School districts face tremendous budget challenges and, as a result, professional development has been "trimmed" from many school budgets. (Habegger & Hodanbosi, 2011). School administrators responsible for planning professional development face a daunting task and often focus on PowerPoints, district mandated training, one-shot presentations, and workshops that are delivered by expensive experts. These types of activities lack teacher collaboration, time for sharing of ideas and opportunity for reflection and analysis (Torff & Byrnes, 2011, Coggins, Zuckerman & Mckelvey, 2010).
The problem addressed in this study is that teacher professional development is usually planned by school administrators who are provided little support or training. This study used the problem-based learning approach designed by Bridges and Hallinger (1995) to determine the usefulness of a handbook for principals to utilize as they plan professional development. The handbook was developed, field tested and revised using Borg and Gall's (2003) research and development cycle. This qualitative study included surveys, observations, interviews and workshops to determine the usefulness of the handbook. The study consisted of preliminary field testing and product revision followed by the main field testing. The main field test was a workshop for K-12 school and district level administrators on how to use the handbook in planning meaningful, ongoing teacher professional development. The data collected in this study determined that the handbook,Teachers Teaching Teachers: Designing Successful Teacher Professional Development on a Shoestring Budget, is a useful tool for school administrators responsible for planning teacher professional development.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-3072 |
Date | 21 November 2014 |
Creators | Campbell, Carol L. |
Publisher | PDXScholar |
Source Sets | Portland State University |
Detected Language | English |
Type | text |
Format | application/pdf |
Source | Dissertations and Theses |
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