What lies beneath the formal or overt curriculum may impair students' professional growth and development, including their ability to foster genuine relationships with patients and others, and may contribute to the inadvertent, often negative attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors expressed by medical students and witnessed by educators within and…

Professional development practices implemented in rural school systems have often led nowhere. These practices seem to produce adult learning activities with few results other than participants' mounting frustration and another innovation left by the wayside. To encourage the development of productive professional development, many studies are…

Human resource succession planning (HRSP) is "a deliberate and systematic effort by an organization to ensure critical personnel continuity in key positions and encourage individual advancement". Succession planning allows an organization to prepare for the absence, departure, death, retirement, or termination of an individual. It provides for…

In September 2007 the Colorado Department of Education and the Colorado State Board of Education jointly announced the launch of "Forward Thinking", an ambitious plan "to create a purpose-driven and dynamic system of educational leadership, service and support that relentlessly focuses on the learning of all students." The…

This resource examines the role of the central office in improving instruction and therefore improving student achievement. Mac Iver and Farley-Ripple provide a comprehensive review of the available research (since the 1970s) on the role of the central office in student achievement. First, they review the research chronologically, and then by…

This report describes a mentoring program at D'Youville College designed to better meet the learning needs of graduate students in special education. The program began in the 1994-95 academic year with the original purpose of giving students a head start on developing ideas and conducting research for their theses. The program has grown, however,…

This document contains four papers from a symposium on organization development and change. "The Effectiveness of Total Quality Management: A Response to the Critics" (Douglas H. Smith, Ralph G. Lewis) identifies four effectiveness principles: customer satisfaction, continuous improvement, speaking with facts, and respect for people. "Fast Cycle…

This book, by two university professors in a professional preparation program, is intended as a conceptually based practical guide to reflective practice for educators at all levels. The first of the book's 8 chapters explores the rationale for reflective practice, a professional-development strategy aimed at behavioral change, and explains how…

These guidelines were developed to assist school administrators who have the responsibility of organizing a one- to three-day professional development program. The first section outlines the tasks involved in planning and implementing a workshop. The remaining sections cover the following: (1) developing and utilizing the workshop theme; (2)…

Executive coaching is an emerging field with broad demand and subsequent growth in service providers. The International Coach Federation (ICF) reports a membership of over 5500 coaches, and there is likely a large but indeterminate number of practicing coaches that do not belong to that organization. Enterprises around the globe are utilizing the…

Drawing from research and related literature on successful staff development activities, a professional development model was developed and implemented at J. F. Ingram Technical College (JFITC) in Alabama. Designed to serve the professional development needs of support staff, apprentice and master teachers, and administrators, the model provides…

Conventional wisdom on the nature of leadership in higher education is challenged in this collection of 12 essays. They are divided into three sections: (1) The Context; (2) New Leaders and New Models; and (3) Strategies and Resources. Chapters and authors include: "Leaders and Their Development" (Madeleine F. Green); "Toward a New Leadership…

A faculty development program designed to encourage critical thinking skills across the curriculum at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire is described in this report. The program's goal was to stimulate faculty to add critical thinking to their pedagogical objectives. Faculty participants attended six 4-hour meetings designed to heighten their…

A research approach describing the career biographies of individual teachers as a means for exploring the idea of professional development and the personal and contextual conditions affecting it is discussed. Implications for inservice teacher education policies and strategies are drawn, and teacher development models are advocated. (MSE)

Nine years after the National Science Education Standards' release, just how well do science teachers in grades 5 to 8 actually use them to plan content, define improved teaching, and assess real learning? Find out the answers to these key questions in this groundbreaking collection of 15 essays by teachers, researchers, and professors whose…