The purpose of this study was to examine the literacy-related professional development preferences of participating secondary teachers in one school board in Ontario. Data was collected using a survey. The findings of this study confirm and extend existing research: the majority of secondary teachers want to engage in literacy-related professional development; secondary teachers have preferences for various forms of professional development, including duration and form; there are differences in preferences for duration, form, and content of teachers in different subject areas; and differences exist in preferences for form and content of teachers of different course types. The findings of this study that confirmed existing research included: the preferences by teachers of Science and Geography for literacy-related professional development on instruction of reading graphical text; the preference for literacy-related professional development by teachers of Math on reading word problems; the preference for literacy-related professional development that results in practical ideas and strategies; and the preference for literacy-related professional development that meets the needs of teachers and students. Interesting themes emerged that extend previous research: the preference for literacy-related professional development that is short in duration (between one to five hours); a higher percentage of teachers of Science, Math, and Technology wanting no literacy-related professional development; the preference by teachers of Open type courses for literacy-related professional development on differentiating literacy instruction; and a stronger focus on the content (as opposed to a focus on form) of literacy-related professional development by teachers of Science, Math, and Technology. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2011-07-30 22:17:45.962

Professional development includes the planned and unplanned activities that teachers engage in throughout their career to enhance the quality of instruction in their classrooms (Day, 1997). The attentive processes of engagement are described as being physically, emotionally, and cognitively present (Kahn, 1992). Engagement in professional development is strongly related to the level of commitment teachers have to their teaching profession (Rothwell & Herbert, 2007). Being engaged in professional development is necessary because it requires that teachers take responsibility for their learning, and believe that professional development practices will positively contribute to their career (McDonald, 2009). The purpose of this research was to understand the role of colleagues in teachers’ engagement in professional development. This study is situated within the conceptual framework of school culture. School cultures are sustaining patterns built over time through rituals, traditions, and accomplishments that enforce actions, feelings, and thought patterns of members (Deal & Peterson, 2009). One cannot have strong and effective professional development without a thick culture (Hopkins, 1994; Little, 1982). Thickness in culture is often forgotten but foundational for engagement in professional development activities (Glover & Coleman, 2005). This study is an examination of teachers’ perceptions in two schools: one school that showed exemplary collaboration among its staff and one school that was becoming a more collaborative school. Collaboration is understood as working in cohesion to achieve a common goal (Deal & Peterson, 2009; Fullan & Hargreaves, 1996; Little, 1982; Schlechty, 2009). One focus group with teachers at each school, with follow-up individual interviews, provided the data explaining colleagues’ influences on engagement in professional development. The findings of this study suggest that colleagues have an important effect on teachers’ engagement in professional development. Participants indicated that colleagues were a factor of engagement because they increased engagement through fulfilling their desire for face-to-face instruction, through their appreciation of being worked with, rather than worked on (Morewood & Bean, 2009), and through networking. As teacher participants worked together in professional development, they increased their school’s organizational capacity (Mitchell & Sackney, 2001). / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2012-05-25 18:03:15.505

No description available.

No description available.

Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Technology: Emergency Medical Care, Durban University of Technology, 2011. / South African Advanced Life Support (ALS) providers follow an autonomous practice model of care. This advanced role profile is characterized by clinical skill competence and autonomous decision making whilst demonstrating a high level of awareness of their own ethical attitudes, values and beliefs. It is through a professional commitment that ALS providers deliver an advanced evidence based practice that should be maintained constantly within a dynamic environment. Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is seen as an instrument for this. CPD should also serve as a means to acquire professional excellence and going beyond the boundaries of meeting the base level standard with the aim of providing the finest quality of care in the interest of patient safety. Purpose of the research The purpose of this research is to identify gaps in the professional development of out-of-hospital ALS providers trained in South Africa by assessing frequency of performance of ALS clinical skills, by determining perceived level of competence and predictors of confidence, and by sourcing information on attendance of CPD activities and training needs. vi Methodology This study used a quantitative non-experimental design. Data was attained from an e-mail based descriptive survey that was limited to a precise and concise questionnaire. The data from 140 (N) ALS providers was subjected to a descriptive statistical analysis using the PASW statistics version 18.0 to systematically show patterns and trends. Frequency distributions were generated to describe data categories. Bivariate analysis was conducted using Chi-square and Pearson correlation tests. Results Results indicated that ALS providers performed clinical skills infrequently. Of the total number of respondents 140 (N), the average ALS clinical skills performance was 6 (4.8%) daily. In the 2-6 times a week category 8 (6.4%) ALS clinical skills were performed. ALS clinical skills performance in the once a week category showed an average of 7 (5.6%) and the once a month category, an average of 17 (13.7%) ALS skills were performed. An average of 31 (25%) ALS skills were performed in the once in six months category whilst an average of 54 (43.5%) were performed in the greater than six months category. CPD activities that are appropriate to ensuring the maintenance of competence for these clinical skills were not adequately undertaken. Medical updates were mostly attended by ALS providers, 52 (42.9%) whilst CPD events that addressed clinical skills, was mostly limited vii to the ACLS course 42 (34.7%). The needs assessment for CPD showed that 56 (53%) of respondents expressed a need for paediatric and obstetric simulated skill sessions, whilst 43 (40.9%) requested clinical skills workshops and 39 (37.1%) expressed a need for clinical practice in theatre and coronary care units. Conclusions and recommendations This study shows that ALS clinical skill competence is maintained by frequent practice and appropriateness of CPD activities. The infrequent performance of ALS skills coupled with the lack of appropriate and diverse CPD activity attendance results in poor maintenance of competence. The loss of competence can be related to poor reported levels of confidence which consequently places patient safety at risk. To safeguard against medical error and ensure patient safety, it is strongly recommended that CPD audits be undertaken on all ALS providers for appropriate CPD compliance related to clinical skills performance. In addition to a clinical skills audit, it is recommended that a national clinical skills registry be established with the intention of facilitating clinical skill surveillance, to determine a notifiable, high risk skill set. To safeguard against knowledge and clinical skill attrition and loss of competence, the delivery of CPD activities should be assessed for effectiveness and appropriateness.

In this dissertation, we will use the term corporate strategy to describe the processes and practises engaged in to develop a sense of purpose, a set of actions and management plans that add value to the membership of the organisation. We will discuss the role of the non-profit organisation in the business sector, and locate professional associations within the spectrum of social enterprises and non-profit organisations. We will use the language of business models and non-profit models and practises to analyse the direction of professional associations in the global arena, and hope to identify patterns or trends in how these associations are managed in relation to typical business models. We will identify a framework to assist in thinking through the case study under investigation. One such professional association in South Africa will be considered more closely, and critically evaluated against these models. It should become clear that professional associations without a good, clear strategy and structure for managing short-term and long-term goals, has no hope for achieving these goals. It is hoped that on conclusion of this project, a model for strategic planning and implementation in professional associations, and specific recommendations for change for the association under consideration will emerge. / Thesis (MBA)- University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

21st century tools and Web 2.0 digital technologies have engaged educators and students from traditional learning models into a new learning paradigm. Twitter can be a particular vehicle for enhancing professional development for educators. This study focused on who are the teachers, their initial motivations for using Twitter, and how they use Twitter for professional development. Research findings show that educators value Twitter as a vehicle for professional development. Twitter is appreciated for its self-service and immediate approach to learning. Being connected to other colleagues and experts across the world is seen as a great advantage. The ease in which to access constant, current, and large amounts of resources, ideas, and methodologies helps teachers improve their professional development on a continuous basis. Educators and teachers should consider using Twitter as an enhancement to their current professional development practices.

The purpose of this study has been to provide a rich description of the role of the literacy leader in two primary schools. Through this study I was seeking to identify what the role of the literacy leader is and how this role is enacted. The role has been described from the perspectives of the literacy leader, a principal and five members of two school’s teaching staff. The desire to better understand the role of the literacy leader is important to those in the role and those they interact with. This is particularly so for those in my position as a professional developer, working alongside both a school and its literacy leader as they undertake in-depth literacy professional development. Literacy leaders have assumed greater responsibilities within schools since the 1999 Literacy Taskforce report which suggested a range of initiatives to better support literacy learners in New Zealand. Since this report there has been a governmental priority on literacy as a foundation learning area. Interest in literacy success for all stems from both international and national assessment knowledge. This information highlights the strength of New Zealand students in literacy but also identifies a group of students who do not perform well and continue to underachieve in literacy into adulthood. This underachievement limits the opportunities they have as adults for employment and participation in society. There has been no formalised role description for literacy leaders or how they might enact this role. The purpose of this study therefore has been to identify the role and how it is enacted. The literacy leader role has been analysed from multiple perspectives. Participant observation and in-depth interviewing have provided a rich picture of the role and how it is enacted. It is from these insights that some clarity has been gained about the characteristics of the role, how it is interpreted by the participants and then enacted by the two leaders. The findings indicate the role identified by those participating in this study and the reality of how it is enacted, are closely matched. The tasks of a literacy leader are complex and their dual role of classroom teacher and literacy leader adds to this complexity as they manage both positions simultaneously. This study identified that being a literacy leader requires a central focus on improved student achievement. It requires literacy leaders to provide strong leadership in literacy professional development/learning. This study also suggests that literacy leaders are seen as learning partners during the in-depth literacy professional development/learning focus where all involved are learners. The final role they play is in supporting the development of a collaborative professional learning community where all of the learning occurs. It raises issues and questions for those who interact with the literacy leader both within the school and those outside the school in how they can support them in this role. It also surfaces the need for schools and professional developers to address how the structures they are operating within can be reorganised to afford the time needed to be effective in this role. Finally when schools, advisers and Ministry of Education enter into a partnership of learning openly demonstrating that each will learn from the other, then capacity is built across all levels of the education system in meeting the goals of improved student outcomes.

The New Zealand Government recognises the importance of supporting all students in their learning to assist them to reach their full potential. This recognition is inclusive of gifted and talented students. Furthermore, boards of trustees, through their principal and staff, are required under the National Administration Guidelines, to demonstrate how they are catering for gifted and talented students. Notwithstanding this requirement, The Education Review Office (2008) report entitled Schools’ Provision for Gifted and Talented Students, confirms that a major challenge for school leadership is sustaining momentum of gifted and talented provisions and programmes. Despite this mandated intent, what happens in practice at the school level remains problematic. Teachers and schools welcomed the Talent Development Initiative (TDI), a Ministry of Education (MOE) Initiative, as it held some promise for developments in gifted and talented education. The first round of the initiative ran between 2003 and 2005 and the second from 2006 to 2008. Funding to support innovation and special developments in gifted education has been provided to 38 programmes nationwide. This initiative serviced some schools and educational bodies but a large number of others were left without an extra layer of support beyond their schools’ leadership actions. This study focuses on the school level, in particular teachers who are given additional responsibility, namely those with a coordination role. Moreover, my thesis is about how work to meet the needs of gifted and talented students can be sustained in schools to ensure the gifted and talented ‘torch’ can continue to ‘burn brightly’ over time. To gain an understanding of coordinators’ insights on what it takes to overcome the problem of sustaining provisions and programmes, this study adopts a qualitative, case study approach. I selected a purposive sample of six teachers with experience working in a gifted and talented coordinator role. The main source of data collection was individual semi-structured interviews (refer to Appendix A). I asked them questions about their role and how provisions were made for gifted and talented students at their schools. Further questions were asked about the support they received for their roles, particularly professional learning and development to enhance their practice. My findings show the responses from participants highlighted the important connection between leadership and learning. Knowledge and passion to do their best for gifted and talented students, although important, was not sufficient. The leadership actions and support provided by others in their setting and beyond their setting were likewise needed. My analysis revealed a range of strategies was deemed necessary to support the leadership of learning in classrooms, specifically the need for dialogue amongst teachers about identification, planning and evaluating provisions and programmes. All too often these gifted and talented coordinators worked alone in their roles, in isolation from others, and at times without the support they needed. Thus the success or failure of provisions and programmes for gifted and talented students rested on their ongoing commitment and drive. My study includes recommendations for practice. These recommendations suggest that provisions for gifted and talented students must be integrated into curriculum delivery and learning areas and be part of schools’ cultures in order for them to take hold and be sustained over time. Furthermore, there is a need to develop clarity of these provisions through job descriptions and for schools to undertake regular if not annual reviews of written documentation to guide ongoing work in gifted and talented education.

This research presents an understanding of the world of successful teachers. In documenting their life histories, I composed a research text which explored the presences and absences, identities and differences, changes and continuities, variations and uniqueness, which characterise how teachers perform their success in the present educational context of continued shifts and constantly changing images. Working with Trevor, Anna, Ursula, Daryl, Eddie and Hlo, I co-created stories of lives "told and experienced", a journey that pressed me to look at the transcending and shifting line between the private/public. Written through a composition of stories, poems, photographs, musical pieces and illustrations, I have engaged in the risky, poststructural practice of redescribing their worlds in order to understand what it means to think, know and act differently, in the struggle with the desire to be "free". Employing a cubist metaphor as a heuristic device, I was able to entertain the possibility of other "worlds" within the discursive practice of "being teacher": creating potential explanatory and diverse descriptions other than the one available as the singularly defined identity category of "teacher". Employing a poststructural analytical framework, I documented the multi-dimensional nature of identity and meaning, and drew attention to the play between discourse and practice in teachers' agenda for agency. Teachers' agenda for agency is described within "Patterns of Desire" within which the evaded or marginalised in teachers' lives become available as spaces for change and moments of freedom. I present an understanding of teachers' selves through excavating the "interior" of their lives to provide a more three-dimensional approach that injects the private into the public, rupturing the fine line as a way to maintain an "aura" of desire, love, friendship, hope and familiarity in their daily lived experiences. Emerging along two axes, "Practices of the Self' and "Practices on the Self', this composition that I have created, identifies the complexity of teaching discourses and practices enacted out and enacted on teachers' daily lives that resist and disrupt those hierarchical grids of normalcy and regularity. In particular, I attended to those elusive eruptions of teachers' selves when teachers articulate their resistance to normalcy and surveillance and make themselves available to refiguration and transformation. Investing in particular historically emergent social practices and relationships that teachers effect, by their own means, there is pleasure in challenging anew the bond between teachers' private lives and public responsibilities. Agency of teachers lies in the ability to deconstruct and reconstruct identity within the discursive formations and cultural practices. In troubling the structures that often imprison and violate, teachers are able to slip through and open their thoughts and desires to their differences - the other categories that are evaded in the single identity category teacher, thereby sustaining potential for ongoing continuity and change. Continued metamorphosis of thought and act, simultaneous and consecutive, is what offers teachers moments of deep meaning and awareness that keep the private/public alignment and variation in the ways of experiencing their world, in their 'desire to be', 'desire for' and 'desire to please' as a possible condition for being a successful teacher. / Thesis (Ph.D) - University of Durban-Westville, 2003.