Refocus Professional Development

Virtual Professional Learning Network: Exploring an Educational Twitter Chat as Professional Development

“…Bhabha argues that hybrid spaces blur the limitations of existing boundaries and allow for the interrogation of the complexities of culture and identity (Bhabha, 1994). In essence, VPLN can act as a third space to deconstruct the traditional structures of schooling, such as conventional professional development, which are known not to be tailored to the specific individual needs of all educators (Sykes, 1996).…”

“…While we recognize the necessity and importance of effective professional development for teachers, research suggests that professional development for teachers historically has been woefully inadequate for meeting its intended goals and teachers' specific professional learning needs (Borko, 2004). Sykes (1996) identified conventional professional development as "the most serious and unsolved problem in policy and practice in American education today" due to the fact that most professional development do not cater to teachers' individual needs (p. 465). The reality is school districts and the federal government invest millions of dollars each year in support of professional development that is fragmented, that does not take into account how teachers learn, and that does not cater to the individual professional needs of teachers (Ball & Cohen, 1999;Borko, 2004).…”

‘Tiny talks’ between colleagues: Brief narratives as mediation in teacher development

“…Growing up with a teacher parent who regularly 'had to' attend in-service days left me with a perception of professional development (PD) as commensurate with what researchers often refer to as 'traditional' approaches (Butler, Lauscher, Jarvis-Selinger, & Beckingham, 2004), namely, pull-out meetings, workshops, and conferences designed for instructors. Participation in options like these results in millions of teachers leaving the classroom in order to complete the minimum number of PD hours required by their states (Hill, 2009;Schmoker, 2012). Because these methods sometimes treat teachers as transport devices to carry new guidance back to classrooms and, once there, to enact it, there has been a push for new approaches to PD which value collaboration and peer reflection (Gersten, Vaughn, Deshler, & Schiller, as cited in Butler et al, 2004).…”

SMART CUREs: a Professional Development Program for Advancing Teaching Assistant Preparedness To Facilitate Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences

“…It has been suggested by Shortlidge et al ( 8 ) that if adequate structural support for CUREs is provided, the challenges to developing and implementing CUREs may be surmountable. We contend that such action is crucial, as it is well-known that quality teaching can enhance student learning and is a key predictor of student success ( 16 – 18 ).…”