The California 4-H Science Leadership Team conducted a statewide assessment to evaluate the needs of county-based 4-H programs related to the key areas of the 4-H Science Initiative: program development and design, professional development, curricula, evaluation, partnerships, and fund development. The use of multiple qualitative data sources…

Professional development is vital to the success of afterschool programs. Effective professional development enhances afterschool program quality by facilitating staff performance and knowledge; in addition, professional development is vital for improving student learning outcomes (Bouffard & Little, 2004; Hall & Surr, 2005; Joyce &…

Students with low-incidence disabilities frequently receive less than optimal psychoeducational services because the specialized tests and instructional materials required to meet their idiosyncratic needs often are unavailable due to budget constraints, inadequate training of school personnel, and the difficulty school personnel have keeping…

Workplace wellness initiatives are currently unreflective of the multidimensional and holistic nature of the wellness construct. There exists an opportunity for promoters of health to move toward models of workplace wellness promotion that more fully appreciate the interconnected nature of health dimensions and promote them even-handedly. The Blue…

This qualitative study via an action research design explored adjunct faculty pedagogical perceptions at Butler County Community College (BC3) in Butler, Pennsylvania. Based on a preliminary study by the researcher, adjunct survey data was analyzed to determine if there was a need for pedagogy training and, if so, what adjuncts believed that…

Two cornerstones to professional growth may be the right of educators to say "I don't know how" and their use of the appropriate planning tools for learning new skills and knowledge. (Author)

The authors define a needs assessment, consider issues involved in conducting a problem-focused needs assessment, and outline practical considerations in conducting needs assessment for inservice training in regular education. (CL)

As one means of serving their clients, Ginn and Co. made a commitment in the early 1980's to provide inservice workshops for teachers that more closely related to customer needs. The vehicle for assessing these needs and ultimately designing appropriate inservice activities is Stages of Concern about the Innovation (SoC), one of the diagnostic…

The staff development model described in this paper involves collaborative planning in which the teachers are involved, while also providing a mechanism to assist participants to identify their inservice needs. The model consists of three major components: (1) the preliminary input of a selected committee which produces a needs assessment survey;…

Provides guidelines for organizing staff development programs, covering assessment, statement of philosophy, organization and staffing, various activities to meet the needs of constituencies represented within the institution, incentives and rewards, adequate funding, and an overall program evaluation. Stresses staff development as a means to…

Effective improvement of accreditation standards for teacher education institutions must deal with deeply rooted problems such as inadequate educational finance and staffing. (LH)

The 12 fact sheets in this series address fundamental aspects of starting a school-age child care program. Topics addressed include: (1) the planning process; (2) needs assessment; (3) establishment of cooperative relationships with schools; (4) selection of school space for programs; (5) arrangement of the environment; (6) program design; (7)…

The manual is intended to aid programs funded by the Handicapped Children's Early Education Program (HCEEP) in designing and implementing staff development programs. Section I presents a working definition of staff development and outlines the preliminary steps necessary before a program is designed and administered. The section delineates the…

This document explains the West Virginia system of continuing education, describes the role of West Virginia in the Four State Project for staff development, and provides a list of resource documents available in the West Virginia Department of Education. In the first section an abstract of the program is presented along with a discussion of the…

This is one of a series of eight short monographs intended to aid practicing educators in planning and conducting accountability programs in schools. This booklet discusses how to plan and conduct a competency-based staff development program as part of an overall accountability program. Short sections focus in turn on various steps in the…