The aim of the research was to generate a model of the interactions between career options and the concept of continuing professional development. Professional development has, in many professions and organisations, become synonymous with managerial development, but the developmental needs of individuals who wish to remain in a professional role may differ from the developmental needs of individuals in a management role. Teachers were chosen as the professional group to be tested. Fifty-four teachers, all volunteers, from six secondary schools were separately interviewed under a structured format, and were also invited to complete a number of questionnaires. From analysis of the interviews and questionnaires a model of teachers' career options was produced which identified three main categories of teachers: senior managers (headteachers or deputy headteachers); aspirants to a senior manager's role; and classroom teachers. The analysis also identified a number of main factors, and sub-factors, that affected the obtaining of one of the three categories and each of the factors was developed through a targeted literature search and through analysis of the structured interviews. An additional number of factors that related only to classroom teachers were also analysed in a similar manner. Also investigated are how teachers plan their career, and the value of continuing professional development. The model of career options was then tested on members of two similar professions -midwives and nurses. Completion of the research resulted in a proposed model of career options and recommendations for continuing professional development for each option. Together the model and recommendations represent an original contribution to knowledge.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of the study performed in 2014 was to identify what the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) needs are of a selected group of electrical engineering professionals from one company in South Africa. The interpretivist research paradigm formed the basis for the “Interactive Qualitative Analysis” methodology used in the study. Due to limitations research was focused on only one constituency, a selected group of electrical engineering professionals in one organisation, which is close to, but have very little power over the specific phenomenon of CPD. Research activities included conducting focus group and individual interviews with participants to gain a better understanding of identified problem through the analysis and interpretation of the collected data. The phenomenon of CPD was found to lie within the spectrum of lifelong learning. Due to increasingly fast changing technological and work environments, practicing professionals take part in professional development, if it is compulsory or not, in order to stay competitive in the global arena. Research has shown that compulsory CPD for registered engineering professionals may further their professional development. From the “Possible Implications for CPD Provision for Engineering Professionals” document several issues and concerns were identified, which influence engineering professionals’ perception of the professional body. The CPD system and CPD provision facilitated by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) may be one of the key reasons why many practicing engineers choose not to register professionally. Through this study the perceived and proposed CPD needs for the selected group of electrical engineering professionals have been identified, but to identify the actual needs of practicing engineering professionals in South Africa, a more detailed study will need to be done that should include all the constituencies that practice within the engineering environment or have any influence on the CPD phenomenon. The study also identified aspects that could help to improve the CPD system and the available CPD initiatives, and enhance the leadership from the professional body. This may positively influence the perception of practicing engineering professionals. Such positive perceptions could result in more practicing engineering professionals registering with ECSA and maintaining their professional registration. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van die studie uitgevoer in 2014 was om die Voortgesette Professionele Ontwikkeling (VPO) behoeftes van ‘n geselekteerde groep elektriese ingenieurs van een maatskappy in Suid-Afrika te bepaal. Die interpretatiewe navorsingsparadigma het die “Interaktiewe Kwalitatiewe Analise” metodologie wat gebruik is in die studie onderlê. Binne die studie beperkinge is gefokus op slegs een konstituensie, ‘n geselekteerde groep professionele elektriese ingenieurs binne een organisasie, wie digby die spesifieke fenomeen van VPO funksioneer, maar baie beperkte mag daaroor het. Navorsingsaktiwiteite het fokusgroeponderhoude en individuele onderhoude met deelnemers ingesluit om ‘n beter begrip van die geïdentifiseerde probleem te verkry deur analise en interpretasie van die ingesamelde data. Die fenomeen van VPO lê binne die spektrum van lewenslange leer. As gevolg van ‘n toenemend snel veranderende tegnologiese en werksomgewing, neem professionele praktisyns deel aan professionele ontwikkeling, of dit verpligtend is of nie, en bly sodoende kompeterend in die globale arena. Maar navorsing het ook bewys dat verpligte VPO vir geregistreerde ingenieurspraktisyns hul professionele ontwikkeling tot voordeel kan strek. Vanuit die “Possible Implications for CPD Provision for Engineering Professionals” dokument is verskeie kwessies en knelpunte geïdentifiseer wat professionele ingenieurs se persepsies van die professionele liggaam mag beïnvloed. Die VPO sisteem en VPO verskaffing wat deur die Suid-Afrikaanse Raad vir Ingenieurswese (SARI) gefasiliteer word, mag een van die kernredes wees waarom vele ingenieurspraktisyns kies om nie professioneel te registreer nie. Die perseptuele en voorgestelde VPO behoeftes van ‘n geselekteerde groep professionele elektriese ingenieurspraktisyns is geïdentifiseer in hierdie studie, maar om die werklike behoeftes van professionele ingenieurspraktisyns in die breër Suid-Afrikaanse konteks te bepaal is ‘n meer gedetailleerde studie nodig wat al die konstituensies insluit wat praktiseer binne die ingenieursomgewing of die VPO fenomeen in dié konteks beïnvloed. Die studie het ook aspekte identifiseer wat kan help om die huidige VPO sisteem en insiatiewe te verbeter, en die leierskap van die professionele liggaam tot voordeel kan strek. Dit mag ‘n positiewe invloed hê op die persepsies van professionele ingenieurspraktisyns. Diesulke positiewe persepsies kan lei tot meer professionele ingenieurspraktisyns wat registreer by SARI en hul professionele registrasie byhou.

Internationally the contribution that teachers’ learning can make in bringing about change in education, by improving outcomes for young people, is a topic of ongoing interest. Influenced by discourses of professionalism, in Scotland education policy has developed over time to support and structure teacher learning throughout the teaching career. However, the lived experience of being a teacher is a socially constructed act located in multiple realities. Policy in action may, or may not, reflect the intentions of policy makers. Within the context of Primary Education, in which 92% of teachers are women, this qualitative study explores women Primary Teachers’ experiences and understandings of professional learning. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 women Primary Teachers and 12 opinion shapers. Critical analysis of relevant educational policy also took place in order to explore dominant policy discourses. A Grounded Theory approach was adapted for data analysis and theory construction. Sensitised by thinking tools provided by feminist theory and Bourdieu, the findings suggest early schooling plays an important part in shaping experiences and understandings of learning. Moreover, gender matters in understanding women Primary Teachers’ experiences and understandings of learning. Early gendered learning identities seemed to notably influence how learning was negotiated and enacted later as a woman, as a teacher and thus as a professional. The woman teacher participants in this study were theorised as Caring Teachers. However, Caring Teachers is not a homogenous construct as the women performed as Nice women, as Confident women, as Kind women and as Authoritative women. Influenced by early schooling and a desire to be ‘good teachers’, the Nice and the Kind women produced themselves within traditional discourses of femininity, of compliance and subordination. This performance of a teacher was vulnerable to policy demands as, despite the rhetoric of professionalism, education policy constructs Class Teachers as technicians. In contrast, the Confident and Authoritative women, more likely to be Chartered Teachers, produced themselves somewhat differently. Their habitus predisposed them to perform as a learner with some confidence. However, although the Confident women and Authoritative women understood and enacted teacher learning differently, their learning too was constrained by the limitations of policy-sanctioned discourses. Informed by the findings of this small-scale study, I argue that teacher learning is subject to complex, interwoven understandings of woman, of learner and of teacher as professional. Attention, therefore, should be given to the interrelated nature of the aforementioned constructs as Women Primary teachers’ learning and professionalism has played, and will continue to play, an important role in shaping the outcomes available to children.

This thesis takes its departure from the on-going debate about teachers´(collective) ‘continuing professional development’ (CPD). Teachers’ CPD through an imposed nine-step model of peer group mentoring (PGM) is focused on. The study draws on data from a two and a half yearlong interactive project that took place in a teacher team in a Swedish school. The general aim of the thesis is to study a practice of professional development in a teacher team involving peer group mentoring and to find out how and what kind of teachers’ expertise that is constructed. Furthermore, the aim is to examine how the PGM-practice was constrained and enabled and what kind of CPD was made possible. The theoretical and methodological framework is mainly based on practice theory. Practices and practitioners are seen as mutually interrelated. Practice architectures (Kemmis &amp; Grootenboer, 2008) are used to uncover the relations between the PGM-practice and its historical, material-economic, social-political and cultural-discursive conditions. Furthermore, Foucault’s notion of power was adopted as an analytical tool to examine how power came into play during the mentoring sessions and how the teachers’ discursively constructed a ‘good teacher’ and teachers’ expertise. The methodological approach is action research. A main finding of the thesis is that professional and personnel development may be imposed through peer group mentoring. Furthermore, democratic processes increased during the PGMmeetings and seemed to have an impact on classroom practice and the practice of parent-teacher meetings. The results show how the PGM–practice and its outcomes are deeply interconnected to global and local historical, material-economic, social-political and cultural-discursive arrangements which constrained and enabled it. When economic cut downs (i.e. materialeconomic arrangements) began to take effect in the local school, along with a neo-liberal discourse (i.e. cultural-discursive arrangements), democratic processes were challenged and threatened. The focus in the PGM discussions shifted from the teachers’ perceived need for pedagogical knowledge development to talk about students as costs. The constrained nine-step model disciplined some individuals more than others. The teachers disciplined each other through e.g. confessions, corrections and differentiations. Inconsistent discourses about good teaching and teachers’ know-how were constructed and the teachers positioned themselves and each other as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ teachers. The interactive research approach partly enabled the PGM-practice but at the same time effected the teachers’ positioning of each other. The interactive research approach disciplined both the teachers and the researcher. Anyhow, power relations became fluent and mutual among the participants. A collegial approach and the ability to carry out reflexive cooperation were both fostered by the model and articulated in the PGM-practice as important teacher skills. / <p>Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av utbildningsvetenskapliga fakulteten vid</p><p>Göteborgs universitet för vinnande av doktorsexamen i Pedagogiskt arbete framläggs till offentlig granskning Fredagen den 14 mars, klockan 13.00, Sal C 203 vid Högskolan i Borås</p><p>Fakultetsopponent: Professor Emeritus Per Lauvås, Oslo</p><p>Langelotz, L., &amp; Rönnerman, K. (2014).The practice of peer Group mentoring - traces of global changes and regional traditions. In K. Rönnerman, P, Salo &amp; T. Lund (Eds.), Lost in Practice. Transforming Nordic Action Research. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. (forthcoming)</p><p>Langelotz, L. (2013). Teachers peer group mentoring - Nine steps to heaven? Education Inquiry, 4(2), 375-399. ISSN 2000-4508</p><p>Langelotz, L. (2013). Så görs en (o)skicklig lärare. Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige, 18(3-4). ISSN 1401-6788</p><p></p>

Professional learning, commonly referred to in policy and practice as continuing professional development, is presented to teachers as both a requirement and an entitlement in current education policy (Gewirtz, 2002; Ball, 2003). This work explores the ways in which professional learning is experienced by three teachers, and the meanings they attribute to those experiences. The study adopts a narrative approach to these accounts (Clandinin, 2013; Clandinin and Connelly, 1996; 1998; 2004) and is underpinned by the recognition of the complexity in the interplay between the individual teacher and their social context specifically focusing on “the relationship between the state, the ideologies of professionalism, and lived interiority” (Hey and Bradford, 2004: 693). The methodology was developed to overcome the problem of policy and aspects of practice that fail to focus on the effective involvement and engagement of teachers in professional learning: the teachers have become “missing persons” (Evans, 1999: i). The research process placed the meaning made by the teachers of their past experiences, and the way they understood them in the present, at the centre of the research (Kelchtermans, 2009; MacLure, 1993). Data were collected as part of a collaborative process with teachers who shared and analysed their narratives of professional learning through a series of research conversations. The teachers gave accounts of the people and incidents that they understood to be significant in influencing their professional learning, in relation to their expectations of themselves and of professionals and people more generally. In doing so they drew on both professional and personal contexts (Makopoulou and Armour, 2011). There were significant challenges in relation to ethics, analysis and re-presentation. This study illustrates the complexity and contingency of teachers’ professional learning through their understanding of themselves and their interaction with, and response to, significant people and incidents (Kelchtermans and Vandenberghe, 1994). Their “stories to live by” (Clandinin and Connelly, 1998: 149) illuminate the ways in which teachers explain the complexities and contingencies underpinning their experiences of professional learning. The data illustrate the crucial role that context plays in understanding professional learning (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000: 27) and the challenges teachers face in balancing their roles as policy subjects and policy actors (Ball, Maguire, Braun and Hoskins, 2011a and b). This work makes a unique contribution to the field of professional learning by using the detailed individual cases of each teacher to illustrate general concerns for the development of effective policy and practice. It also contributes to the methodological debates around the use of narratives as a means of understanding the “human condition” (Arendt, 1958). The data challenge us to consider the possibilities that narrative accounts and analyses offer for the generation of knowledge in this area with implications for both teachers and other professionals, and policy and practice.

This study focuses on developing teaching strategies for teachers who teach in classes for students identified as Gifted and Talented with Special Learning Disabilities situated in Israeli secondary schools. The focus is on the challenges teachers meet while teaching Humanities Subjects (HS) to these students and the strategies they need in addressing their dual exceptionalities. The main purpose of this study is to examine how specific strategies may contribute towards both to quality of teaching and to a better learning environment. Research has shown that gifted students who are diagnosed with learning disabilities in writing skills (2ELs) have difficulties especially in HS and achieve less academically than may suggest their high abilities. The combination of giftedness with learning disabilities and underachievement creates special challenges for their teachers to counter, and for which they need specific Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes. In my study, I developed a model of teaching strategies which combines three strategies from the field of teaching gifted students and from the field of special education which are helpful in the humanities disciplines. I created a manual for teachers' CPD that includes this model and I conducted a seminar using this manual for the participant teachers in my research. This was followed by an implementation of the manual by these teachers in their classrooms that includes 2ELs. My qualitative research was based on the case studies of two teachers teaching HS in two high school classrooms, totalling sixty 2ELs. The information was collected through observations, interviews, and open questionnaires. I then analysed the information using an inductive approach as pattern recognition and inclusion into categories. The research findings of this study describe the difficulties that teachers may face with 2ELs and my claim to knowledge is the AAA Model of Strategies and the manual for teachers and their contribution to teachers of 2Els and their students. The recent research fills this particular gap in the literature, in the Israeli context, and the findings of this study bear policy implications and indicate the need for the tailoring of relevant teachers’ CPD' programmes to include strategies to better address the needs of 2ELs for optimal success in fulfilling their potential and overcoming their difficulties. Future research may achieve a deeper understanding of how to prepare teachers to use adjusted strategies that meet 2Els teachers in various disciplines in order to improve learning environment.

Accounting is a professional occupation that is continually evolving and requires a dedication to continuing education to meet the legal demands of new regulations and to maintain professional competency. Continuing Professional Education (CPE) is required by state boards for certified public accountants (CPA) to meet these requirements and to maintain professional competence. CPAs are responsible for complying with all applicable CPE requirements, rules, and regulations of state boards of accountancy, as well as those of other professional organizations. The purpose of this study was to determine the opinions of CPAs about the current requirements for CPE and to determine their level of satisfaction with the content and delivery of CPE instruction. CPE has come under scrutiny in recent years with some professionals questioning if the needs of accounting professional and the objectives of continuing education are being met. This survey research included 23 Likert-type items and 5 demographic questions. The survey was administered to 203 licensed certified public accountants to obtain their opinions about continuing education. The 5 dimensions of the survey were: Value (cost benefit), Delivery (methods and quality), Benefit to Self, Benefit to Others, and Barriers (to obtaining CPE). These dimensions were compared across the demographic variables of gender, years of experience, type of business, number of employees, and position with their employer. No significant differences were found among the 5 dimensions between gender or among different positions. Significant differences did occur among the Dimension of Value opinions based on years of experience, among the Dimension of Value opinions based on type of business, among Dimension of Benefit to Self based on type of business, among the Dimension of Value based on number of employees, and among the Dimension of Benefit to Others based on number of employees.

The study aimed to investigate how continuing professional development (CPD) activities, through the development of a CPD educational framework, can assist Medical Radiation Science (MRS) practitioners to engage in reflective practice while entrenched in a protocol driven workplace culture. The study, with action research as the chosen methodology, and used both quantitative and qualitative methodology, was divided into two phases. The first phase of data collection aimed to inform the researcher of the needs of the MRS profession. The second phase of the study involved the design and development of an educational framework for CPD, based on current theories of learning and teaching using the framework and data collected from the first phase of the study, an online module was developed. The objectives of the module were to increase participants' knowledge in breast planning in radiation therapy by assisting participants to engage in reflective practice. The cyclical process of action research was used to pilot the module twice with two groups of volunteer radiation therapists. The online module was evaluated using Kirkpatrick's four level evaluation model (Kirkpatrick, 1998; Guskey, 2000). Based on Boud et al.'s reflection model (1985), all participants showed evidence of action, affective and perspective outcomes. They also demonstrated successful development of lifelong learning attributes, were empowered and their learning had a positive impact in their workplace. They began to assume a more proactive role and increased clinical responsibilities, engaging colleagues in collaborative reflections and adopting evidence-based approaches in advancing workplace practices. The study shows that it is possible to assist MRS practitioners to engage in reflective practice within a CPD educational framework online. The study also shows the importance of reflective practice, lifelong learning and transformative learning in CPD. Reflective practice liberates and empowers participants, lifelong learning equips them to continue learning and transformative learning facilitates perspective transformation. Thus, an effective educational framework is one that adopts a holistic approach towards CPD, by incorporating reflective practice, lifelong learning and transformative learning. The educational framework adopted in the present study may be extrapolated to CPD programs in other MRS disciplines and other healthcare professions.

This thesis investigates teachers’ perceptions of continuing professional development (CPD) in Germany and Sweden with a questionnaire study comprising a total of 711 mainly lower secondary teachers. Three conceptual terms are elaborated and explained. Teachers act in a CPD marketplace that is constituted by several sources of knowledge which offer opportunities for teachers’ development. How teachers act in the marketplace is a key part of their CPD culture. The study reveals similarities in the two cases regarding the importance of colleagues as well as informal development activities, but there are also significant differences. One the one hand, German teachers can be described as more active in their CPD than their Swedish colleagues in relation to particular aspects of their profession such as assessment, and more suspicious of knowledge from elsewhere, on the other. In order to understand the differences, I argue for an extended focus on the impact of the national context, in terms of socially and historically significant structures and traditions of the teaching profession. The thesis focuses on a crucial aspect with a particular explanatory value for differing CPD tendencies in various national contexts: Autonomy from a governance perspective. This phenomenon, which does indeed change across time and space, is investigated from a socio-historical perspective in both contexts, building on Margaret Archer’s analytic dualism of structure and agency, and a dual pronged model of teacher autonomy. The latter distinguishes institutional autonomy, regarding legal or status issues, from service autonomy related to the practical issues in schools and classrooms. Since these dimensions can be either extended or restricted, different categories evolve which enable us to understand the differences between the two cases. Finally, by using the findings on the German and Swedish teaching profession, a theoretical framework is presented that relates the certain forms of teacher autonomy in particular national contexts to likely CPD cultures that teachers share.

Assessment is a key aspect within teaching and learning processes in higher education (Torrance, 2007). Formative assessment may be viewed simply as constructive feedback to support learning or more holistically as ongoing assessment based on sustained engagement in learning activities within a supportive social context that expand teachable moments to scaffold learning. Online education now pervades higher education worldwide but effective ways to incorporate formative assessment within online settings is not well understood. Previous research in online postgraduate courses designed for teachers as professional learners illustrate that engagement with authentic learning activities promotes meaningful learning and transferability to their communities of practice (COP) (e.g. Mackey, 2011). However, there appears to be paucity of literature with a focus on assessment in professional learning. This thesis explores formative assessment within online postgraduate courses designed for teachers as professional learners who aim to develop capacity to incorporate information communication technologies (ICT) in their own practice. Case studies are presented to richly illustrate the design, implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of two courses; and then further re-examined to elucidate strategies and key characteristics that can foster (or hinder) online formative assessment. Authentic and developmental learning perspectives underpinned by situated cognition theory framed the design and interpretation within a multiple-case methodology. Evidence of experiences and perceptions of the teachers and their professional students included online observation, analysis of the discourse, and semi-structured interviews. An authentic learning environment that sustained productive engagement is illustrated in both case studies along with many techniques that the teachers designed to underpin formative assessment. A key characteristic in both courses was the design of authentic assessment activities that are relevant and meaningful in real-life contexts. Techniques identified included appropriate learner autonomy, and opportunities to negotiate shared understanding of learning goals and expected outcomes including the sharing of student-created artefacts. The online reification of the artefacts and other learning community support was enabled by the ongoing documentation through creative use of online discussion forums as a feature within the learning management system (LMS). These techniques enriched the processes of ongoing monitoring, assessment of evidence of learning and interactive formative feedback. Both teachers’ beliefs about self and peer feedback also enabled both teachers to design for productive synergies between formative and summative assessment that promoted engagement and deep learning. Additional synergies of discourse among peers related to immediacy, interactivity, and mutuality in which the students recognized themselves and valued their peers as source of constructive feedback. The students also demonstrated meaningful reflectivity that manifested reflexivity within the context of their professional practices. Online formative assessment is illustrated in both courses as a form of collaborative engagement in authentic learning, including assessment activities with opportunities for ongoing interactions and formative feedback. The open-ended authentic assessment activities supported professional learners to connect the online discourse to their own classroom practices, as well as keenly engage with authentic projects that are situated in their schools. Learner autonomy stimulated self-regulated learning in which students went beyond achievement of the expected learning outcomes for summative assessment to engaging with tasks and processes that matched their own learning goals, interests and contextual needs. Learners’ involvement within formative assessment processes enhanced opportunities to negotiate meanings which fostered shared authenticity.The inherent authenticity in the course design also stimulated application of prior knowledge and experiences in ways that promoted meaningful learning. Engagement in asynchronous dialogue as a community of learners with shared goals and practice elicited alterative perspectives and disorienting dilemmas. This stimulated learners to think in new ways and more critically and to develop relevant professional competencies in ICT. These in turn supported teachers as professional learners to confidently apply their developing pedagogical practices with ICT in their own classrooms; and to share those with school colleagues. This study illustrates ways that online formative assessment can be designed to support learners to develop relevant knowledge and professional skills that increase professional competencies. Incorporating authentic formative assessment in the course design also impacted teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD), and thus their schools. A key finding from this research is conceptualization of formative assessment as a collaborative pedagogical strategy in which both the teacher and students are active players. This research provides evidence that innovative integration of formative assessment in online settings can support committed professional learners to develop competencies that are transferable into their own practice. This suggests that ongoing formative assessment is an important strategy to increase the quality of online professional development in many fields, in addition to that of education.