President Obama signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, on December 10, 2015. "Learning Forward's focus in this new law is its improved definition of professional learning," said Stephanie Hirsh, executive director of Learning Forward. "We've long advocated…

Student feedback collected through program evaluation of secondary education licensure and Master's program clinical experiences prompted us to conduct a collective self-study. We used a reflective framework for analysis and discussion of the shifts students in our courses made as they progressed from observers to practicing teachers. Along with…

Professional Development Schools (PDS) were intended to be a comprehensive approach to total-school reform targeted toward the effects of poverty and educational disadvantage. This paper examines the processes and contexts found in PDSs and tests how they might be logically and empirically linked to measurable improvements in achievement. The…

This article summarizes the existing research on social media as a learning tool in higher education and adds to the literature on incorporating social media tools into collegiate business education by suggesting specific course content areas of business where LinkedIn exercises and training can be incorporated. LinkedIn as a classroom tool cannot…

Douglas and Ellis (2011, p. 175) suggest that institutionally universities and schools are required to work with different conceptual tool-kits. Seeking to minimise the potential standoff between academic and practitioner knowledge, and, therefore, to enhance the learning of student teachers, means, they suggest, rethinking both the social…

This paper discusses the characteristics of women discipline supervisors in the Arab education system in Israel, through their professional development to their attainment of senior supervisory posts. It examines how they attain supervision posts and perform various managerial functions in what is considered a male role, in a patriarchal society,…

Fiscal resources are becoming tighter, and school districts are asked to do more with less funding. This is occurring at the same time that school psychologists require increased professional development around effective practices and advocacy for bilingual students. Communities of practice (CoPs) are one potential solution as they aim to bring…

Background: The importance of professional development training for individuals tasked with providing quality early child care is widely accepted. However, research assessing the impact of specific, long-term professional development programs on changes in caregiver behavior is largely absent, as is research about the processes and mechanisms of…

This paper outlines new educational policy initiatives that have been recently introduced to Australian schooling contexts and describes the challenges of providing rich and empowering professional development opportunities for classroom teachers and educational leaders in an era of heightened accountability and change. A framework for large-scale…

The chapter discusses learning that has resulted from selected international professional development experiences.

This action research study was the creation, implementation, and evaluation of an orientation for adjunct faculty members. The study included an adjunct orientation implemented as a form of professional development and inclusion for adjunct faculty members. The adjunct orientation took place at the research site, a large community technical…

The purpose of this study was to identify the instructional coaching activities most used by instructional coaches in southeast Texas school districts and to test if there was a relationship between the use of instructional coaching and perceived improvement in the instructional practices of teachers and student achievement. The participants for…

The U.S. Department of Education required each state to submit a reopening plan outlining how they were using and planned on using Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) conducted an analysis of 37 state plans to better understand if and how schools were prioritizing Tier 1…

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professional societies (ProS) are uniquely positioned to foster national-level diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) reform. ProS serve broad memberships, define disciplinary norms and culture, and inform accrediting bodies, thus providing "excellent leverage with which to design and…

This research targeted the learning preferences, goals and motivations, achievements, challenges, and possibilities for life change of self-directed online learners enrolled in a massive open online course (MOOC) related to online teaching hosted by Blackboard using CourseSites. Data collection included a 40-item survey, of which 159 MOOC…