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1
Kelly, Jennifer Lynn. "Professional learning communities and professional development." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/42252.
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This case study examines the concept and practice of participating in a professional learning community as a form of professional development by a group of teachers in an interior British Columbia school district. The reflections and discussions of this group of teachers-as-learning community are examined in order to understand how the subjects construct their realities relative to their involvement in a professional learning community. The transcripts from semi-structured interviews of the subjects, which were reflective in nature, were analyzed to determine patterns or themes. As a result, four main themes emerged: benefits of a professional learning community, isolationism, criteria for self-sustaining professional development, and suggestions for improvement.
From the data it became evident there were many perceived benefits to participating in a professional learning community for this group of teachers, each surrounding the main aspect of collaborative learning. Interdependence among the group members was the most significant benefit of this professional development practice. Other beneficial characteristics of this form of professional development included shared leadership, a shared set of ideas and values to strive towards, perturbation-based learning, and continual motivation to develop professionally.
This study has potential educational importance because it informs teachers and administrators about the practice of a group of teachers’ professional learning communities and corroborates their value in professional development. The concept of self-sustaining professional development is also discussed in the final chapter as a query regarding professional learning communities and their implicit value in the long-term.
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Feffer, James F. "Teacher Learning Within Professional Learning Communities." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2015. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/166.
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Professional Learning Community (PLC) structures require focused sessions of teacher collaboration as part of developing effective instructional practices leading to improved student performance outcomes. The PLC structured collaboration model has been implemented in schools across the country, however the current body of research regarding PLC structures has been focused on student performance and rather than the teacher learning processes that occur within the model. Teachers must learn throughout the PLC model, as they collaborate, plan instruction, create assessments, analyze data, and adjust implementation to improve results.
A mixed-methods approach was used to explore correlations between PLC structure ratings and teacher self-identified learning preferences, with Kolb’s (1984) Experiential Learning Theory as the basis for determining learning preferences. The study included 115 elementary teacher participants from a school district that has prioritized PLC structures for nearly 10 years. Significant correlations were identified between PLC structural elements and teacher learning preferences, with qualitative results providing additional descriptive analysis regarding teacher perceptions of their learning within PLCs. The findings within this study indicate that teacher learning preferences may be a key consideration for school site administrators as part of PLC team construction and development.
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McClintock-Comeaux, Patrick. "Building professionals: The intersection of professional learning communities and trust." W&M ScholarWorks, 2014. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539791823.
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The purpose of this study was to quantify individual Professional Learning Communities' (PLCs) consistency with the indicators of PLCs. In addition, the level of trust in the groups was also measured. The correlation between these two sets of data was then, explored to determine the degree to which trust plays a role in PLCs.;The study was conducted in three elementary schools in a suburban school district, called Glennville for the purposes of this study, located in the northeastern United States. Teachers were administered an on-line survey consisting of questions from the Professional Learning Communities Assessment -- Revised (PLCA-R) and from the Faculty Trust Survey.;Within the context studied, the questions from the PLCA-R coalesced around different factors than indicated by the creators of the instrument. In addition, correlations of varying strengths were found between Trust and teachers' perceptions of PLCs . The strongest correlations were observed between faculty trust in clients and teacher perceptions of PLCs.;Further study is warranted to determine if the factor structure of the PLC model is stable in other contexts. Increasing the scope of the study could also add to claims that analysis of trust may be a method to connect PLC usage with student achievement.
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Greer, Janet Agnes. "Professional Learning and Collaboration." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/26463.
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The American education system must utilize collaboration to meet the challenges and demands our culture poses for schools. Deeply rooted processes and structures favor teaching and learning in isolation and hinder the shift to a more collaborative paradigm. Professional learning communities (PLCs) support continuous teacher learning, improved efficacy, and program implementation. The PLC provides the framework for the development and enhancement of teacher collaboration and teacher collaboration develops and sustains the PLC. The interpersonal factors that influence collaboration make it difficult to implement and preclude the use of any systematic directions to develop a PLC successfully. However, research has identified emerging strategies that could guide the development of collaborative cultures for school improvement. The researcher designed this case study to describe collaboration in the PLC of an elementary school. The study focuses on collaborative behaviors, perceptions, influences, barriers, and strategies present in the school. The researcher utilized the Professional Learning Community Organizer (Hipp & Huffman, 2010) in the analysis of the data. Hipp, Huffman and others continued the research started by Hord (1990) and identified PLC dimensions and behaviors associated with those dimensions. The PLCO included behaviors aligned with the initiating, implementing, and sustaining phases of each dimension of a PLC. Structure and process, trust and accountability, and empowerment emerged as important themes in the observed PLC. The sequential path to teacher empowerment began with the development of structure and process. Teachers developed trust in each other by demonstrating accountability required by those structures and processes. Trust provided opportunities for risk taking and leadership to emerge. The teachers and administrators demonstrated their commitment
to the vision and worked collaboratively for the learning success of all students. The data provided evidence of administrators and teachers making decisions to solve problems and improve instruction based on the vision. The PLC of the elementary school observed demonstrated development at the implementing and sustaining levels. The teachers and administrators worked collaboratively over time to improve teacher practice resulting in improved student learning. The opportunity to utilize the PLC for continuous growth by challenging the new norms and embracing risk taking remains.Ed. D.
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Kennedy, Jamie L. "Learning In Professional Orchestras." Thesis, Griffith University, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/397593.
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This dissertation presents, discusses, and advances findings and contributions from an investigation into how professional orchestral musicians learn as they engage in their work together. Understanding the processes, demands, and consequences of orchestral work is important for informing the practices of professional and aspiring orchestral musicians, orchestral organisations, and educational institutions. Musicians’ well-being and the longevity of their working lives are of particular concern for this community. Learning and development are identified as important factors in understanding individuals’ vocational practices and how they work together. It follows that the conceptual framework of this investigation focuses on microgenetic learning and ontogenetic development to elaborate how intersubjectivity arises as musicians engage together in and learn through orchestral practices. Intersubjectivity refers here to the shared understandings of self and activity that arise from interaction with others, changing and developing with continued participation. From a sociocultural perspective, learning refers to microgenetic changes in individuals’ understanding and practice, while development lies within ontogenetic changes in their knowledge and abilities. As individuals engage together in activities, their learning and developmental processes contribute to a gradually emerging intersubjectivity, that is, shared understandings of what they know, can do, and value. To address the concerns raised regarding musicians’ ongoing practices, this investigation aims to describe and explain what intersubjectivity and engagement look like in orchestral performance. It also aims to comprehend how learning and development occur within this engagement.
To investigate learning and development in orchestral performance, an ethnographic inquiry was conducted to generate an account of how a small sample population of orchestral musicians engaged with and experienced their working environment. The study involved observations and interactions with 6 members of an Australian professional symphony orchestra over a 12-month period. The participants’ selection targeted a range of ages, gender, instrument type, and level of seniority in the orchestra.
Within the findings, five processes of engagement were identified through which intersubjectivity was constituted. These comprise (a) awareness, (b) communication, (c) evaluation of performance, (d) acting like a professional orchestral musician, and (e) the formation of playing intentions. These processes are advanced to contribute to a metaprocess of rehearsal, that is, the personal and interpersonal process of progressively reconstituting musical performance towards a shared ideal. New descriptions and evidence of how the musicians in this study engaged in orchestral performance are contributed, including descriptions and explanations of how trust and humour facilitated communication about performance.
Through these processes of engagement, the participants’ daily interactions in orchestral performance became sites of microgenetic learning processes in three distinct ways. First, the temporal conditions of rehearsals and performances imposed a nonlinear but directional pattern on how performance knowledge changed. Second, spatial awareness was a highly important organising factor in the musicians’ knowledge of performance within the orchestra. It is proposed here that the sensory ethnography term “emplacement” might be useful for describing the connections between musicians’ activity, perceptions, and environments. Third, these temporal and spatial aspects of the musicians’ knowledge combined as they co-created a performance environment together, within which they progressively advanced their performance practices.
Patterns and possibilities in the musicians’ ontogenetic development were identified through how they presented and construed their personal histories relating to performance. They selected past instances of microgenetic learning to illuminate and explain their current abilities, attitudes, and approaches to orchestral performance. The musicians were also capable of presenting positive or negative narratives of their development, frequently corresponding with their level of satisfaction with current environments or appraisals of performance. Positive developmental narratives used experiences of injury, difficulties in gaining membership in the orchestra, and the stresses associated with surveillance and critique to explain a growing ability to cope with challenges and to perform effectively with colleagues. Conversely, negative developmental narratives explained these experiences as being injurious to their ability to meet challenges or to perform at their best. It is advanced that how musicians engage with positive and negative developmental narratives may impact on their perception of their ability to sustain their working practices into the future.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School Educ & Professional St
Arts, Education and Law
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Coldwell, Michael. "Professional learning and professional careers : theory, evaluation and practice." Thesis, Sheffield Hallam University, 2018. http://shura.shu.ac.uk/21924/.
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This thesis uses a set of theoretically informed approaches to understand aspects of the professional careers, development and practices of teachers, addressing three questions in particular. Firstly, how can models, and other theorisations, help illuminate the influence of professional development and practice on a range of outcomes? Secondly, how can focussing on the situated nature of professional practice and initiatives improve understanding of professional learning and practices? Thirdly what new empirical research evidence can the approaches described in the first two research questions produce in relation to professional learning and wider professional practice? It does so via a set of eight papers published over eleven years, drawing on seven mainly mixed methods studies conducted over a six year period. In relation to the first research question, the papers use realist understandings of the social world to build a set of path and level models of professional development alongside critiques of these and other models. Additionally, they provide theoretical constructs to support understanding of professional practice, in particular boundary theory and career constructs. In relation to the second, the papers develop a set of features of context which are missing from earlier accounts, indicating that the context for programmes and change processes can be: dynamic, rather than static; agentic, acting causally not just as a backdrop; relational, operating at different points and in concert with or against other contextual factors; historically located; complex and systemic. Finally, relating to the third question, the papers cover a wide range of studies; however, all focus on the relationship between outcomes and change processes in situ, and in particular the various relationships between the programme or change process; individual teachers or leaders; the organisations within which they work; and wider political and other contexts. The findings link to and illuminate aspects of these relationships.
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Kingery, Linda S. "Understanding E-Learning as Professional Development for Rural Child Welfare Professionals." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/4928.
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Ongoing professional development is an integral part of a child welfare agency's strategy toward the provision of services to children and families involved with a child welfare intervention. Electronic learning (E-Learning) is popular as a fiscally responsible and flexible way to deliver such trainings. There is a gap in the research addressing the problem of how child welfare professionals are motivated to engage in the E-learning process. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of child welfare professionals regarding their motivation to use an agency provided E-learning program. Eight child welfare professionals employed by a Midwestern private child welfare agency participated in semi-structured interviews, which were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. A pattern matching logic model was used to extrapolate relevant themes. The themes from this study were that work environment, irrelevance of content, and emotional aspects of child welfare work were barriers to engaging in E-learning during a work day. The implications for positive social change are that using E-learning as a delivery system for training in child welfare needs to be combined with a concerted effort to develop programs that first consider the work environment of the child welfare professional and the relevance of content. Providing more effective training is expected to result in better trained workers, which leads to more effective child welfare interventions. More effective child welfare interventions are needed to resolve the current crisis within the field of child welfare, which protects one of society's most vulnerable populations.
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Aman, Amira. "Mentoring : professional learning in a quality learning circle." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Education, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/9743.
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There is a wealth of literature on the induction and support of provisionally registered teachers (Boreen, 2009; Bubb, 2007; Cameron, Lovett, & Garvey Berger, 2007) and the key skills of mentoring (Achinstein & Athanases, 2006; Glickman, 2002). However literature on how to meet the professional learning needs of curriculum leaders developing their mentoring skill set has largely been ignored in leadership literature. This study, informed by MacBeath and Dempster’s (2009)concept of ‘leadership for learning’, upholds the need for leadership work to focus on the improvement of student outcomes (Barber & Fullan, 2005) rather than traditional approaches to education which focussed on making resources available to students. In an outcomes-focussed model of education, the needs of the students are at the forefront of all learning. By focussing on teachers’ professional learning through mentoring and the use of a teacher inquiry model, the students’ learning needs are prioritised.
The focus for my study is the skillset of curriculum leaders for their work with teachers within their learning areas. The participants for this study were five curriculum leaders, all from the same secondary school. This intervention study investigated the factors which contributed to the professional learning of the mentors, their views of their leadership role and the kinds of learning about mentoring which were beneficial to understandings about mentoring. By focussing on key adult learning principles, structures that support learning, and attention to a mentoring skill set, the participants were supported to develop their mentoring skills. The mentors participated in a professional learning experience, referred to as a Quality Learning Circle (QLC), over one and a half school terms, to co-construct their understanding of mentoring practice. In a QLC the focus is on the learners seeking and making changes to their practice in a collaborative, supportive environment (Lovett & Verstappen, 2003).
The mentors collaboratively developed new understandings through deliberate talk in the QLC about their shared interest in mentoring. They also had opportunities for immediate and practical application of their new knowledge. While they participated in the QLC they co-currently developed their mentoring skills by working with a mentee who taught in the same subject area as themselves.
This study features a qualitative methodology with an interpretive case study of experienced curriculum leaders. Data collection tools included a gap analysis survey which explored their understandings of their school’s current professional learning opportunities. A second data source was a career questionnaire which explored their teaching history and experiences of professional learning. This was followed by initial interviews which focussed on how they interpreted their role of a curriculum leader and the extent they could connect leadership with students’ learning. I also analysed transcripts of QLC meetings, and the teachers’ reflective journals. Four of the mentors worked with a provisionally registered teacher (PRT), while one mentor chose to work with a more experienced colleague.
This study offered a new type of collegial interaction for the teachers. The mentors chose their own goals, a mentee to work alongside and the direction of their learning about mentoring. The QLC met five times during the study and the mentors and participant researcher (PR) also kept a reflective journal. In between the QLC sessions the mentors met with their mentees to practise their mentoring skills, such as questioning skills, and the use of observational tools for classroom observations. A typical QLC session focussed on each of the mentors talking about the mentoring practice they had undertaken. The group provided support and guidance on possible next steps of practice. Readings and practical resources were also discussed and there was an expectation that the mentors would practice an aspect of mentoring and report back to the group at the next meeting. At the close of the study the mentors were re-interviewed to compare their views of their leadership role and learning from their initial interviews. An iterative process was used so that emerging understandings of the data could arise. The data is presented according to the three broad themes of ‘effective professional learning’, ‘leadership role’ and ‘professional learning about mentoring’.
The findings of this study highlight the importance of collaborative learning opportunities for teachers where they can state and resolve practical issues in a supportive group (Cochran-Smith, Feiman-Nemser, McIntyre, & Association of Teacher Educators., 2008). Among all of the findings there were four major findings about the development of curriculum leaders’ mentoring skills: the value of opportunities for deliberate talk, the importance of teacher agency, the need for specific tools in developing mentoring practice, and the necessity of understanding the curriculum leaders’ leadership role.
My detailed account of the experiences of the five curriculum leaders offers a practical example of what the development of curriculum leaders’ understandings of mentoring might look like. This study serves to highlight the challenges for schools to provide support for teachers wanting to take responsibility for their own professional learning. In the absence of any formalised leadership professional learning about mentoring for curriculum leaders, this study proved to be a useful study to demonstrate the potential of the QLC approach to support curriculum leaders in their understandings and practice of mentoring. The key findings of this study validate the need for further research on what is needed for effective mentoring to be an integral part of every school.
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Skyring, Carol A. "Learning in 140 characters : microblogging for professional learning." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2014. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/65854/1/Carol_Skyring_Thesis.pdf.
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This thesis investigated how microblogging, a form of online social networking, was being employed by educators to support their professional learning. The study found that educators who participate in microblogging engage in a wide range of behaviours, with certain behaviours and activities commonly exhibited. An advantage of microblogging as a professional learning tool is its ability to link educators globally to exchange ideas from different perspectives and to share resources and teaching practices. Educators who microblog have access to relevant and timely learning that is not constrained by time or distance and can be tailored to meet their individual needs.
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Clarke, Jennifer Ann. "Principals' processes of professional learning." University of Southern Queensland, Faculty of Education, 2004. http://eprints.usq.edu.au/archive/00001416/.
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When a school community decides to implement innovative curricula, the responsibility for leadership of the associated professional learning processes lies with the principal. The onus is on principals to be leader learners. They adapt their leadership style to the context of the school. They encourage learning as a future-oriented, organisation-wide process. They encourage deep learning, and double-loop learning, and they nurture a culture of collaborative learning. They provide practical support for teacher leadership and teacher learning, and they understand that teachers have differing needs for support during a period of significant curriculum change. The research methodology used for this study involved a multiple case study design. Principals and staff from three Queensland state schools who participated in the trial of innovative curricula provided the data for the three case studies. The data collection at three schools related to the processes of professional learning at each site. Interviews conducted with the participants at each school, and observation of meetings and school documentation, provided the researcher with the data to develop a framework for principals who are interested in creating a professional learning community. Data collected from the schools generally supported the findings of the theorists. However, analysis of the data provided more detailed information than is currently available in the literature to inform the establishment of professional learning processes. Analysis of the data indicated that professional learning can be classified according to four themes: personal learning, leadership-related learning, learning related to innovation, and learning related to processes that support a collaborative culture. The findings from the literature review and the findings from the case studies were used to construct a framework for professional learning for principals who wish to create a learning organisation. The framework provides a foundation for professional learning programs for principals, and could be used by a range of people or groups, including district office personnel, professional associations, and networks of principals and aspiring leaders.
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Robinson, Rachel. "Professional conversations : Spaces for learning." Thesis, Open University, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.533119.
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Brennan, Amy R. "Reconceptualizing Teacher Professional Development as Professional Learning: A Qualitative Case Study of a School-Supported Self-Directed Professional Learning Model." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1623956218485476.
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Oddone, Kay. "Teachers' experience of professional learning through personal learning networks." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2019. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/127928/1/Kay_Oddone_Thesis.pdf.
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There is an urgent need to improve continuing professional learning for teachers as education becomes increasingly complex. Traditional models of professional development are often fragmented, discrete events, disconnected from teachers' practice and perceived as empty measures of compliance. There is limited research that investigates alternative professional learning approaches that leverage online social technologies and involve teacher agency, collaboration and active participation. Therefore, this research explores teachers' experience of professional learning through personal learning networks (PLNs). The findings have supported the development of a new model of learning as a connected professional, which makes a significant contribution to theory and practice in the emerging field of professional networks and learning, enabled through the affordances of social technologies.
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Porter, Lauren. "Identifying Factors Associated with Attendance of Professional Development for Early Childhood Professionals: Evidence from a Statewide Rollout of Online Professional Development." The Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1503302413050821.
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Sheffield, Rachel. "Facilitating teacher professional learning : analysing the impact of an Australian professional learning model in secondary science." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2004. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/811.
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In education, innovations are frequently introduced to promote changes to the curriculum, teachers' practice, and the classroom environment, however, these initiatives are often implemented without sufficient evaluation to monitor their impact and effectiveness in bringing about the desired changes. This thesis analyses the impact of a teacher professional learning program on lower secondary science teachers' practice. It examines the relationship between teachers' concerns about the strategies incorporated in the Collaborative Australian Secondary Science Program (CASSP) and teachers' ability to understand the strategies, on their ability to utilise those strategies in the classroom. It also seeks to determine teachers' beliefs about their current science teaching practice and how this is different from their beliefs about ideal science teaching, and also, how these beliefs direct teachers’ classroom practice. Finally this study describes a number of primary and secondary factors found to impact on teachers' professional learning. 11tc CASSP model encapsulates the primary factors of curriculum exemplars (curriculum resources), explanation und modelling (professional development), and reflection (participative inquiry). The secondary factors include ensuring adequate time for change to occur, student support and participation, peer teacher support, support from lenders including-heads of department, support from the school administration and support from state education officers. This study has demonstrated that teachers’ professional learning is a complex process that is strongly influenced by teachers' beliefs, concerns and understandings, and is impacted by the primary and secondary factors identified by the research. Teachers must be able to envision the advantages of incorporating new strategies into their existing practice, and consequently seek to make these changes to their teaching. This study has shown that students are also an important influence the implementation of an innovation, without their support, teachers are unlikely to make successful changes to their teaching practice. lmplications of the research include the need to elaborate the CASSP professional learning model to include the secondary factors identified in the study, and the need to inform students about innovations so that they can see the benefits for them in terms of improved learning outcomes.
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Lindsay, Hilary Frances. "Patterns of learning in the accountancy profession : the roles of continuing professional development and lifelong learning." Thesis, Open University, 2013. http://oro.open.ac.uk/43595/.
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This thesis explores the roles of CPD and lifelong learning for accountants today. Accountants are experiencing more career transitions and learning is an increasingly vital element in the ever changing environment. The research findings will be used to help accountants learn more effectively throughout their careers. Since 2005, member bodies of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) have been required to implement mandatory continuing professional development (CPD) schemes and to ‘foster a commitment to lifelong learning’ (IFAC, 2004a, p.1). In this new context this research with members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) explores the roles of CPD and lifelong learning, so contributing to both the CPD and lifelong learning research agendas. The research looks at how accountants perceive and describe their learning activities and experiences using a mixed methods approach involving an initial large-scale survey, exploring learning in one context, followed by in-depth interviews which look at learning across a career. Two conceptual frameworks, developed during the literature review, underpin the research. These are based on a model developed by Illeris (2009) and incorporate the cognitive, interpersonal and intrapersonal dimensions of learning. Other key concepts referred to throughout the research include identity, agency, engagement, affordance and the metaphors of learning as acquisition, learning as participation and learning as becoming. The patterns of learning varied according to the roles, sectors, career stages and gender of accountants. The need for career adaptability (Bimrose et al., 2011) emerged from the research and was added to professional competence to produce a new learning model, the professional learning iceberg. It is proposed that ‘learning relating to professional competence’ and ‘learning relating to career adaptability’ are more meaningful concepts than ‘CPD’ and ‘lifelong learning’ to describe the learning needed to succeed in the accountancy profession in the twenty-first century.
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Brodie, Karin. "Professional Learning Communities And Teacher Change." Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2012. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-82361.
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Trodd, Lyn. "Professional learning for Children's Centre leaders." Thesis, University of Hertfordshire, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2299/10430.
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This thesis investigates the experiences of Children’s Centre leaders of the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) who find themselves in a newly developed role and lacking a professional identity. Its aim is to explore the developing professional identities of NPQICL participants from their own perspectives, focusing on ways in which their professional identities are developing and how, correspondingly, these might be better supported on the NPQICL. Clarification of core ideas embedded in these aims theoretically and conceptually reveals that professions are publicly shaped in line with established traditions, and therefore often prescribed. Processes of professional development are correspondingly seen as largely publicly organised processes of professional learning and/or acculturation. However, a key area for research is the interface between publicly shaped expectations of those learning to be professionals and the particular needs and expectations of course participants themselves especially with regard to how they see themselves as Children’s Centre leaders. Because this area is fluid, uncertain and shaped partly by professionals themselves it is hard to investigate. A flexible Adaptive Theory research design is selected along with an array of conceptual tools (orienting concepts and a conceptual cluster) which can be modified, discarded or replaced according to the demands of data collected. Using a relatively open-ended data collection device also allows a wide range of potentially revealing data to be ‘storied’ for analysis in order to preserve their individualised nature. Although a process of subjective self-conceptualisation in role can be used to explain how NPQICL participants adapt to expectations from the wider professional community and social context, there is a need to explain how public influences and individual co-constructions of professional identity shaped by professionals themselves are synthesised in individual responses to fluid, uncertain professional identities. The research aims are met by modelling the process of developing a professional identity on the NPQICL as an ‘autobiography’. This conceptual device brings together public and individual influences into a synthesis and allows insight into the experiences of individuals. It explains some of the success of the NPQICL course and some of its dynamics including how the development of Children’s Centre leaders’ identities can be supported in a professional learning programme.
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Lloyd, Sam. "Experiential learning in professional Rugby Union." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2013. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/14982.
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The aim of this thesis was to understand the role played by experiential learning in professional Rugby Union. Furthermore, to understand how performance information is utilised by coaches and athletes in every day practice. The thesis employed an ethnographic research method, utilising extensive participant observation, interviews, and document analysis. The thesis draws significantly on the theoretical tools of Scho??n, Bourdieu and Foucault. The key results and findings were that coaches used performance related information as a technology of self , and inculcated a hegemonic ideology. Furthermore, power relations were found and manifested inside the coach / athlete relation that reinforced the coaches spatial and temporal dominance. These dominant power relations were legitimised through the omnipresent ideology, and thus reproduced by the players and coaches. While evidence of experiential learning was documented, particularly with the academy players, the social location of practice marginalised the value of experiential learning in the coaching process. This was because performance information and the use of video based reflection were consistently used as tools of coaching authority, discipline and symbolic violence.
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Gillespie, Kelly P. "Leadership to sustain Professional Learning Communities." ScholarWorks, 2010. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/725.
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Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have shown promise as a means to meet the challenge of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. A problem that has surfaced is the inabilty of schools to sustain PLCs. This project study examined leadership characteristics of elementary school principals in selected school districts to determine how these characteristics shape organizational culture and provide support for sustaining professional learning communities. At the center of this initiative have been the school principals and their leadership skills. The theoretical underpinnings of this study were based on the work of DuFour and DuFour, which places leadership of the principal at the forefront of successful school improvement. A mixed-methods approach with a sequential-transformative strategy was used. Quantitative data were collected by administering the Leadership Capacity School Survey to 30 elementary principals. Descriptive statistics were used to determine which of Lambert's six critical constructs were most and least commonly practiced among the schools in the study. Qualitative data gathered through a focus-group discussion were analyzed through the typological process. Quantitative and qualitative findings indicated that broad-based, skillful participation in the work of leadership (Construct 1) was the most important leadership construct to the success of sustaining PLCs. The outcome of this project study was a professional-development model that will provide knowledge and understanding of the key leadership elements needed to develop an environment for sustaining PLCs. The potential social impact of this study includes improved student achievement as a result of improved leadership by principals.
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Kolosey, Connie. "Assist Principals' Perspectives on Professional Learning Conversations for Teacher Professional Growth." Scholar Commons, 2011. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3188.
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The purpose of this study was to discover, document, and describe the salient actions, events, beliefs, attitudes, social structures and processes related to professional learning conversations from the perspective of nine assistant principals (APs). The participants were elementary, middle and high school APs, three at each level. Using a modified critical incident technique through participant written response and two in depth interviews with each respondent, this study investigated the lived experiences of these APs related to the practice of professional learning conversations in their schools. The research questions focused on: (1) the participants' beliefs and attitudes about professional learning conversations, (2) their roles in facilitating these conversations, (3) their ability to identify elements of trust within the groups of teachers with whom they work and (4) their roles in building trust.
The research literature is clear that teacher collaboration is a key factor in professional growth and self-efficacy, yet often the structure of the school day, a negative emotional environment, and a culture of teacher isolation prohibit meaningful teacher collaboration. Although faced with many obligations and directives, school administrators have considerable influence over the organizational structure within their individual schools. Furthermore, assistant principals often become the face of administration within their schools as they directly supervise teachers and APs are less studied than students, teacher or principals. How these individuals perceive and value professional learning conversations will likely impact the level of collaboration at their individual schools.
The findings of this study indicate that professional learning conversations for teacher growth were more prevalent at the elementary school level, that trust may be more difficult to cultivate at the middle and high schools, and that protocols as structures for facilitating conversations and building trust were not widely in use. A better understanding of the opportunities and barriers schools face related to professional learning conversations as well as a better understanding of the dynamics of trust will assist district and school administrators to engage in a problem solving process for better collaboration. Ultimately, administrators have an opportunity and a responsibility to touch the hearts and minds of the individuals on the front line of the work - the teachers in the classrooms working with students. Without teacher confidence, hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficacy, no amount of financial incentive, cajoling, or sanction will improve student learning.
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Evans, Peter John. "The precarious realities of professional learning : an analysis of professional chat events on Twitter." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/25911.
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Distributed online discussion events in social media are increasingly used as sites for open, informal professional development, knowledge sharing and community formation. Synchronous chat events hosted on Twitter have become particularly prominent in a number of professional domains. Yet theoretical and critical analysis of these Twitter chat events has, to date, been limited: this thesis contributes to the development of such analysis through a socio-material, network assemblage lens employing trans-disciplinary and multi-method research approaches. This research positions the Twitter chat events as the relational effects of network-assemblages of human and non-human actants. This thesis explores Twitter chat events with a particular focus on human resource development (HRD) as a professional domain that is widely seen as inherently changeable, fluid, contested and continually emergent. This study examines how practitioner-generated reportage of professional practice interact with the specific functions of Twitter to generate definitions of HRD as a professional field of practice. A combination of descriptive statistics, Social Network Analysis and analysis of the content and structure of the Chat events has been employed in researching 32 separate chat events with 12,061 tweets. The research methods generated multiple readings of the research data and surfaced different and fluid potential lines of enquiry in to the Twitter chat events. A number of these potential lines of enquiry were then selected as points of entry to ‘zoom in’ to the data using a Critical Discourse Analysis for a smaller sample of the chat events. The assemblages of the chat events are collective achievements involving human and non-human actants. The collective effects surfaced in the research problematise (a) the notion of online communities as the product of network ties and (b) the humanist orientations of much of the literature on professional learning. Within the Twitter chat events, HRD is constructed as a profession in crisis as the traditional bases of professional identity are eroded. The practitioners participating in these events position HRD as increasingly less relevant to its constituent audiences, clients and customers and as locked into organisational assemblages that cut-off the potential for new trajectories for the field to emerge. The chat events normalise technological and societal imperatives that create work intensification, demand committed lifelong learners and venerate precarious relations of employment. Hence, the domain of HRD is enacted as subservient to a new-capitalist discourse that emphasises adaptability, innovation and speed. A key finding of the research is that, in response to these challenges, the Twitter chat events seek to generate an idealised archetype of HRD bounded by a stable set of dominant practices. These practices emphasise the importance of self-directed learning, autonomous working and the capacities to cope with continuous change. Learning and development is positioned as the responsibility of the individual to enhance their employability within increasingly competitive labour markets. Thus, the idealised archetype of HRD is aligned with conceptualisations of a global post-industrial capitalism and with a notion of ‘enterprising selfhood’.
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McLachlan, Benita. "Learning for excellence : professional learning for learning support assistants within further education." Thesis, Anglia Ruskin University, 2012. http://arro.anglia.ac.uk/297145/.
Full textAbstract:
The 1980s saw an increase in learning support assistants (LSAs’) in colleges for further education to support post-sixteen learners with learning difficulties and disabilities (LDD). LSAs’ were appointed on an ad hoc basis with little or no experience, or relevant qualifications to deliver support in ‘inclusive’ vocational classrooms. The Workforce Development Plan in 2004 acknowledged this phenomenon and advocated that occupational standards be developed. Two years later, in October 2006, the first National Occupational Standards (NOS) for college LSAs was launched but it did not include an official training framework for their professional learning and although there are some training structures in place, this still remains the case today. Learners with LDD are, therefore, still supported by untrained LSAs’ who are not professionally equipped to deal with the particular challenges they present. Educators like myself who work alongside LSAs’ in colleges, must seek to naturalistically explore professional learning opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills. Such professional learning opportunities should reflect the creative and dynamic contribution college LSAs’ bring to inclusive classrooms and, thereby, not only improve the quality of the support LSAs’ give but the overall integrative, ethical and non-discriminative ethos of a college. With this knowledge, I developed and implemented an Enhanced Learning Support Assistant Programme (ELSAP) for the professional learning of volunteer LSA participants with the aim of improving their knowledge and skills to deliver a more meaningful education for postsixteen learners with LDD. For the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, professional learning for LSAs’ needs to occur systemically over time and be integrated within the multilayered context of a college to allow dynamic and reciprocal influences to make transformative connections. Critically, my action research study strengthens the connection between socio-political theory and practice within the sociology of disability education on moral, ethical and human rights grounds.
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McLachlan, Benita. "Learning for Excellence: Professional learning for learning support assistants within further education." Thesis, Anglia Ruskin University, 2012. https://arro.anglia.ac.uk/id/eprint/297145/6/McLachlan_2012.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
The 1980s saw an increase in learning support assistants (LSAs’) in colleges for further
education to support post-sixteen learners with learning difficulties and disabilities (LDD).
LSAs’ were appointed on an ad hoc basis with little or no experience, or relevant
qualifications to deliver support in ‘inclusive’ vocational classrooms. The Workforce
Development Plan in 2004 acknowledged this phenomenon and advocated that occupational
standards be developed. Two years later, in October 2006, the first National Occupational
Standards (NOS) for college LSAs was launched but it did not include an official training
framework for their professional learning and although there are some training structures in
place, this still remains the case today.
Learners with LDD are, therefore, still supported by untrained LSAs’ who are not
professionally equipped to deal with the particular challenges they present. Educators like
myself who work alongside LSAs’ in colleges, must seek to naturalistically explore
professional learning opportunities to enhance their knowledge and skills. Such professional
learning opportunities should reflect the creative and dynamic contribution college LSAs’
bring to inclusive classrooms and, thereby, not only improve the quality of the support LSAs’
give but the overall integrative, ethical and non-discriminative ethos of a college. With this
knowledge, I developed and implemented an Enhanced Learning Support Assistant
Programme (ELSAP) for the professional learning of volunteer LSA participants with the aim
of improving their knowledge and skills to deliver a more meaningful education for postsixteen
learners with LDD. For the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, professional
learning for LSAs’ needs to occur systemically over time and be integrated within the multilayered
context of a college to allow dynamic and reciprocal influences to make
transformative connections. Critically, my action research study strengthens the connection
between socio-political theory and practice within the sociology of disability education on
moral, ethical and human rights grounds.
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Bush, Nicole Lea. "The evolution of a professional learning community in a professional development school." Ashland University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ashland1458523042.
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Jones, Gail, Grant E. Gardner, Laura Robertson, and Sarah Robert. "Science Professional Learning Communities: Beyond a Singular View of Teacher Professional Development." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2013. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/764.
Full textAbstract:
Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are frequently being used as a vehicle to transform science education. This study explored elementary teachers' perceptions about the impact of participating in a science PLC on their own professional development. With the use of The Science Professional Learning Communities Survey and a semi-structured interview protocol, elementary teachers' perceptions of the goals of science PLCs, the constraints and benefits of participation in PLCs, and reported differences in the impact of PLC participation on novice and experienced teachers were examined. Sixty-five elementary teachers who participated in a science PLC were surveyed about their experiences, and a subsample of 16 teachers was interviewed. Results showed that most of the teachers reported their science PLC emphasized sharing ideas with other teachers as well as working to improve students' science standardized test scores. Teachers noted that the PLCs had impacted their science assessment practices as well as their lesson planning. However, a majority of the participants reported a differential impact of PLCs depending on a teacher's level of experience. PLCs were reported as being more beneficial to new teachers than experienced teachers. The interview results demonstrated that there were often competing goals and in some cases a loss of autonomy in planning science lessons. A significant concern was the impact of problematic interpersonal relationships and communication styles on the group functioning. The role of the PLC in addressing issues related to obtaining science resources and enhancing science content knowledge for elementary science teachers is discussed.
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Ridley, Natasha Nichole. "Teachers' Perceptions of the English Learner Professional Learning Plan Professional Development Course." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7894.
Full textAbstract:
For 4 years, a northern local district in Virginia conducted an intensive staff training on
English language learner (ELL) instruction to settle a United States Department of Justice complaint. The local problem was that ongoing professional development to build teachers' instructional skills has not significantly resulted in ELL students' academic improvement. The purpose of this study was to explore and investigate teachers' perceptions of the mandated English learner Professional Learning Plan Professional Development to help address the instructional needs of ELLs. Guskey's characteristics of effective professional development and Bandura's self-efficacy theory provide the conceptual framework for the study. The research questions were designed to examine teachers' perceptions of the needs and influence of professional development for teachers of ELLs. A case study design was used to capture the insights of 5 elementary school teachers through semistructured interviews; a purposeful sampling process was used to select the participants. Emergent themes were identified through open coding, and the findings were developed and checked for trustworthiness through member checking, rich descriptions, and researcher reflexivity. The findings revealed that teachers recognize the need for increased preparedness, instruction informed by colleagues and team support, and on-going professional development. A professional development project was created to provide coteaching and co-planning instructional strategies for teachers to increase their knowledge and skills to instruct ELLs. This study has implications for positive social change by offering strategies and approaches for improving ELL classroom instructional practices.
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Basiel, Anthony. "ePedagogy for virtual learning environments : professional doctorate." Thesis, Middlesex University, 2006. http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/2536/.
Full textAbstract:
Three projects were conducted to generate data to validate the eLearning theories, models and pedagogical design principles[1] offered in the concluding chapter. Through this study the overall research question addressed is: ‘How can the learning process (a virtual learning environment event) be facilitated and supported through the research and development of web-based technology that is appropriately matched to eLearning pedagogy and online epistemology?’ The projects discussed are: Project 1: Educational Web-based Video Conferencing - This study aims to answer the question, ‘How can web-based video conferencing and related tool sets (white boards, shared desktop, text chat, recording utility, etc.) be pedagogically designed appropriately and applied to a virtual research environment (VRE) context to address the collaborative and support needs of trans-disciplinary (across subjects and levels) work based learning practitioner researchers? Project 2: eLearning Teaching Templates – This study will answer the research question, “How can eLearning model templates be used to promote the online teaching/learning process?” Project 3: VLE Denouement Profile methodology and Toolkit - The research question, ‘How can a common understanding of VLE design and implementation between the NCWBLP stakeholders be facilitated and supported?’ is addressed.
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Hamilton, Jan L. "Professional learning communities impact on student achievement." Thesis, Saint Mary's College of California, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3568312.
Full textAbstract:
This study examined the impact of the Professional Learning Community model on student achievement in the state of California. Specifically, the study compared student achievement between two school types: Professional Learning Community schools and Non Professional Learning schools. The research utilized existing API scores for California schools compiled by the California Department of Education for the 2007–2008 school year. The Academic Performance Index (API) scores for 136 schools districts in the study was retrieved and examined along with the following additional data: English-language learner, special education status, ethnicity (African American, Hispanic–Latino), and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Academic Performance Index (API) is a yearly state performance measure was downloaded for all schools partaking in this study. Elementary, middle and high schools API scores were compared along with specific subgroups: Hispanic, English Learner, African American, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and special education students. Results indicate that Hispanic and English Learner sub groups at the Elementary and Middle school level for Professional Learning Community Schools academic achievement was significant. At the high school level Hispanic and English language Learner sub groups academic achievement was significant for the Non Professional Learning Community schools.
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Iphofen, Ron. "Effective learning in health care professional education." Thesis, Bangor University, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.327463.
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Ma, Xiuli, and 马秀丽. "Student teachers' professional learning in teaching practicum." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2012. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B48329411.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis reports on an ethnographic inquiry into student teachers’ professional learning and development in a four-month practicum, during which no mentor is present. The subject background is Teaching Chinese as a Second Language (TCSL) in mainland China. This study draws on a variety of theories, such as Wenger’s social learning theory, Brookfield’s significant personal learning theory, Fuller’s teacher concern theory and Ghaye’s reflection hierarchy model, to conceptualize a theoretical framework to interpret collected data. The research involves two phases, i.e., the pilot and main study, each of which includes three participants. This thesis mainly reports the three cases in the main phase, with a brief account of the pilot phase. The methodological orientation of this research is naturalistic inquiry, which involves multiple data collection methods, such as student teachers’ reflective journals, individual and group interviews, lesson observations, documentary analysis, field notes and email correspondence, of which reflective journals are the main data source.
The findings suggest that the student teachers are highly self-reliant in undertaking professional learning when no mentors are present. Very little participation in the professional community has been identified in all of the six cases, which is presumably attributed to the no mentorship context. Student teachers who possess a strong passion for teaching make attempts to expand their professional communities at the initial stage of the practicum; however, they are demotivated when their attempts fail. They thereafter have to rely on their own initiative by drawing on their prior teaching experiences or other resources available in their personal communities. Those who are not passionate about teaching do not take the initiative to widen their professional communities and make no changes throughout the practicum.
The results also indicate that the student teachers suffer extreme anxiety, often for the whole practicum period. They are tormented by self-doubt and panic about the uncertainties and emergencies in teaching. They show great concern for “self” throughout the practicum and rarely demonstrate concern for “tasks”, “teaching performance” or “learners”. Their concern for survival predominates the whole practicum. The student teachers’ reflections as revealed in their teaching journals are basically at the descriptive and perceptive level. Little higher-level reflection has been identified. This is also likely to be associated with the no mentorship context.
Recommendations for the TCSL teacher preparation programmes and the student teachers are highlighted. For the programmes, providing a more structured and supportive environment is suggested. The student teachers are advised to take more initiative to widen their professional communities and to have more peer learning and self-directed learning. A good combination of formal and informal learning can enable them to achieve the maximum professional growth in the practicum.published_or_final_version
Education
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy
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Marrow, Carol Elizabeth. "Professional learning through clinical supervision in nursing." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.396514.
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Karpen, Lalita. "Impact of Professional Learning Community on Coteaching." ScholarWorks, 2015. http://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/1691.
Full textAbstract:
A professional learning community (PLC) is designed to increase pedagogical knowledge and encourage collaboration amongst teachers. Many schools are using a variety of PLCs to increase collaboration and improve teaching and learning. The study school implemented a PLC, but collaboration and effective coteaching practice have not improved. Guided by social constructivism and social cognitive learning theories, the goal of this research was to explore coteachers' perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about the overall effectiveness of the PLC coteaching model to improve instructional strategies. A qualitative case study with semistructured interviews to collect data and a narrative analysis for reporting was utilized. The population was limited to 5 general and 4 special education teachers. A hand analysis method was used to identify and code recurring themes before using thick description to report the findings. The findings showed that the teachers perceived an ineffective PLC implementation, a lack of coteaching training and collaboration, and a lack of administrative support. Improvements in these areas are needed to boost the effectiveness of the coteaching model. The findings from this study led to a project consisting of a series of professional development workshops for coteachers and school leaders. The goal of the project is to eliminate barriers to coteaching practice and create an effective PLC. This study may bring about positive social change by providing insight into understanding how an effective PLC, administrative supportive, and meaningful professional development can enhance coteaching practice. This knowledge can provide school leaders with insight to make adaptations to coteaching practice that may lead to positive student learning outcomes.
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Bodman, Susan. "The power of feedback in professional learning." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2007. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10007312/.
Full textAbstract:
This longitudinal study explores the power and potential of feedback for expert professional learners. Feedback designed for professional learners has complex goals, including higher cognition, greater independence, increased perception within the field of activity and increased levels of reflection, both on and in action. Feedback definitions, which focus on improvement of product outcome, need to reflect the constructivist nature of giving and receiving information about learning. Feedback, as linked to assessment and evaluation practices, has roles for both teacher and learner. if feedback is to be optimally effective, its interaction with learner, learning environment, curriculum and teacher need to become understood through experience by learners in that context. The context of this study is a fulltime Master's programme for teacher educators at the Institute of Education, University of London. The findings, using data from interviews, course documents, field notes and written examples of feedback, demonstrate that feedback as a concept is somewhat uniquely constructed. This construction has the potential to either assist, or impede, or leave undisturbed the learning intentions of the feedback being understood and acted upon by the learner. Feedback can assist the process of perspective transformation. As learners learn, they are transformed, if feedback acts as catalyst to learning for knowledge construction, learning about the construction process itself and associated values in a given context. Therefore, feedback when perceived as a curriculum within a curriculum can provide a powerful means by which the goal of transformation is achieved. Feedback, as a socially situated practice, can operate as catalyst, process, product and curriculum when adopted in higher professional learning. The learning process, as knowledge and action, moves from the interpersonal to the intra-personal, with the feedback curriculum acting to enhance self assessment and self-directed learning, as learners actively seek and interpret feedback from the learning contexts which they lead.
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Ripley, Jerry W. "Teacher Perceptions of Individual Professional Learning Plans." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2016. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2949.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine PK-12 teacher perceptions of an individual professional learning plan (PLP). Specifically, the researcher examined the perceived benefits of the PLP as well as the whether the PLP helped focus teacher learning. Additionally, the researcher examined teacher perceptions of learning activities within the context of the PLP, teacher intent to implement new learning, and perceived impact on teaching practice. Participants in this study were teachers from 16 schools in a single eastern Tennessee school district. All data were collected using an online survey distributed to 525 teachers resulting in a 44% return rate with 238 respondents. Data collected from 24 survey questions measured on a 4-point Likert-type scale were analyzed using single sample t tests.
Findings indicate that regardless of level of experience or grade level taught teachers have significantly positive perceptions of PLPs as well as the associated PD activities. Findings also indicate teachers have significant perceptions of the application of their learning and significant perceived impact from PD within PLPs.
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Roberts, Irma. "Performance management : a connected professional learning model." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2006. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/324.
Full textAbstract:
Increasingly school principals are more accountable for the performance of both their staff and students. In Australia and most OECD countries, the performance management process is identified as a mandatory vehicle for accountability and improving teacher professional development to advance student achievements. Yet, professional development is identified as a secondary discourse in performance management models, while accountability is arguably the dominant discourse. The purpose of this portfolio is the development of a blended performance management model that meets teachers' needs. The model seeks to shift the emphasis from accountability to professional development and bring the two discourses into a more compatible relationship.
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Smith, Prudence M. "Professional development : teachers' learning in reading recovery." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2007. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/298.
Full textAbstract:
With the national spotlight firmly focused on Australian students attaining benchmark standards in literacy and numeracy and on the capacity of teachers to facilitate student achievement in literacy, questions of effective teacher development have emerged. This study investigated how professional development, which is consistent with the principles of effective practice, builds capacity in teachers. By examining the development of teachers' understandings in the Reading Recovery professional development program, key aspects of teacher development were identified and some suggestions given regarding the preparation and support of literacy teachers generally.
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Stillisano, Jacqueline. "Mentoring preservice teachers : opportunities for professional learning and growth in professional development schools." Virtual Press, 2004. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1302161.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this study was to explore a particular opportunity for experienced teachers to continue to learn and grow professionally within the context of their daily practice. Using the cooperating teacher/preservice teacher dyad as a framework, the study explored reciprocity of professional learning and growth in mentoring relationships.The participants, six secondary teachers from two Professional Development Schools, had each mentored one or more preservice teachers during their careers. Identified through non-probability sampling, the participants represented both genders, several disciplines, and career spans of 3 to 30 years.Data were collected through a series of three semi-structured, phenomenologically based interviews with each participant. Additional data were provided through researcher observations and a reflective research journal kept by the researcher during the data collection and analysis. All interviews were tape recorded and transcribed in their entirety. Individual case narratives were developed for each participant and a cross-case analysis of the individual case studies was performed. An inductive analysis of the data identified five discrete yet overlapping themes: professional pride, collegial relationships, sources of new learning, personal/professional growth, and professional renewal.Each theme encompassed several sub-themes. Sub-themes comprising the theme of professional pride included giving back, making a difference, touching the future, learning to teach, and the real world. The second theme, collegial relationships, was comprised of breaking the isolation of the classroom, teacher talk, mentoring meetings, and time. Sources of new learning included modeling, observing, and evaluating. The theme of personal/professional growth encompassed new roles and responsibilities and interaction with the university. Professional renewal was comprised of three sub-themes: challenges, enthusiasm of student teachers, and revival of mentor teachers' enthusiasm.The five identified themes and attendant sub-themes provided insight into the participants' interpretations of their experiences and their understanding of the meaning of the experiences to them as professional educators. While the research centered on the mentor teachers' perceptions and explored the psychosocial and career benefits offered to them through the experience of mentoring, its value would be increased by expanded study on the subject and its implications for teachers, schools, and colleges of education.Department of Educational Studies
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King, Fiona. "Developing and sustaining teachers' professional learning : a case study of collaborative professional development." Thesis, University of Lincoln, 2012. http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/6805/.
Full textAbstract:
Despite economic difficulties, the emphasis on and investment in teacher professional development (PD) across the world continues, as countries strive to improve educational standards to compete in a globalised knowledge economy. However, researchers have little evidence of its impact on teachers’ professional practice. While it is acknowledged that PD needs to be assessed and evaluated, there is little guidance as to how this might be achieved. Much focus is on short-term impact, with longer-term impact often ignored despite sustainability of practices being highlighted as critical for school improvement. This study set out to explore the impact of a collaborative PD initiative on teachers’ professional practice in five urban disadvantaged primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. A qualitative approach was used to explore shortterm and longer-term impact, along with factors that helped or hindered the development and sustainability of the PD practice. The literature review revealed gaps in existing frameworks for evaluation, resulting in the development of a ‘Professional Development Impact Evaluation Framework’ which is presented in the thesis. It demonstrates how the framework was both developed from extant literature and critiqued through application, and discusses its potential for evaluating the impact of a range of PD activities and answering the call for accountability in these straitened times. Findings revealed a PD legacy that resulted not only in practices being sustained, but demonstrating a PD multiplier, where the impact of the collaborative PD initiative extended beyond the initiative itself to include many changes, even at a cultural level. Given the significance of the PD multiplier, this study suggests that PD facilitators support such cultural changes on a larger scale in schools. A significant feature of change is the teacher as a change-agent, and this study proposes a number of typologies of teacher engagement which may have some implications for teacher PD. Impacting on these typologies were three key elements that contributed to ii teachers’ professional learning and which reflect a developing notion of agentic teacher professionalism: bottom-up approaches with top-down support; autonomy and professional trust; and collaborative practices and collective responsibility.
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Kyeongsoon, Kim. "Science teachers' professional learning in the context of a continuing professional development course." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2013. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10020763/.
Full textAbstract:
Teachers' professional development has been one of the crucial aspects of educational change to make a difference to students' learning. Teacher development involves various conditions for learning and a complex interrelationship between the learning conditions. Numerous factors influencing teacher development have been identified and most of them are dependent on an individual teacher's learning conditions. While each teacher's conditions are different from another's, differentiated approaches have been little considered in continuing professional development (CPD) courses. This research examined how science teachers learn in the context of attending a CPD course. The research focused on two science CPD courses that took place in the Science Learning Centre London in 2006. Five types of data were collected including video-recording of the courses, face-to-face interviews, questionnaire surveys, documentation of the course details, and the mid-course tasks. An analytical framework is developed focusing on the interrelationship between the teachers, their schools and the CPD courses. This study confirms that teachers' professional developr ent is an outcome of the interaction between teachers' individual resources a. Id surrounding learning conditions. Teachers' professional backgrounds and contexts determine their needs, and school culture and policy influences the effectiveness of teacher learning. The research reveals that teachers differ in the value they place on a CPD course, and the courses have limited impact on teachers when teachers' needs are not effectively addressed. The lack of time and insufficient support in school are also identified as major obstacles against teachers' professional development while school culture and policy play a critical role in teacher development. This thesis offers implications for CPD programme providers to facilitate effective professional development courses.
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Quantz, Mary Ann. "Effective Professional Development: A Study of a Teacher-Initiated, Interdisciplinary Professional Learning Community." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2012. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3650.
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This is a narrative inquiry study that describes the experiences of five junior high school teachers who participated in an interdisciplinary, voluntary professional learning community (PLC). Using identity as an analytic lens for the participants' experiences, and content-area literacy as the context for the PLC, the study describes how teachers involved in a PLC focused on inquiry and teacher learning storied their own experiences in the PLC. The participants' experiences highlighted three main themes which were (1) experiences with past ineffective professional development, (2) inadequacy, and (3) changes in thinking. The study highlights how these themes demonstrate the development of the participants' professional and group identities in their school setting. This study also includes a literature review and expanded methods section in the appendices.Keywords:
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Hatcher, Julie Adele. "The public role of professionals developing and evaluating the civic-minded professional scale /." Connect to resource online, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1805/1703.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, 2008.Title from screen (viewed on June 4, 2009). Department of Philanthropic Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Robert G. Bringle. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-130).
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Coulson, Shirley Ann, and res cand@acu edu au. "Practitioner Experience of a Developing Professional Learning Community." Australian Catholic University. Educational Leadership, 2008. http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/digitaltheses/public/adt-acuvp194.07052009.
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Australian policy contexts are promoting school transformation through teacher learning and the development of schools as professional learning communities. However, Australian practitioners have very limited contextualised research to guide their efforts in response to these policies. The researcher’s involvement in a school revitalisation process provided the impetus for this research study that investigates the practitioner experience of a developing professional learning community at RI College (pseudonym for a large independent girls’ school in Brisbane). This study endeavours to gain a more informed and sophisticated understanding of developing a professional learning community with the intention of ‘living’ this vision of RI College as a professional learning community. Praxis-oriented research questions focus on the practitioner conceptualisation of their school as a developing professional community and their experience of supporting/hindering strategies and structures. The study gives voice to this practitioner experience through the emerging participatory/co-operative research paradigm, an epistemology of participative inquiry, a research methodology of co-operative inquiry and mixed methods data collection strategies. Incorporating ten practitioner inquiries over two years, recursive cycles of action/reflection engaged practitioners as co-researchers in the collaborative reflective processes of a professional learning community while generating knowledge about the conceptualisation and supporting/hindering influences on its development. The outcomes of these first-person and second-person inquiries, together with a researcher devised online survey of teachers, were both informative and transformative in nature and led to the development of the researcher’s theoretical perspectives in response to the study’s research questions. As outcomes of co-operative inquiry, these theoretical perspectives inform the researcher’s future actions and offer insights into existing propositional knowledge in the field. Engagement in this practitioner inquiry research has had significant transformative outcomes for the co-researchers and has demonstrated the power of collaborative inquiry in promoting collective and individual professional learning and personal growth.
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Wines, Debra Rae. "Professional Learning Communities: The Impact on Teacher Practice." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/88810.
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The purpose of this research was to explore professional learning communities (PLCs) and their impact on teacher practice. The focus of this single case study was on reviewing the process of the implementation of a PLC (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, and Many, 2010) within MidAtlantic Elementary School, a Title I school. This school implemented the PLC (DuFour et al., 2010) process following the guiding principles set forth by Richard and Rebecca DuFour and the MidAtlantic School District. The guiding principles include a shared vision and mission, collective inquiry, collaborative teams, action research and experimentation, continuous improvement, and being results oriented. By following these guiding principles, the goal was to show how this process improved teacher practice enough to help students be successful in the first year of opening the school and each consecutive year since the school opened. Results of this research showed the PLC (DuFour et al., 2010) process leads to improvements in teacher practice that positively affect student learning.Doctor of Education
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Moore, Robin Fay. "Continual Professional Learning of Experienced Ontarian physical educators: The ways they learn and what influences their participation in professional learning." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/28601.
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This study incorporated the perspectives of twelve experienced physical education (PE) teachers to better understand the ways they learn, and what influences their choices regarding professional learning. By providing a Canadian perspective on a topic that has primarily been researched in the UK, this study addresses a current gap in the experienced PE teacher learning literature (Armour & Yelling, 2007; O'Sullivan, 2006). Using Illeris' (2007) workplace learning theory, the study provides a holistic understanding of teacher professional learning by equally acknowledging the individual and the environment. The data collected from three focus groups and twelve individual interviews indicated that the PE teachers learned in a variety of formal, nonformal and informal ways (Coombs, 1974). Moreover, the individual and the work environment influenced each teacher's professional learning. Finally, the participants continually engaged in informal learning to augment their formal and nonformal learning opportunities and they credited professional learning with helping them to develop as effective teachers.
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Rose, Jeff W. "Professional learning communities, teacher collaboration and the impact on teaching and learning /." Connect to dissertation online, 2008.
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Netolicky, Deborah M. "Down the rabbit hole: Professional identities, professional learning, and change in one Australian school." Thesis, Netolicky, Deborah M. ORCID: 0000-0002-5258-0890 (2016) Down the rabbit hole: Professional identities, professional learning, and change in one Australian school. PhD thesis, Murdoch University, 2016. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/30269/.
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This study takes researcher and reader down the rabbit hole of story with its unique approach to the phenomena of professional identity, professional learning, and school change. It examines the perspectives of 14 educators: a range of teachers and leaders in one independent Australian school and in the context of a teacher growth intervention. Set against the backdrop of the global push for teacher quality, and consequent worldwide initiatives in the arenas of teacher professional learning and school change, the study generates context-specific connections between lived critical moments of identity formation, learning, and leading.
A bricolaged paradigmatic stance weaves together a social constructionist, phenomenological approach to narrative inquiry. Data were generated primarily from individual narrative-eliciting interviews, of the researcher, two teachers, and 11 school leaders. Extended literary metaphor and known literary characters operate as a symbolic and structural frame. Alice, the White Rabbit, and the Cheshire Cat, from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, are analytical tools for the presentation and analysis of the perspectives of researcher, teacher, and leader participants.
While the study set out to explore the ways in which educators’ experiences of professional learning (trans)form their senses of professional identity, it found that it is not just professional learning, but epiphanic life experiences, which shape professional selves and practices. School context, and the alignment of the individual with the collective, emerged as key factors for individual and school change. Transformation of educators’ identities and practices was evident in environments which were supportive, challenging, and growth focused, rather than evaluation driven. Identity formation, individual professional growth, and collective school change were revealed to be unpredictable, fluid processes in which small, unexpected moments can have far-reaching effects. The findings have implications for the theorisation of identities, and the research and implementation of professional learning and school change.
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Hobart, Leigh. "The current context of Queensland primary teacher engagement with professional learning through professional associations." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2009. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/46122/1/Leigh_Hobart_Thesis.pdf.
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Engaging Queensland primary teachers in professional associations can be a challenge, particularly for subject-specific associations. Professional associations are recognised providers of professional learning. By not being involved in professional associations primary teachers are missing potential quality professional learning opportunities that can impact the results of their students. The purpose of the research is twofold: Firstly, to provide a thorough understanding of the current context in order to assist professional associations who wish to change from their current level of primary teacher engagement; and secondly, to contribute to the literature in the area of professional learning for primary teachers within professional associations. Using a three part research design, interviews of primary teachers and focus groups of professional association participants and executives were conducted and themed to examine the current context of engagement. Force field analysis was used to provide the framework to identify the driving and restraining forces for primary teacher engagement in professional learning through professional associations. Communities of practice and professional learning communities were specifically examined as potential models for professional associations to consider. The outcome is a diagrammatic framework outlining the current context of primary teacher engagement, specifically the driving and restraining forces of primary teacher engagement with professional associations. This research also identifies considerations for professional associations wishing to change their level of primary teacher engagement. The results of this research show that there are key themes that provide maximum impact if wishing to increase engagement of primary teachers in professional associations. However the implications of this lies with professional associations and their alignment between intent and practice dedicated to this change.
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Smith, Helen Barbara, and helen smith4@health sa gov au. "Learning professional ethical practice: The speech pathology experience." Flinders University. Medicine-Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, 2007. http://catalogue.flinders.edu.au./local/adt/public/adt-SFU20091110.081021.
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ABSTRACT
An ethics curriculum is an integral part of most health profession courses. This thesis will explore using a qualitative approach to investigate the learning and application of professional ethical practice by Flinders University speech pathology students. This work will identify factors that may influence students readiness to learn about ethics. The knowledge, skills and attitudes that underpin professional ethical practice which speech pathology students were able to demonstrate at the conclusion of their entry level course will be illustrated. Also described will be the factors, identified by students and academics and field educators, which may influence student learning of this complex area of practice.
To explore this topic, the results of The Defining Issues Test (Rest, 1979b) of moral judgement development, independent and scaffolded case studies, as well as group and individual interviews with students, and individual interviews with academic and field educators have been used.
Results from this study suggest that a significant number of the undergraduate speech pathology students involved in this study found learning and applying ethical principles difficult, as their ability to reason morally remained conventional and rule bound. At the point of graduation, the students applied clinical and ethical reasoning skills, whilst emerging, were not yet well developed. The ability of students to demonstrate the integration of ethical theory and practice appeared limited. This lack of integration may be influenced by the fact that few field educators could report being exposed to formal ethical theories and ethical reasoning approaches during their own undergraduate education. Some of the more generic ethical practice skills reported by academics as being embedded throughout the speech pathology course, such as communication, team work and the seeking of professional support, were more clearly demonstrated by students.
Results of this study suggest that exiting students and newly graduated speech pathologists require ongoing support in the area of professional ethical practice. More explicit embedding of the theoretical underpinnings of the ethics knowledge base throughout the curriculum may be required. To be able to support the integration of professional ethical practice in students and new graduates, speech pathologists currently practising in the field who did not receive formal ethics education during their own degree or since, may require ongoing professional development in the formal knowledge base pertaining to professional ethical practice.
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Schweitzer, Janine M. "An investigation of professional learning by clinical dietitians." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/mq22393.pdf.
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