Research in the field of professional development (PD) stresses the importance of the development of professional learning communities (PLCs) designed to promote the process of inquiry in teaching. PLCs are of great importance with regard to both school improvement and in-service teacher training. This article shows that it is possible to teach…

Teachers are expected to meet professional requirements concerning: (1) their role as a teacher, (2) capacity to teach and meet students' specific learning needs, (3) managing the classroom effectively, and (4) cooperating with other professionals within the school. Teachers build up competencies and experience challenges associated with these…

State policymakers, including state leaders, districts, and professional associations, play a role in fostering an environment that supports the development of effective school principals, with the broad policy objective of achieving high principal quality across the state. This report examines how seven states use state policy levers to advance…

States play a role in fostering an environment that develops and supports effective school leaders. Prior research has highlighted opportunities to enhance state involvement in supporting school leadership through a range of policy levers, especially by promoting improvements to principal preparation (Manna, 2015; Davis, 2016). The Wallace…

Instructional coaching is a research-based model of job-embedded professional development utilized to build capacity and improve teachers' instruction to impact student achievement. However, there is varying and inconsistent utilization of instructional coaching as an approach to professional learning pursued by teachers. This study explores how…

Providing beginning teachers with skills and strategies needed to help build resilience to classroom stressors and increase social-emotional competence prior to entering the profession may positively impact physiological and psychological well-being, teacher effectiveness, and commitment to teaching. This quasi-experimental pilot study examined…

In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, there is significant variation in kindergarten programs and the entry assessment systems used in school districts. There are no reliable data on the kindergarten entry assessment (KEA) systems used in public kindergarten programs across the Commonwealth. It is well-established that comprehensive KEAs should be…

This article explores qualitative shadowing as an interpretivist methodology, and explains how two researchers participating simultaneously in data collection using a video recorder, contextual interviews and video-stimulated recall interviews, conducted a qualitative shadowing study at six early childhood centres in Norway. This paper emerged…

Research over the last 15 years has reported that for professional development to be effective, in terms of changing teachers' knowledge and/or instructional strategies, it needs to be conducted taking into consideration the following factors: teachers' existing knowledge, experience and attitudes towards the professional development, school…

Adult education and literacy has never been more valued in Iowa than it is now. Adult Education and Literacy (AEL) empowers individuals to become self-sufficient by providing the basic skills and knowledge necessary to complete a secondary education credential and helps them meet their education and career goals. Nationally, AEL programs serve 1.5…

The purpose of this paper is to address the need for guidance on professional standards for educational practices in online education. Since 1995, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) has provided leadership in the introduction and successful implementation of distance education. During this time, the ASCCC has played a…

In the past, distance education was used as a method to meet the educational needs of citizens with limited options to attend an institution of higher education. Nowadays, it has become irreplaceable in higher education thanks to developments in instructional technology. But the question of why students choose distance education is still…

The article analyzes the positions of foreign and domestic scholars on the problem of developing professional mobility of teachers. It has been stated that today professional mobility is a necessary component of training a skilled worker. It has been indicated that the teacher possesses an appropriate set of competences that provide an opportunity…

The nature of institutions is an important question for the Personal Learning Environment (PLE). Whilst the PLE has tended to focus on what is considered to be "non-institutional" technology like social software, most online tools today have a corporate/institutional foundation. How should educators position themselves with learners who…

Early childhood educators worldwide all strive to improve the quality of care and education for young children through sustainable pathways. One such pathway is professional development (PD). In the United States, ongoing PD has been recognized as critical to enhancing practitioners' professional competence. Situated within the broader context of…