The Impact of a NCLB-EETT Funded Professional Development Program on Teacher Self-Efficacy and Resultant Implementation

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Overbaugh ◽  
Ruiling Lu
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hannah Hemmelgarn

High school agriculture science programs are recognized as meaningful arenas to reach young agriculture professionals as they gain a foundational understanding of their field. While sustainability is at the forefront of agriculture research and technological advancements, and is critical to student career readiness, the adoption of novel sustainable agriculture content in the high school curriculum has not been implemented for certain sustainable agriculture practices. Agroforestry represents one such content area that has been largely lacking in high school agriculture science classrooms, despite its relevance to modern agricultural advancements in sustainability for economic, environmental, and social resilience. Due to the contextual nature of content adoption by agricultural educators, the curriculum implementation process for novel content is dependent on an understanding of teacher learning, teacher self-efficacy, professional development, and curriculum modification. This case study of the process of novel content implementation examines the complexities of teacher sourcing, modification, and use of novel content, evaluates an agroforestry professional development program for teachers with varying levels of experience, and follows this group of teachers one year after the professional development program to investigate the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and novel content enactment. The importance of teacher-learning support networks and experiential learning in curriculum and professional development emerged as major themes for effective novel content implementation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0193841X2110553
Author(s):  
Giovanni Abbiati ◽  
Gianluca Argentin ◽  
Andrea Caputo ◽  
Aline Pennisi

Background A recent stream of literature recognizes the impact of good/poor implementation on the effectiveness of programs. However, implementation is often disregarded in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) because they are run on a small scale. Replicated RCTs, although rare, provide a unique opportunity to study the relevance of implementation for program effectiveness. Objectives Evaluating the effectiveness of an at-scale professional development program for lower secondary school math teachers through two repeated RCTs. Research Design The program lasts a full school year and provides innovative methods for teaching math. The evaluation was conducted on two cohorts of teachers in the 2009/10 and 2010/11 school years. The program and RCTs were held at scale. Participating teachers and their classes were followed for 3 years. Impact is estimated by comparing the math scores of treatment and control students. Subjects The evaluation involved 195 teachers and their 3940 students (first cohort) and 146 teachers and their 2858 students (second cohort). Measures The key outcome is students’ math achievement, measured through standardized assessment. Results In the first wave, the program did not impact on students’ achievement, while in the second wave, a positive, persistent, and not insignificant effect was found. After excluding other sources of change, different findings across waves are interpreted in the light of improvements in the program implementation, such as enrollment procedure, teacher collaboration, and integration of innovation in daily teaching. Conclusions Repeated assessment of interventions already at-scale provides the opportunity to better identify and correct sources of weak implementation, potentially improving effectiveness.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 38-49
Author(s):  
Pamela Moen ◽  
Kelley Walters

Data collected within this qualitative, multiple-case study included teachers' knowledge building preferences for written speech in a virtual community of practice (VCoP), blended learning, teacher professional development program. This data was analyzed using the theoretical tenets of Vygotsky's social constructivist learning theory. Through heterogeneous sampling, six sites were selected from 11 program participating schools, with 11 participating teachers purposively selected from these sites. Following semi-structured participant interviews, data were coded and analyzed, where the findings indicated that participants preferred the audiovisual learning content to the written activity format in the blended learning, VCoP teacher professional development program. Program developers may use the research findings to guide the development of VCoP content alternatives to singularly text based online professional development delivery models. Recommendations for future research include studies that address the impact of audiovisual VCoP content on knowledge building.


ZDM ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (7) ◽  
pp. 1411-1422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Thurm ◽  
Bärbel Barzel

Abstract Digital technologies such as multi-representational tools have the potential to enhance the learning of mathematics. In light of this potential, there is a ubiquitous call to integrate such tools into mathematics teaching. However, these technologies are still underused. Teaching with technology is not an easy task and teacher competencies such as knowledge and beliefs are a decisive factor. Therefore, professional development is important to professionalize teachers and support them in using technology in meaningful ways. Despite this need, little is known about the efficacy of professional development programs for teaching mathematics with technology. This quantitative study investigated the efficacy of a half-year professional development program for teaching mathematics with technology, using the methodology of a quasi-experimental design, in Germany. We captured (i) teachers’ beliefs about teaching with technology, (ii) self-efficacy beliefs related to teaching with technology, (iii) epistemological beliefs and (iv) self-reported frequency of technology uptake with quantitative questionnaires in pre- and post-tests. The experimental group (n = 39) participating in the professional development program consisted of mostly novices in using technology for teaching mathematics. Propensity score matching was used to match this group with a control group of teachers (n = 38) who did not participate in the professional development program. The strongest impact of the professional development program was found on teacher’s technology-related beliefs. Frequency of technology use seemed to increase gradually in the experimental group during the professional development program. No effect of the professional development program was found on self-efficacy beliefs and epistemological beliefs. We conclude by deriving recommendations for designing professional development programs related to teaching with technology.


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