A survey of 287 staff developers was conducted during October 1986 to gather information on the use of computers in staff development offices. Questionnaires were mailed to every fifth member of the National Staff Development Council; 92 completed instruments were returned within one month for a return rate of 32%. Areas covered by the survey…

An interagency conference, Reading Families and Youth Who Have Limited Resources, was held in September 1992. Over a 2-day period, 186 adult educators and human service professionals participated in 27 different workshops. An innovative evaluation model was developed to assess the impacts of conference participation on reaching audiences who have…

This program is an effort of the David Douglas School District (Oregon) to provide specific training experiences for classified employees who assist with instruction. The program is intended to ease the training burden on teachers, provide district wide continuity of training experiences, and communicate the importance of the assistant's job…

Staff development is a widely practiced effort to ensure quality education for students; however, at present, no validated instrument exists for the purpose of measuring attitudes toward staff development. In an attempt to construct an instrument for measuring the attitudes of faculty, administrators, and staff members toward their staff…

A needs assessment conducted with 469 first-year teachers in Virginia in 1984-85 sought to determine the teachers' needs in terms of their competencies and what sort of learning experiences would be most helpful to them. Respondents indicated needs in a wide range of competency areas, with classroom management evoking the greatest concern.…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect Teachers Teaching Teachers, a staff development project incorporating peer coaching methods, had on public school educators' attitudes and beliefs toward various personal and professional components. Forty-four teachers, administrators, and other school personnel participated in the Teachers…

A survey of 652 adventure recreation agencies in higher education settings examined the use of risk management practices and the relationships between agency characteristics and risk management techniques. The survey contained 27 Likert Scale questions divided into four categories (agency guidance, staff development, participant education, and…

The purpose of this study was to estimate the validity of the Competence subscale of the Teacher Staff Development Survey (TSDS) as a measure of the teacher efficiency construct. Results from regular education elementary school teachers (N=296) revealed a subscale structure of the TSDS that differed from the subscale structure originally designed…

Institutions of higher education spend considerable resources in the recruiting, screening, and hiring processes, yet often pay little attention to acclimating new professionals to their surroundings. This document presents a step-by-step outline of how to orient new employees. The success of the new professional/institution relationship depends…

The Director of Education at Polyclinic Hospital (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) conducted two assessments which addressed competencies needed by clinical instructors in health occupations. Several areas of need emerged which clustered around teaching strategies, questioning and problem solving, learning styles, evaluation, decision-making, and…

The Science and Mathematics Support Teacher Program (SMSTP) is a collaborative project of the College of Education at Michigan State University, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Toledo Public Schools. The goals of the program are to increase teachers' science and mathematics knowledge, improve instructional practices, and prepare…

This essay discusses professional development as a capacity-building strategy. It raises questions about various approaches to capacity building, including the emphasis on professional development. It states that despite self-reports and surveys, scant, if any, replicable empirical evidence relates professional development to changes in teacher…

The Leadership Training Institute (LTI) at the College without Walls, in Houston, Texas, was created to provide information and training for individuals interested in growing professionally and to establish a structured program for preparing college employees to assume leadership roles in the Houston Community College System. Participants in the…

The involvement of teaching and administrative staff in a decision making procedure that focuses upon their perceived needs has been recognized as central to the success of a staff development program. This concept was the premise upon which the University of Alabama/Livingston Teacher In-Service Center conducted a needs assessment and planned its…

This paper presents the findings of a study conducted to investigate negative teacher attitudes toward staff development as mandated by the Mississippi Educational Reform Act of 1982. The East Mississippi Center for Educational Development is a consortium of 16 rural school districts and the Meridian Branch of Mississippi State University. The…