitys education programs and specific school
districts would lead to some consistency in message and programming. Other ideas
mentioned included a mentoring program led by the university and offerings such as
summer institutes for experienced educators. I think in a larger school district such as the
one that I teach in, seeking out a partnership with a college or universitys education and
teacher preparation programs would be a good idea, provided that it was mutually
beneficial to both organizations.




Singh, A., Yager, S. O., Yutakom, N., Yager, R. E., & Ali, M. (2012). Constructivist teaching
practices used by five teacher leaders for the Iowa chautauqua professional development
program. International Journal Of Environmental And Science Education, 7(2), 197-216.

This journal entry incorporated a wealth of information both about constructivist teaching
practices and some professional development opportunities in Iowa that were presented
to help teachers improve their practices. I was not previously familiar with what exactly
constructivist teaching was, so thankfully the article included a description and several
examples of the types of teaching that makes up the constructivist model. I agreed with
many of the ideas presented and perhaps would like to investigate this further at some
time. A few highlights included more emphasis on inquiry-based teaching rather than
having the teacher present everything and be more of a facilitator for student learning.

The professional development opportunities presented in the article revolved around the
Iowa Chautauqua Program, which offers both summer sessions and shorter workshops
during the school year in which teacher leaders who previously had been through the
program led a new group of educators in learning about constructivist teaching practices.
The study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of this program in affecting a change
within the classrooms of the teachers who had participated. In general, the study showed
that the program was not only effective in influencing the teachers who participated in the
Chautauqua programs into using more constructivist practices within their own
classrooms, but most of those teachers continued to develop into more roles as teacher
leaders within their schools, passing on the knowledge that they had received.