Teacher development

Definition

• Teacher development means continous teacher training (both formal and informal).

• According to Andy diSessa et al. [1]: “One often talks about teacher development in conjunction with pedagogical innovation and change management. E.g. Reflecting upon and revising one's teaching is a difficult endeavor to say the least. The endeavor includes cultural and individual constraints. Culturally, teachers are embedded in a community with various group norms and mechanisms which influence what they do in the classroom. Beyond these constraints, changing one's instructional practice can be a difficult instance of conceptual change at an individual level. We would expect that changing one's view of classroom instruction (e.g., becoming a guide on the side rather than a sage on a stage) to be similar to children changing their scientific ideas about the physical world.”

• “Professional development content that is clearly structured, easy, appropriately sequenced and includes activities to assist teachers in the construction of their own knowledge from previous experiences produces effective teachers. The activities should be related to authentic classroom situations in order to increase teachers’ interest in the programme and make learning fun (Koehler & Mishra, 2006; Webb, 2007). These experiences should be provided in an environment that is comfortable for teachers to explore, experiment and practice with the tools and content. Furthermore, activities that are designed to be completed collaboratively produce quality results and build professional relationships whereby expert teachers support the less knowledgeable ones. Collaborative practices that yield better results are those that enable expert teachers or facilitators from within the group to carry out demonstration exercises that are beneficial to teachers with less experience in technology integration into lessons (Fernandez & Yoshida, 2004).” (Nkwenti Ndongfack, 2015:42)

Designs for teacher development

Communities of practice

Theory argues that teacher development is improved when teachers as learners constitute a community of practice, i.e. form a group that joinly develops better practices and views professional identity construction as participation.

E.g. According to Foley & Chang (2006) [2]: "Effective teacher preparation should help teachers improve their knowledge of their subjects, their understanding of students thinking and of different instructional practices. A key component of many successful teacher preparation programs is the development of a community of teacher-learners (Borko, 2004). Several projects have used technology as a way to support communities of teachers (Barab et al, 2001; Renninger & Shumar, 2002; Schlager, Fusco, & Schank, 2002)."

See also: community of practice

Technologies for Teacher development

According to diSessa et al. [3] "The goals of using technology for teacher development can include: (a) introducing teachers to the materials to be used in a design experiment, (b) learn about conceptual frameworks for instruction and learning, (c) engage in reflection about their own practice, or (d) develop materials which can be useful to other teachers wanting to use a particular innovation or reform their teaching method."

Collaboration tools

(e.g. for community building)

• Wikis, e.g. Foley and Change (2006)
• MOOs, e.g. Schlager et al.
• Forums, Mailing lists or any other sort of asynchronous communication tool.

Cognitive tools

• lesson planners and Curriculum planners
• Concept maps

See also: Cognitive tools and Visualization

Observation tools

Gather what happens in the classroom

Misc

• all the sorts of technology used in teaching ...  ;)

Links

• Internal Portal of Teacher Education (MOFET ITEC)
• WEBpalette - Swiss hub for continuous teacher training (all levels, D/F/I)
• introducing informal education
• PERLS 'involvement-in-research' approach to teacher professional development

• How Teachers Are Learning: Professional Development Remix @ edsurge.com- Personalized learning communities, strategies and tools for educators in the digital era ... (2014)

References

• Bartlett, L. (1990). Teacher development through reflective teaching. In Richards, J.C. & D. Nunan (eds.), Second language teacher education (pp. 202-214), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• Bill and Melinda Gates foundation (2014). Teachers Know Best. What Educators Want from Digital Instructional Tools, PDF, Abstract/Home page including Apprendices

• Brian Foley & Tae Chang, Wiki as a professional development tool, California State University, Northridge [4]. Interesting reading for those who plan to use a MediaWiki

• Barab, S. A., Makinster, J. G., Moore, J. A., Cunningham, D. J., & the ILF Design Team (2001) Designing and Building an On-ling Community: The struggle to support sociability in the Inquiry Learning Forum, in Educational Technology, Research & Develeopment, 49 (4).

• Borko, H. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning: Mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher, 33(8), 3-15. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0013189X033008003

• diSessa et al. (1996). Field Guide to Design Experiments in Education, University of California at Berkeley, [5] retrieved 15:33, 12 April 2006 (MEST).

• Fernandez, C., & Yoshida M. (2004). Lesson Study: A Japanese Approach to Improving Mathematics Teaching and Learning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

• Foley, Brian & Tae Chang (2006). Wiki as a professional development tool. Paper presented at the American Education Research Association annual meeting, April 10, 2006 in session “Technology and Teacher Learning”

• Fraser, C. A. (2005). Towards a Unified Model of Professional Development? Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen. http://www.abdn.ac.uk/cass/pgradconf/papers/ChristineA.Fraser.pdf

• Fullan, Michael G (1992) Teacher Development and Educational Change, Routledge (UK). ISBN: 0750700114

• Glazer, Evan M. and Michael J. Hannafin, The collaborative apprenticeship model: Situated professional development within school settings, Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 22, Issue 2, , February 2006, Pages 179-193. (Abstract/HTML/PDF) (Access restricted)

• Guskey, T. R. (2003). Professional Development That Works: What Makes Professional Development Effective? Phi Delta Kappan, 84, 748-750.

• Guskey, T. R., & Sparks, D. (1996). Exploring the Relationship between Staff Development and Improvements in Student Learning. Journal of Staff Development, 17, 34-38.

• Hanley, P., Maringe, F., & Ratcliffe, M. (2008). Evaluation of Professional Development: Deploying a Process-Focused Model. International Journal of Science Education, 30, 711-725. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500690701854899

• Lieberman, A., & Pointer Mace, D. H. (2008). Teacher Learning: The Key to Educational Reform. Journal of Teacher Education, 59, 226-234. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022487108317020

• McNally, Jim, Nick Boreham, Peter Cope, Peter Gray, Ian Stronach (2004).Informal Learning in Early Teacher Development, (Draft of a Paper presented at BERA Conference 2004, Manchester) PDF

• McNally, J., Cope, P., Inglis, W. & Stronach, I. (1997) The Student Teacher in School: Conditions for Development Teaching and Teacher Education 13, 5, 485-498.

• Nkwenti Ndongfack, M. (2015). Mastery of Active and Shared Learning Processes for Techno-Pedagogy (MASLEPT): A Model for Teacher Professional Development on Technology Integration. Creative Education, 6, 32-45. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2015.61003

• Putnam, R. & Borko, H. (2000). What do new views of knowledge and thinking have to say about research on teacher learning? Educational Researcher, 29(1), 4-15.

• Renninger, K.A. & Shumar, W. (2002) Community Building with and for Teachers at the Math Forum, in Renninger, K.A. & Shumar, W.(eds.) Building Virtual Communities, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK

• Schlager, M. S., Fusco, J. & Schank, P. (2002) Evolution of an Online Education Community of Practice, in Renninger, K.A. & Shumar, W.(eds.) Building Virtual Communities, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK

• Schlager, M., Fusco, J. & Schank, P (2002). Evolution of an on-line education community of practice. In K. A. Renninger and W. Shumar (Eds.), Building virtual communities: Learning and change in cyberspace. NY: Cambridge University Press, 129-158. [[6]]

• Schlager, M., & Fusco, J. (2004). Teacher professional development, technology, and communities of practice: Are we putting the cart before the horse? In S. Barab, R. Kling, & J. Gray (Eds.), Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. [7]

• Supovich, J. A., & Turner, H. M. (2000). The Effects of Professional Development on Science Teaching Practices and Classroom Culture. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 37, 963-980.

• Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and Teaching: Foundations of the New Reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57, 1-22.

• Webb, I. (2007). Key Factors in the Use of ICT in Primary School Classrooms. Ph.D. Thesis, Tasmania: University of Tasmania.

• Wilson, S. M., Floden, R. E., & Ferrini-Mundy, J. (2001). Teacher preparation research: Current knowledge, gaps, and recommendations. Seattle, WA: Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy