The purpose of this action research study was to observe, participate in, and tell the story of teachers involved in a professional development experience. Professional development is an important tool to assist teachers in improving their teaching abilities. After a review of the literature on various forms of professional development and some personal experience with a variety of professional development activities, I created a collaborative study group (CSG) that included three teachers. Their work together was studied using a narrative approach to action research. The stories of these three teachers and their experiences with an informal professional development activity are shared in narrative prose that honors the voices of the participants. The data were analyzed through an iterative process that revealed the content and process of the professional development experience and allowed me to evaluate the activity. Over the six-month study the participants explored a range of issues such as education challenges, students the teachers were working with, and the personal and professional lives of teachers. The teachers discussed educational issues related to helping students (them), the individual teachers (me), and the teachers' relationships with each other (us). The CSG was a unique and informal professional development experience that empowered the participants to take charge of their personal and professional growth as teachers. This study provides evidence that teachers do not need to rely on school or district initiatives for professional development activities but can seek out other teachers to design meaningful and effective professional development.

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:

Principal involvement is recognized as a key component to success in professional development implementation. Both the principal efforts undertaken, and the visions stated influence teacher development and student achievement. Using the instructional, transformational, and learning-centered models of leadership, as well as frameworks in vision, and organizational theory, this research sought to clarify the impact of principal involvement on student performance. Interview data was collected from 16 principals participating in a mathematics professional development program entitled the Comprehensive Mathematics Initiative. Of the participants, 9 of the principals were from schools that achieved high levels of student performance on standardized mathematics tests following their school’s participation in the professional development program. The remaining 7 principals achieved moderate success from participation in the same. General findings suggest that principals who pursue a learning-centered leadership model (combining both instructional and transformational leadership efforts) achieve greater success while implementing professional development programs. Specific findings identified that principals who define success in terms of improving student performance were more likely to achieve higher student achievement on mathematics standardized tests versus those principals who define a metric of success as stronger teacher development. Additionally, it was determined that vision statements expressed with brevity and a singular goal were more effective at influencing student achievement than more complex, multi-faceted visions. Finally, efforts taken to involve staff in decision making and encourage teacher development through supportive means were more successful at achieving higher levels of student performance. These findings can inform principals and other school leaders on how to more effectively implement professional development programs.

This thesis is a qualitative research study examining views of faculty at Brigham Young University regarding professional development at the university level. Subjects who participated in the study were selected based on being full-time, part-time, adjunct, tenured, and non-tenured professors at Brigham Young University. Instructors who work solely with online students were not included. The contacts also did not include student teachers, support staff, non-teaching faculty or graduate students.The key findings from the qualitative research study report that faculty differentiate between two categories of professional development, one concerned with teaching and other aspects of working at a university, and the other is the development and continuing training in their original field or specialty. Additionally, the research shows that while time is the most commonly cited reason for not attending professional development, it is possible to potentially offer incentives to overcome that barrier to attendance. Professional development activities that are created in an informal manner and are more localized to smaller units within the university-a college, a department, even a subset of a department-seem to be more meaningful to faculty than traditional formally organized professional development by the university. The overall conclusion from this qualitative research study is that professional development activities should be more flexible and adaptive to the maturation of needs of the intended participants. The current initial professional development at Brigham Young University is viewed positively as being very helpful; however, the longer faculty stay at the university the more they seek out informal professional development focused on specific issues for which they are not finding assistance. The implication of this study is when universities focus on initial professional development for new faculty often professional development opportunities for mid-career faculty are not emphasized or arranged. Ways to address this gap may include specifically labeling activities like seminars as professional development and then increasing resources devoted to them or giving faculty an allowance per person per year and allowing them to choose how to invest that allowance-either in more training within the teaching profession or within their specific discipline.

Across the United States, schools are largely segregated by race and ethnicity, resulting in schools that are densely Latino and teaching staff who are overwhelming monolingual English speakers, as most teachers are white women. This has created difficulty in home communication in these schools. Given the positive impacts of personal and frequent home communication, a greater capacity of teachers to communicate with parents may be an important asset in school improvement efforts. This study looks at ongoing design-based research efforts to engage bilingual students in helping their teachers become more capable of communicating in Spanish. Through online-delivered challenges, teachers and students work together to complete a series of tasks that help teachers learn about communicating across cultures and preparing several communication aids to help them reach out to Latino immigrant parents more frequently. Through a narrative profile analysis, we uncover the influences the five-week intervention had on teachers' home communication efforts, beliefs in their own ability to develop stronger language skills, and relationships with students. The findings inform a set of preliminary procedures for a new method of research into understandings skills they use outside of school. We call this new method Integrating Funds of Knowledge. The findings also inform a set of core conjectures on how this method can help educators partner with their students to work toward solving a problem in their school.

This research investigated the impact of teacher in-service and individual professional development for business educators in the following areas: classroom instruction, teacher motivation, the continuity of individual professional development, the professional development needs of business educators compared with those of other teachers, the status of business education professional development, and the manner in and extent to which current professional development activities are meeting needs. Satisfaction levels with in-service and individual professional development were also identified. Lastly, this study examined the role of business educators in determining local in-service events. Participants included 109 Alabama business educators who completed an online survey about their professional development over the previous 12 months. Respondents indicated top areas of in-service training: classroom technology, emerging technology, special needs students, and school safety. Individual attendance at workshops on software ranked highest; classroom-related workshops followed. Overall, 67% expressed satisfaction with in-service training, and 82.1% expressed satisfaction with individual professional development. On average, respondents received 158.1 hours of individual professional development during the previous year. Computer workshops received the most attendance while professional meetings received the least. Impact on instruction was considered modest; the mean impact score of 118 reflected a restrained agreement with impact statements. Qualitative responses were given on specific impacts in the classroom. No significant correlation was found between the impact of professional development on instruction and the number of hours spent in professional development. ANOVA was conducted and revealed that impact scores of teachers were not significantly affected by years of experience or satisfaction levels with in-service. Teachers are generally motivated to pursue professional development. The desire to learn how to better teach a skill was the greatest motivator. Time and money were the greatest barriers. The majority of teachers are continually pursuing professional development over a 5-year period but not doing so annually. Business educators’ topic preferences were similar to regular education teachers’, especially in the area of technology. Student motivation and technology were top categories of need. Most business educators have never served on an advisory committee to suggest in-service activities.

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Stagnant student achievement in science education in the United States has placed an increased emphasis on teacher professional development. Since many elementary educators could benefit from improved science content knowledge—and given the challenge of providing this at a level scalable and sustainable through face-to-face delivery alone—this study sought to understand what types of online self-directed content-interaction strategies are of greatest learner satisfaction and provide the highest learning impact for teachers in grades three–six. Employing Anderson's Equivalency of Interaction Theorem, and looking at age, years teaching experience, and learning preferences via Kolb and Kolb's Learning Style Inventory 3.1 (2005), this descriptive study non-randomly sampled 85 educators who passed a series of self-paced interactive web modules to rate their preferences for five different types of content-interactive strategies: (a) simulations, (b) interactive reference, (c) hands-on, (d) personal feedback, and (e) pedagogical implications. Using an online survey and a pre- and postassessment instrument it was found that (a) as age and years teaching experience increase, teachers' preferences for personal feedback, interactive reference, and simulations increased, (b) teachers' content knowledge increased significantly after completing the web modules, (c) teachers' learning style moderately aligned with their preferences for content-interaction strategies, and (d) teachers least preferred the pedagogical implications component. Instructional designers and education administrators selecting professional development for teachers may find this informative. Data from this research support Anderson's theory that if the content interaction is rich, human interaction may be provided in diminished capacities. / Ph. D.

Abstract A STUDY OF A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE TO INCREASE CULTURAL COMPETENCY By Jennifer Crowe Coleman, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014 Major Director: Charol Shakeshaft, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Educational Leadership School of Education While there are broad, societal forces that contribute to achievement gaps, the professional development of teachers is one way educational leaders have sought to improve schools, improve teacher performance, and increase teacher knowledge and skills. Given the achievement and cultural gaps that exist between teachers and students, professional development that targets the development of teacher cultural competence in an effort to reach all students is necessary. The purpose of this study is to describe the implementation of a cultural competency professional development program across 62 schools in a large, suburban school district in central Virginia, comparing and contrasting implementation activities and outcomes over the 2-year period of its implementation with the initial expectations for the professional development initiative. This quantitative, nonexperimental study was carried out in two phases. The purpose of Phase 1 was a content analysis of the professional development plans of each of the district’s schools. Phase 2 consisted of a multiple choice, electronic survey of those who were trainers of the cultural competency professional development initiative in order to examine the implementation of the cultural competency professional development program and the relationship between the intended goal and the actual outcomes of the initiative. The survey was also used to collect demographic data, such as race and years of experience in education, in order to determine what, if any, impact these factors may have had on the implementation of the professional development initiative. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to generalize the results to the population the sample represents. As this initiative was not designed to provide the training necessary to expect changes in classroom practice, this survey and its analysis focused on the trainers’ perspectives on the implementation of the professional development initiative. The results of this research were offered to frame a discussion around the fidelity of implementation; the factors that affected implementation; the relationship between the intended goals of the initiative and the actual outcomes of the initiative; and suggested next steps for the district as it moved toward a goal of a more culturally proficient workforce.

The purpose of this study was to determine how transition specific professional development influenced secondary special educators’ knowledge and perceived self-efficacy regarding the use of evidence-based transition practices. Past research has suggested that secondary special educators enter the profession with limited knowledge and skills to provide effective evidence-based transition practices to students with disabilities. Based on Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, and Desimone’s framework for effective professional development, this study identified how different variables related to professional development can influence teacher self-efficacy in terms of delivering evidence-based transition practices. Specifically, a correlational research design was used to investigate teacher self-efficacy to deliver evidence-based transition practices when (a) the amount of professional development (b) type of professional development, and (c) location of the professional development are factors. Descriptive statistics, an analysis of variance (ANOVA), and a multiple linear regression analysis were performed. Results indicated the amount of professional development received had a significant effect on teachers perceived efficacy, compared to location, and type of professional development received. Further, results of teachers perceived effectiveness, changes made as a result of the professional development, and other factors related to professional development are reported. Limitations and implications for teacher professional development research, practice, and policy are discussed.