THE PRACTICE: Professional development should provide opportunities to gain an understanding of the theory underlying the knowledge and skills being learned.
Content Presented By:
National Partnership for Excellence & Accountability in Teaching

Research summary

Professional development should provide opportunities to engage in developing a theoretical understanding of the knowledge and skills to be learned (CPRE, 1995; Eraut, 1995; Feiman-Nemser & Parker, 1992; Fullan, 1991; Joyce & Showers, 1995; McDiarmid, 1994; NCRTE, 1991; Tillema & Imants, 1995). Results of research, in comprehensible forms, need to be made accessible to teachers, who cite lack of understanding and limited access as reasons why they do not put theory into practice.

Since teacher thinking and classroom behavior are influenced by teachers' knowledge and beliefs, an important component of their professional development needs to be the expansion and elaboration of their professional knowledge base. Broadly speaking, this would include general pedagogical knowledge, subject matter knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge, which address such areas as classroom management, conceptions of teaching a subject, and students understandings and potential misunderstandings of subject matter (Borko & Putnam, 1995; Eraut, 1995).

But new knowledge in itself does not effect change (NCRTE, 1991). Professional development must engage teachers' beliefs, experiences, and habits. Creating effective professional development opportunities means helping teachers (re)consider both their formal and their practical teaching knowledge (Fenstermacher, 1994). In reviewing three professional development programs based on a cognitive perspective, Borko and Putnam (1995) discuss the importance of teachers being asked to reconsider fundamental beliefs, especially the belief that they are the source of knowledge and that they have a responsibility to cover a specified amount of content (p. 55). Such beliefs are difficult to change. Teachers must experience different types of learning themselves, spend time adapting their instruction, and see positive results in their students. However, since beliefs filter knowledge and guide behavior, significant transformations of teaching practice are unlikely to occur, if they are ignored.

In addition to attending to teacher beliefs, professional development must attend to educators needs to adapt their learning to their own students and contexts. This should help overcome suspicions that research is irrelevant to teachers particular contexts and day-to-day responsibilities. Summarizing findings from case studies of professional development, Pink and Hyde (1992) stress the importance of useful knowledge for teaching. Teachers are more engaged participants when they see clear benefits between what they are learning and their own classroom situation. Such modification is more likely to be effective when it is informed by theory in which the educator involved has confidence.

References

Borko, H., & Putnam, R. T. (1995). Expanding a teachers knowledge base: A cognitive psychological perspective on professional development. In T. R. Guskey & M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms & practices (pp. 35-66). NY: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Consortium for Policy Research in Education. (1995, June). Helping teachers teach well: Transforming professional development. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University.

Eraut, M. (1995). Developing professional knowledge within a client-centered orientation. In T. R. Guskey & M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms & practices (pp. 227-252). NY: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Feiman-Nemser, S., & Parker, M. B. (1992). Mentoring in context: A Comparison of two U.S. programs for beginning teachers (NCRTL Special Report). East Lansing, MI: National Center for Research on Teacher Learning, Michigan State University. (ED 346 091)

Fenstermacher, G.D. (1994) The knower and the known: the nature of knowledge in research on teaching. In L. Darling-Hammond (Ed.), Review of research in education (pp. 3-56). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

Fullan, M. (1991). The new meaning of educational change. New York: Teachers College Press.

Joyce, B., & Showers, B. (1995). Student achievement through staff development: Fundamentals of school renewal (2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.

McDiarmid, G. W. (1994). Realizing new learning for all students: A framework for professional development of Kentucky teachers. Prepared for the Partnership for Kentucky School Reform. East Lansing, MI: National Center for Research on Teacher Learning, Michigan State University.

National Center for Research on Teacher Education. (1991). Final report: National Center for Research on Teacher Education. Michigan State University: East Lansing: MI.

Pink, W. T. & Hyde, A. A. (1992). Doing effective staff development. In W.T. Pink & A. A. Hyde (Eds.), Effective staff development for school change (pp. 259-292). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corp.

Tillema, H. H. & Imants, J. G. M. (1995). Training for the professional development of teachers. In T. R. Guskey & M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms & practices (pp. 135-150). NY: Teachers College, Columbia University.

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