This school year, countless teachers are participating in new evaluation systems. Individual teachers working on their own examining evaluation feedback will have valuable information to inform individual improvement. However, teacher evaluations have the potential to achieve more, and to do it more quickly, when they are part of a comprehensive…

Imagine the opportunity to invest in 2 1/2 years of thoughtful and stimulating interaction and learning with colleagues from around the nation and beyond. In 2010, Karla McAdam was the winner of a competitive Learning Forward Foundation scholarship that allowed her to do just that. McAdam, then a district resource reading specialist for Decatur…

Purpose: Several studies have pointed out the importance of work-family enrichment (WFE) for individuals' well-being and organizations and for this reason, it seems important to understand how organizations may promote it. This study attempts to understand the role of organizational resources and, particularly, of opportunities for professional…

University of Wyoming Extension educators are often hired because of their subject matter expertise; yet, they must still develop education skills as well as learn to use various and ever-changing technologies. This research was conducted to understand what impact guided instruction on informal learning concepts and methods had on UW Extension…

The article provides a detailed description of coaching as a form of human development and professional activities. The article was written in the midst of developing professional standards of coaching in the Russian Federation. [This article was translated by Peter Golub.]

The provision of workplace support is central to how and what is and can be learnt at work. Hence, the distribution of those experiences is an important factor in the quality of workplace learning experiences. The study reported and discussed here aims to identify differences in levels of support and opportunities for applying knowledge in…

Professional development workshops enable educators to increase their knowledge in an academic subject. With the publication of The Next Generation Science Standards, teachers are expected to be cognizant in science content and inquiry-based learning. This research study looked at workshops offered by New York Project Learning Tree®, an…

In the autumn term of 2011, it was identified that a programme of support for developing science in the curriculum was required at a newly opened special school, Beacon Reach, in Lancashire, which caters to children with autism spectrum disorders. Staff wanted to provide a relevant and meaningful curriculum, accessible even to young people who…

I am a public elementary teacher currently serving as a school-based supervisor for a Professional Development School (PDS) undergraduate elementary-teacher-education program in Madison, Wisconsin, where our charge is to leverage the intersecting contexts of school, university, and community to prepare skilled and caring teachers for urban…

The literature on doctoral supervision frequently identifies the importance of aligning supervisory style to the particular needs of students. Much of this literature is based on research carried out with students on traditional PhD routes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which the needs of students on professional doctorates…

The impact of teacher observations in alignment with professional development (PD) on teacher efficacy was quantified for 292 schools in 110 districts within 27 U.S. States. Teacher observations conducted by school leaders or designated internal coaches were coordinated with PD offerings aligned with intended teacher improvements. The PD involved…

Recent research on teacher professional development (PD) underscores the importance of the coherence of PD with standards, curriculum, and assessment. Teachers' judgments of the coherence of PD with larger system goals influence their decisions about what ideas and resources they appropriate from PD. Little research, however, has examined how…

National standards for teachers are becoming more common. For newly hired teachers of science (NHTS), these standards have implications for how they are prepared and supported in their early years. In order to guide educators who prepare and study teachers of science and support NHTS, this review examines 30 years of research pertaining to…

Suburban middle schools have been affected by a growing enrollment of English language learners and by the need to demonstrate that this population of students is meeting prescribed academic proficiency benchmarks. These developments necessitate cogent, English learner--focused professional learning across content areas. Using Gee's perspective on…

The Maker Movement has taken the educational field by storm due to its perceived potential as a driver of creativity, excitement, and innovation (Honey & Kanter, [Honey, M., 2013]; Martinez & Stager, [Martin, L., 2013]). Making is promoted as advancing entrepreneurship, developing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)…