Validity of an Online Assessment to Appraise Teacher Progress Monitoring Ability

Construction industry comprises a high degree of competition; the performance of construction projects is highly affected by the performance of civil engineers who are the core of construction productivity. Professional development is one of the essential milestones toward improving the performance of civil engineers. This paper, critically, evaluates the professional development and training of civil engineers in Baghdad. This encompassed the study of the existing programs offered for the professional development, the expected impact, and suggestions. Data were collected from 113 professional civil engineers about the existing professional development programs and training courses and analyzed. Large variations were found in terms of the time spent for professional development, despite the fact that they are comparable to some developed countries. Pitfalls in the field of professional training and development were clear. Remedial suggestions including professional development program and appraisal system were presented. It was emphasized that collaborative efforts by all stakeholders are required to ensure sustainable professional development.

IntroductionIn regional Australia and New Zealand, museums and art galleries are increasingly becoming primary sites of cultural engagement. They are one of the key tourist attractions for regional towns and expected to generate much needed tourism revenue. In 2017 in New South Wales alone, there were three million visitors to regional galleries and museums (MGNSW 13). However, apart from those (partially) funded by local councils, they are often run on donations, good will, and the enthusiasm of volunteers. Regional museums and galleries provide some paid, and more unpaid, employment for ageing populations. While two-thirds of Australia’s population lives in capital cities, the remainder who live in regional towns are likely to be in the 60+ age cohort because people are choosing to retire away from the bustling, growing cities (ABS). At last count, there were about 3000 museums and galleries in Australia with about 80% of them located in regional areas (Scott). Over the last 40 years, this figure has tripled from the 1000 regional and provincial museums estimated by Peter Piggott in his 1975 report (24). According to a 2014 survey (Shaw and Davidson), New Zealand has about 470 museums and galleries and about 70% are located outside capital cities. The vast majority, 85%, have less than five, full-time paid staff, and more than half of these were run entirely by ageing volunteers. They are entrusted with managing the vast majority of the history and heritage collections of Australia and New Zealand. These ageing volunteers need a diverse range of skills and experience to care for and interpret collections. How do you find the time and budget for professional development for both paid staff and volunteers? Many professional development events are held in capital cities, which are often a significant distance from the regional museum—this adds substantially to the costs of attending and the time commitment required to get there. In addition, it is not uncommon for people working in regional museums to be responsible for everything—from security, collection management, conservation, research, interpretation and public programs to changing the light bulbs. While there are a large number of resources available online, following a manual is often more difficult than learning from other colleagues or learning in a more formal educational or vocational environment where you can receive timely feedback on your work. Further, a foundational level of prior knowledge and experience is often required to follow written instructions. This article will suggest some strategies for low cost professional development and networking. It involves planning, thinking strategically and forming partnerships with others in the region. It is time to harness the power of modern communications technology and use it as a tool for professional development. Some models of professional development in regional areas that have been implemented in the past will also be reviewed. The focus for this article is on training and professional development for workers in regional museums, heritage sites and keeping places. Regional art galleries have not been included because they tend to have separate regional networks and training opportunities. For example, there are professional development opportunities provided through the Art Galleries Association of Australia and their state branches. Regional galleries are also far more likely to have one or more paid staff members (Winkworth, “Fixing the Slums” 2). Regional Museums, Volunteers, and Social CapitalIt is widely accepted that regional museums and galleries enhance social capital and reduce social isolation (Kelly 32; Burton and Griffin 328). However, while working in a regional museum or gallery can help to build friendship networks, it can also be professionally isolating. How do you benchmark what you do against other places if you are two or more hours drive from those places? How do you learn from other colleagues if all your colleagues are also isolated by the ‘tyranny of distance’ and struggling with the same lack of access to training? In 2017 in New South Wales alone, there were 8,629 active volunteers working in regional museums and galleries giving almost five million hours, which Museums and Galleries NSW calculated was worth over $150 million per annum in unpaid labour (MGNSW 1). Providing training and professional development to this group is an investment in Australia’s social and cultural capital.Unlike other community-run groups, the museums and heritage places which have emerged in regional Australia and New Zealand are not part of a national or state branch network. Volunteers who work for the Red Cross, Scouts or Landcare benefit from being part of a national organisation which provides funding, support workers, a website, governance structure, marketing, political advocacy and training (Winkworth, “Let a Thousand Flowers” 11). In Australia and New Zealand, this role is undertaken by the Australian Museums and Galleries Association AMaGA (formerly Museums Australia) and Museums Aotearoa respectively. However, both of these groups operate at the macro policy level, for example organising annual conferences, publishing a journal and developing Indigenous policy frameworks, rather than the local, practical level. In 1995, due to their advocacy work, Landcare Australia received $500 million over five years from the federal government to fund 5000 Landcare groups, which are run by 120,000 volunteers (Oppenheimer 177). They argued successfully that the sustainable development of land resources started at the local level. What do we need to do to convince government of the need for sustainable development of our local and regional museum and heritage resources?Training for Volunteers Working in Regional Museums: The Current SituationAnother barrier to training for regional museum workers is the assumption that the 70:20:10 model of professional development should apply. That is, 70% of one’s professional development is done ‘on the job’ by completing tasks and problem-solving; 20% is achieved by learning from mentors, coaches and role models and 10% is learnt from attending conferences and symposia and enrolling in formal courses of study. However, this model pre-supposes that there are people in your workplace whom you can learn from and who can show you how to complete a task, and that you are not destroying or damaging a precious, unique object if you happen to make a mistake.Some museum volunteers come with skills in research, marketing, administration, customer service or photography, but very few come with specific museum skills like writing exhibition text, registering an acquisition or conserving artefacts. These skills need to be taught. As Kylie Winkworth has written, museum management now requires a [...] skills set, which is not so readily found in small communities, and which in many ways is less rewarding for the available volunteers, who may have left school at 15. We do not expect volunteer librarians to catalogue books, which are in any case of low intrinsic value, but we still expect volunteers in their 70s and 80s to catalogue irreplaceable heritage collections and meet ever more onerous museum standards. That so many volunteers manage to do this is extraordinary. (“Let a Thousand Flowers” 13)Workers in regional museums are constantly required to step outside their comfort zones and learn new skills with minimal professional support. While these challenging experiences can be very rewarding, they are also potentially damaging for our irreplaceable material cultural heritage.Training for museum professionals has been on the agenda of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) since 1947 (Boylan 62). However, until 1996, their work focused on recommending curricula for new museum professionals and did not include life-long learning and on-going professional development. ICOM’s International Committee for the Training of Personnel (ICTOP) and the ICOM Executive has responded to this in their new curricula—ICOM Curricula Guidelines for Professional Museum Development, but this does not address the difficulties staff or volunteers working in regional areas face in accessing training.In some parts of Australia, there are regional support and professional development programs in place. For example, in Queensland, there is the Museum Development Officer (MDO) network. However, because of the geographic size of the state and the spread of the museums, these five regionally based staff often have 60-80 museums or keeping places in their region needing support and so their time and expertise is spread very thinly. It is also predominantly a fee-for-service arrangement. That is, the museums have to pay for the MDO to come and deliver training. Usually this is done by the MDO working with a local museum to apply for a Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) grant. In Victoria there is a roving curator program where eligible regional museums can apply to have a professional curator come and work with them for a few days to help the volunteers curate exhibitions. The roving curator can also provide advice on “develop[ing] high quality exhibitions for diverse audiences” via email, telephone and networking events. Tasmania operates a similar scheme but their two roving curators are available for up to 25 days of work each year with eligible museums, provided the local council makes a financial contribution. The New South Wales government supports the museum advisor program through which a museum professional will come to your museum for up to 20 days/year to give advice and hands-on training—provided your local council pays $7000, an amount that is matched by the state government—for this service. In 2010, in response to recommendations in the Dunn Report (2007), the Collections Council of Australia (CCA) established a pilot project with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in West

The teaching profession faces increasingly complex challenges as educational demands evolve in the 21st century. One of the primary issues teachers encounter is the need to continuously enhance professionalism while engaging in ongoing professional development. This study aims to analyze the synergy between professionalism and professional development within the context of teaching as a profession, as well as how this synergy can be optimized to improve teacher performance and success. The research employs a theoretical and empirical review that combines literature analysis with case studies. This study identifies key concepts in professionalism and professional development and explores the relationship between them through empirical data gathered from surveys and interviews with teachers across various educational levels. The findings reveal a significant correlation between the level of professionalism and engagement in professional development programs with the quality of teaching. Teachers who are actively involved in professional development tend to perform better, are more adaptable to curriculum changes, and are more capable of addressing challenges in teaching. Additionally, the study finds that the synergy between professionalism and professional development enhances teacher motivation, strengthens their commitment to the profession, and ultimately has a positive impact on student learning outcomes

Early childhood (EC) teachers need ongoing professional development (PD) to use information and communications technology (ICT) intentionally with young children. This chapter bridges the existing literature on PD best practices with additional interview data from EC teachers and higher education faculty. Three frames of influence on EC teachers' uses of ICT are discussed: personal – beliefs and comfort with technology; institutional – mandated curriculum, affordances of equipment, and ongoing personalized support; and societal – pervasive reliance on technology and influence on young children's future careers. The chapter concludes with PD recommendations for ICT that is content- and pedagogy-focused, based on research and policy, provides options for PD types and timing with follow up supports, and includes EC teachers in shared decision making for appropriate ICT practices in their classrooms.

The Elementary School Journal Volume 81, Number 1 ? 1980 by The University of Chicago 0013-5984/81/8101-0008$0o1.00 In colleges and universities across the country, prospective and practicing teachers and administrators take courses on planning-curriculum-planning and instructional planning. During the courses, teachers and administrators usually study an objectives-first model of curriculumplanning. This model has four steps. Planners are expected to 1. Formulate objectives 2. Choose appropriate learning activities

Online professional development programmes have a long tradition in adult education. However, in early childhood education, such programmes are only just beginning to be developed. Before online professional development courses can be made inclusive, accessible and widely available to early childhood educators, they must meet a few basic requirements. The present study provides insights into essential aspects that need to be considered when setting up online professional development programmes, a field which is still in its infancy in Austria. The results of a representative survey ( n = 317) demonstrated that early childhood educators' digital competencies are highly variable and cannot be taken for granted. The survey results also stress the need to provide educators with functional digital devices appropriate to their work environment. Early childhood educators' interest in online professional development programmes is very high, in recognition of the advantages afforded by flexible participation options independent of users' time constraints or location. The development of attractive, compelling and accessible online professional development courses can contribute to current professionalisation efforts in the field of early childhood education. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic Online professional development has already a very long tradition in the field of adult vocational training but not in Early Childhood Education. The possibility of attending online professional development programmes independent of a participant's time constraints or location is viewed as a particularly beneficial advantage. Online professional development programmes positively affect the professionalisation of educators. For this reason, they must increasingly be integrated into the field of early childhood education. What this paper adds In the field of early childhood education in German‐speaking regions, online professional development training courses are only beginning to be developed. This paper examines the challenges and barriers for early childhood educators associated with implementing online professional development programmes for early childhood educators. The survey was conducted during the COVID‐19 pandemic and includes current data on the ongoing digitalisation boom. Implications for practise and/or policy Online professional development courses should not be understood as competition for conventional face‐to‐face programmes. Instead, they act as a useful supplement. Media competencies are a fundamental prerequisite for everyday professional life—early childhood educators need functional media devices, stable internet connections, and support structures in IT and computer literacy. Early childhood educators require effective instruction in using online professional development programmes to expand online professional development programmes in their field. They must also address compelling topics in early childhood education relevant to educators' practise.

Background: Teachers who engage in formative classroom assessment using practices that accurately measure student learning should be better positioned to diagnose the instructional needs of their students and to act on that information. For this reason, there has been increased interest in formative classroom assessment in recent years. Although some researchers have found indications that some assessment practices may raise student achievement, evaluations of professional development programs designed to increase teacher assessment skill have not found differences in student performance. However, few studies of this type have been performed. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of a professional development program in formative classroom assessment on teacher assessment knowledge and their students’ achievement. Setting: The professional development program was implemented in state-identified, low performing middle schools from November 2005 through April 2008. Intervention: Researchers investigated a professional development program for teachers designed to increase their skill in creating and using assessments to support student learning. In Year 1, the professional development was implemented by an assessment coach in the treatment schools. No professional development was provided in the control schools. In Years 2 and 3, levels of treatment were investigated such that the professional development was implemented by an assessment coach or a relatively untrained facilitator. Research Design: Year 1 involved a multi-site, cluster randomized trial where schools were randomly assigned to either the treatment or control group. Year 2 and Year 3 involved a quasi-experimental design. Data Collection and Analysis: Researchers collected pretest and posttest teacher measures and analyzed the data using a split-plot ANOVA each year. Summative large scale assessment data was collected for students and analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Findings: Findings from this study indicate that the professional development program increased teacher assessment skill regardless of whether the program was implemented with a trained assessment coach or a relatively untrained facilitator. However, students of teachers participating in the professional development tended to demonstrate lower achievement than a matched set of students whose teachers did not receive the professional development. Implications for how teachers use assessment data to guide reteaching are discussed. Keywords: formative assessment; classroom assessment; student achievement

Stage 1: Survival During Stage 1, which may last throughout the first full year of teaching, the teacher's main concern is whether she can survive. This preoccupation with survival may be expressed in questions the teacher asks: "Can I get through the day in one piece? Without losing a child? Can I make it until the end of the week? Until the next vacation? Can I really do this kind of work day after day? Will I be accepted by my colleagues?" Such questions are well expressed in Ryan's enlightening collection of accounts of first-year teaching experiences (3).

Contributors

Teachers' Sense of Efficacy: An Important Factor in School Improvement

Contributors

Early childhood years are a fundamental period of development in human lifespan. Infant and toddler care programs, early childhood education services, after-school care programs, and parenting programs are foundational in the physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development of children. Development of quality early childhood programs can be realized through consideration of various elements of quality. Early childhood care and education (ECCE) program designers should aim to develop safe, healthy, responsive, engaging, and developmentally appropriate programs. Program curriculum, which takes place at the heart of program development, should also be responsive to children's needs and interests to construct meaningful, age-appropriate, and play-based learning experiences. Ongoing assessment and evaluation are integral part of quality ECCE program development. Early childhood assessment consists of child-level and program-level assessments. Assessment of children's developmental outcomes and program environmental characteristics play key roles in the development and evaluation of ECCE programs. Even though there are many available tools of assessment, common features of quality assessments include reliability, validity, purposefulness, and universality. Evaluation of early childhood programs makes use of different methodologies designed to study program process, outcome, impact, and cost-benefit. Development of quality early childhood care and education programs need systematic planning, implementation, and monitoring through the use of quality assessment and evaluation methodologies. This chapter provides a synthesis of the current state of knowledge in program development, assessment, and evaluation in early care and education based on high quality research studies coming from a variety of fields.

Early childhood years are a fundamental period of development in human lifespan. Infant and toddler care programs, early childhood education services, after-school care programs, and parenting programs are foundational in the physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development of children. Development of quality early childhood programs can be realized through consideration of various elements of quality. Early childhood care and education (ECCE) program designers should aim to develop safe, healthy, responsive, engaging, and developmentally appropriate programs. Program curriculum, which takes place at the heart of program development, should also be responsive to children's needs and interests to construct meaningful, age-appropriate, and play-based learning experiences. Ongoing assessment and evaluation are integral part of quality ECCE program development. Early childhood assessment consists of child-level and program-level assessments. Assessment of children's developmental outcomes and program environmental characteristics play key roles in the development and evaluation of ECCE programs. Even though there are many available tools of assessment, common features of quality assessments include reliability, validity, purposefulness, and universality. Evaluation of early childhood programs makes use of different methodologies designed to study program process, outcome, impact, and cost-benefit. Development of quality early childhood care and education programs need systematic planning, implementation, and monitoring through the use of quality assessment and evaluation methodologies. This chapter provides a synthesis of the current state of knowledge in program development, assessment, and evaluation in early care and education based on high quality research studies coming from a variety of fields.

Background: Quality early childhood interactions, especially quality adult–child interactions, are known to form the foundation of future skills associated with social, academic and communicative development. Speech-language therapists (SLTs) can engage with educators in professional development to improve communication environments for children. Understanding the perspectives of early childhood directors and educators in relation to the feasibility, sustainability and impact of professional development is needed. Aim(s): This study investigated the experiences of early childhood educators and directors who participated in a SLT-led professional development training program. Method: Participants were four directors and six early childhood educators. Directors participated in one focus group; educators participated in individual semi-structured interviews. All participants were female and had between 5 and 38 years of experience. They were interviewed following the completion of an eight-week training program. Verbatim transcripts of the director focus group and educator interviews were thematically analysed using NVivo12. Result(s): Three overarching themes were developed. These were the appropriateness and acceptability of the training, impact and professional engagement with eight subsequent themes also identified. Although participants reported positive experiences participating in the training, several practical and translational challenges were identified. Conclusion: The professional development training implemented by SLTs was influenced by a number of factors that assisted or hindered educator and director experience of the program. The appropriateness, acceptability and feasibility of a professional development (PD) program should carefully consider participants’ learning needs and workplace environments.

Teacher feedback during active learning : the development and evaluation of a professional development program