Professional Development Approach Research Articles

ECHO: A Model for Professional Development in Nursing Through Learning Networks.

Health research is published at a breathtaking pace and quantity; however, even when research is systematically developed into best practices and/or clinical guidelines, it often is not implemented into practice. Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is an evidence-based professional development approach that can help nurses to stay current and apply new knowledge to practice. The purpose of this article is to describe ECHO as a model for professional development and capacity building through learning networks. This article describes the ECHO model, evidence supporting its use, the infrastructure needed to implement an ECHO network, and two nursing ECHO learning networks. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2021;52(4):198-204.].

Is Coaching Home Visitors an Evidence-Based Professional Development Approach? A Review of the Literature

Coaching is becoming a common professional development strategy to support early childhood (EC) professionals to use evidence-based practices. However, most of the research on coaching professionals in EC settings has been conducted in classroom or center-based EC settings. The authors of this review sought to summarize the current empirical literature on coaching of EC home visitors. Seven studies were identified and coded to determine common factors. Additional research is greatly needed to identify whether coaching home visitors is an evidence-based professional development strategy and the effective components of coaching in home-based programs.

Promoting a Person-Centered Approach to Strengthening Early Childhood Practices that Support Social-Emotional Development

ABSTRACT Research Findings: This paper presents findings from an exploratory study to define associations between social–emotional teaching practices and teacher characteristics through a person-centered approach. The sample consisted of 97 teachers working in center-based early childhood education settings with young children ages 2–5 in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. We analyzed teachers’ observed classroom social–emotional teaching practices and self-reported Professional Development (PD) experiences, job attitudes (e.g., job-related stress, satisfaction, and commitment), and disciplinary efficacy to identify profile membership of teachers. A latent profile analysis revealed 4 profiles: (a) higher practice quality, higher PD experience, higher job attitudes, and higher disciplinary efficacy, (b) higher practice quality, mixed PD experience, lower job attitudes, and lower disciplinary efficacy, (c) lower practice quality, mixed PD experience, higher job attitudes, and higher disciplinary efficacy, and (d) lower practice quality, mixed PD experience, mixed job attitudes, and lower disciplinary efficacy. Practice or Policy: The results suggest that a person-centered approach to understanding classroom quality might provide multiple dimensions to consider for quality improvement. Additionally, a tailored and tiered professional development approach to support the early childhood workforce is needed that considers the complex connections between teachers’ practices, beliefs, and job attitudes.

Playful provocations and playful mindsets: teacher learning and identity shifts through playful participatory research

ABSTRACT Play is a core resource for how children learn. Yet current efforts to bring playful learning into schools often neglect the role adults play in embracing and modeling playfulness. This paper presents findings from a collaboration between the International School of Billund, Denmark, and Project Zero, a research organization at Harvard Graduate School of Education. The study examined Playful Participatory Research (PPR), an emergent qualitative methodology that is both teacher research and a professional development (PD) approach. Drawing on interviews with 21 teachers across the school, we found that PPR positively affects: attitudes towards PD; teachers’ self-perception and identity; incorporation of play into teaching; and overall school culture. Implications suggest that school leaders who aspire to support learning through play in schools should design adult learning environments that mirror the playful learning environments they desire for children, by providing time, resources, and encouragement for playful teacher research and PD.

The Virtual Community of Practice for School Principals: A Professional Development Method

In an education system that is constantly evolving, school principals play a pivotal role, hence the importance of continuing their professional development in order to acquire the necessary competencies to perform effectively throughout their professional careers. This article examines the characteristics of a community of practice (CoP) as a professional development approach with a group of school principals (N = 10) who participated in a virtual CoP for one year. The corpus from the semi-structured interviews was analysed by considering the four components of Wenger’s (2005) social theory of learning, namely, meaning, practice, community, and identity. Our results also showed the levers of this support method during its implementation.

ТРАНСПРОФЕССИОНАЛИЗМ КАК ПРЕДИКТОР ПРЕАДАПТАЦИИ СУБЪЕКТА ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ К ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОМУ БУДУЩЕМУ

The article analyzes the possibilities of transprofessionalism as a factor in the preadaptation of a personality to an uncertain professional future in a post-industrial society. The logical-semantic model of transprofessionalism and a heuristic model of an agent’s preadaptation to uncertain professional future are presented. The foresight technology system was chosen as a methodology for developing transprofessionalism and predicting the social and professional future. It was focused on the formation of readiness for changes and the preadaptation for unpredictable future. The result of this technology is the convergence of a post-industrial society characteristics and semantic qualities of the professional future. The generalization of the research results allowed the authors to justify the possibility of high school training of transprofessionals with meta-professional skills who are ready to meet the challenges of the digital economy. The purpose of the research was to determine effective technologies for the training of innovative specialists (transprofessionals) on the basis of the developed transprofessional models of pre-adaptation to the professional future. The methodological basis of the study was non-classical psychology and a convergent ap-proach. In the scientific substantiation of transprofessionalism as a predictor of preadaptation to the future, the concept of professional development, the multidimensional, transdiscipli-nary, competence and project approaches, as well as the modeling of the predictable future were used. The article presents the logical-semantic and heuristic models of convergence and transprofessionalism development, as well as foresight technologies for preparing agents for an uncertain professional future. The structure of transprofessionalism is revealed through a meaningful analysis and description of its components’ interaction, which include the trans-fessional orientation, as well as the regulatory, vocational and educational, information and communication, operational and technological components. The intercoordinate space in the proposed model forms the psychological potential of the personality, its resource capabilities. Based on the analysis of trends and challenges of the post-industrial society, it was concluded that it is necessary to introduce into the educational process the technology of problem-oriented learning (PBL) and foresight technologies aimed at developing students' readiness for change, proactive goal-setting and self-design in a variable educational space (high humanitarian technologies, minors, design methods involving digital didactic tools, game technologies, discussions and moderation, etc.). Concerning practical significance, the materials of the article can be used for the preparation of transprofessional specialists who are ready for pre-adaptation of an uncertain social and professional future.

Effective Programs in Elementary Mathematics: A Meta-Analysis

This article reviews research on the achievement outcomes of elementary mathematics programs; 87 rigorous experimental studies evaluated 66 programs in grades K–5. Programs were organized in six categories. Particularly positive outcomes were found for tutoring programs (effect size [ES] = +0.20, k = 22). Positive outcomes were also seen in studies focused on professional development for classroom organization and management (e.g., cooperative learning; ES = +0.19, k = 7). Professional development approaches focused on helping teachers gain in understanding of mathematics content and pedagogy had little impact on student achievement. Professional development intended to help in the adoption of new curricula had a small but significant impact for traditional (nondigital) curricula (ES = +0.12, k = 7), but not for digital curricula. Traditional and digital curricula with limited professional development, as well as benchmark assessment programs, found few positive effects.

Monitoring and evaluation in a changing world: A Southern African perspective on the skills needed for a new approach

Background: As science and modern technology have brought many advances, we have also come to overshoot planetary boundaries, while still falling short of development goals to eradicate poverty and inequality. A growing recognition of the complexity of development problems and contexts calls for new framings, including a new approach to monitoring and evaluation (M&E) as one of the mechanisms by which modern societies aim to steer towards a more sustainable future. New approaches to M&E mean new skills for the M&E practitioner. Objectives: This article proposed a framing for M&E skills, comprising of technical, relational and transformational (T-R-T) competences . Method: Adapted from the literature, this competence framework was tested in a broader learning needs assessment and then applied retrospectively to author’s experience in developmental evaluations in complex social–ecological contexts in southern Africa. Results: The emerging insights were that not only technical competence is needed, but also relational competence that goes beyond interpersonal skills, to enable the production and uptake of evaluation findings. In addition, the limitations of mainstream M&E methods in the face of complexity seemed to create a need for ‘transformational’ competence, which included evaluators’ ability to develop credible M&E alternatives. Conclusion: The T-R-T framework helped to advance the notions of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills and expanded on existing M&E competence frameworks. Recommendations included a call for innovative educational and professional development approaches to develop relational and transformational competencies, in addition to training for technical competence.

TEACHERS’ AWARENESS AND UNDERSTANDING OF STUDENTS’ CONTENT KNOWLEDGE OF GEOMETRIC SHAPES

Few research studies have been conducted in a primary school in early mathematical education about the teaching of geometry. This research aims to contribute with knowledge of how teachers’ awareness and understanding of necessary conditions to enhance students’ abilities to discern two- and three-dimensional shapes develop. In this research, qualitative methods were used to analyse data from a lesson study in grade 4 in the subject of mathematics. Data were primarily collected through audio-recorded conversations with teachers before and after the lesson, and the results of students’ pre- and post-test. The results of this research showed increased awareness of using collaboration opportunities to apply professional classroom instructions and activities to enhance students’ knowledge of two- and three-dimensional shapes. This research elucidates how the practice-based professional development approach emphasised the teachers’ teaching targets for understanding students’ content knowledge of geometric shapes. Additionally, the result highlighted teachers’ awareness and understanding of the challenges students face in learning about three-dimensional shapes from two-dimensional representations. Future research should develop a more iterative and revised research lesson design to develop more powerful content knowledge and classroom activity in this topic area. Keywords: early mathematics education, geometric shapes, practice-based professional development, lesson study

Simple Interactions: A randomized controlled trial of relational training for adults who work with young people across settings

Research across multiple fields finds that adult-youth relationships are key influencers of development; however, professional learning about relational practice is limited. This suggests the need for targeted, efficient ways to help adults improve relational practice. We present a randomized controlled trial of Simple Interactions, a strength-based professional development approach during which participants reflect on short videos of themselves interacting with young people using a dialogic protocol. Participating staff expressed high satisfaction with Simple Interactions, rating an average of 4.56 out of 5.00 on a 7-item composite measure. We saw an experimental effect for belief change, with treatment group staff after the workshops rating relational practice as more important than control group staff. We did not see an experimental effect for relational practice, perhaps due to substantial challenges around workshop attendance. The findings are promising for the innovation and suggest more engagement may be necessary to see change in practice.

Group mentorship for undergraduate medical students-asystematic review.

IntroductionMentoring has become a prevalent educational strategy in medical education, with various aims. Published reviews of mentoring report very little on group-based mentorship programs. The aim of this systematic review was to identify group-based mentorship programs for undergraduate medical students and describe their aims, structures, contents and program evaluations. Based on the findings of this review, the authors provide recommendations for the organization and assessment of such programs.MethodsA systematic review was conducted, according to PRISMA guidelines, and using the databases Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO and ERIC up to July 2019. Eight hundred abstracts were retrieved and 20 studies included. Quality assessment of the quantitative studies was done using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI).ResultsThe 20 included studies describe 17 different group mentorship programs for undergraduate medical students in seven countries. The programs were differently structured and used a variety of methods to achieve aims related to professional development and evaluation approaches. Most of the studies used a single-group cross-sectional design conducted at a single institution. Despite the modest quality, the evaluation data are remarkably supportive of mentoring medical students in groups.DiscussionGroup mentoring holds great potential for undergraduate medical education. However, the scientific literature on this genre is sparse. The findings indicate that group mentorship programs benefit from being longitudinal and mandatory. Ideally, they should provide opportunities throughout undergraduate medical education for regular meetings where discussions and personal reflection occur in a supportive environment.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s40037-020-00610-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Professional development in clinical facilitation: An integrated review

<h2>ABSTRACT</h2><h3>Background</h3> Clinical facilitators have an essential role in the development of safe and committed nurses worldwide, but the approach to provision of professional development to help clinical facilitators reach potential is informal, inconsistent and not always relevant to their learning needs. It is important to examine the reported role tensions to generate solutions to the problems and include these teachings in professional development opportunities for clinical facilitators. <h3>Method</h3> An integrative literature review was undertaken intending to understand and collate the tensions, constraints, as well as supports, and best practice in the role. <h3>Results</h3> The review identified 40 relevant studies. <h3>Conclusion</h3> The identified studies highlighted challenges such as lack of role clarity and lack of evaluation of professional development approaches, which hamper best practice; as well as exemplary practices, such as peer-to-peer learning; which has potential to advance the sub-specialty of clinical facilitation.

Reflection for action: designing tools to support teacher reflection on everyday evidence

ABSTRACT Improving educational practice through reflection is one important focus of teacher professional development approaches. However, such teacher reflection operates under practical classroom constraints that make it happen infrequently, including the reliance on disruptive peer/supervisor observations or recordings. This article describes three design-based research iterations towards technological support for teacher reflection based on everyday evidence and feedback. The authors collaborated with 16 teachers from two different secondary schools, using a variety of prototype technologies (from paper prototypes to web applications and wearable sensors). The iterative evaluation of such prototypes led them from a high-tech focused approach to a more nuanced socio-technical one, based on lightweight technologies and ‘envelope routines’ that also involve students. After illustrating the potential of this approach to change teacher practice and students’ learning experience, the authors also present a series of guidelines for the design of technology that supports such reflection based on everyday evidence gathering.

Educational Leadership in K-12 and Higher Education: An Exploratory Study

This research is intended to explore the limited study of leadership development across three areas of educational leaders: K-12, higher education professional (HE-P) (not in academics), and higher education academic leaders (HE-A). Background: Educational leaders from these three different groups are often viewed and treated separately, both in areas of research and practice. Methodology: A brief electronic survey was sent to over 600 educational leaders equally distributed across these three areas. Findings: There was noteworthy congruence in terms of the leadership theories utilized across the groupings, but differences in terms of where they received much of their professional education regarding leadership. Future Research: This study raises questions regarding efficacy of professional development approaches, the value of leadership development per se, and the potential value of bringing together the three groups in professional development activities as a means of forging a more seamless system for students.

Is there anything special about lesson study in special schools?

PurposeJapanese lesson study (LS) is a professional development (PD) approach in which teachers collaboratively plan a lesson, observe it being taught and then discuss what they have learned. LS's popularity as an approach to teacher PD in the UK is growing, and it is used in both special and mainstream settings. This study explores whether LS is perceived and operationalized in the same way across special and mainstream settings.Design/methodology/approachThis study arose as a result of collaboration between UCL Institute of Education academics (principle investigators) and three special school leaders using LS in their own schools (practitioner co-investigators), who together formed the research team. The team first explored the literature base for LS in special education. They then investigated special and mainstream schools using LS for teacher PD. Research tools included semi-structured interviews and an online survey. Participants were obtained through opportunistic sampling via the networks of schools available to the researchers.FindingsThere were several key differences between LS in special and mainstream settings. Special teachers felt LS had a more positive impact on subject knowledge than mainstream teachers, and this impact extended to support staff. Special teachers were more likely to carry out multiple research cycles than mainstream colleagues and to quickly build LS into the existing timetable. Mainstream teachers focused on individual pupils in LS to seek learning about pedagogy more generally, whereas general learning about pedagogy was seen as a secondary benefit to special teachers.Research limitations/implicationsOne of the limitations of the research is that participants are more positively inclined toward LS than the general population of their school, since those not interested in LS would be unlikely to take the time to engage with the research. It will be important to conduct more research into the use of LS in mainstream schools, as this study is one of very few exploring LS in this special context.Practical implicationsThe ease with which special schools can align LS to current practice due to greater flexibility of timetables and larger staff teams seems to result in a greater appreciation and “valuing” of the process in mainstream schools, where teachers seemed to feel their senior leadership teams had gone to extra lengths to enable LS to happen. LS seems to offer a framework within which senior leaders can prioritize such learning experiences for teachers, leading to positive benefits for pupils, teachers and the school, and is therefore a process worth considering both for special and mainstream school leaders.Originality/valueThe literature review found a limited number of studies of LS in a special educational needs and disability (SEND) context, all of which took place in the UK and focused on the impact of teacher participation in LS on teacher practice and pupil learning. All three studies show a positive impact and suggest that LS might have wider applications for both special schools and mainstream schools supporting SEND pupils. There has been no exploration of the different ways in which mainstream and special school teachers and pupils might experience or construct LS in their own contexts.

‘More willing to carry on in the face of adversity’: how beginner teachers facing challenging circumstances experience positive psychology coaching. An interpretative phenomenological analysis

ABSTRACT Positive psychology coaching (PPC) is defined as activating positive psychology (PP) in an applied and systematic way through coaching (Passmore, J., & Oades, P. (2014). Positive psychology coaching – A model for coaching practice. The Coaching Psychologist, 10(2), 68–70). Currently studies looking at how PPC is experienced by coachees are limited. While there has been some early success cited in using a PPC approach in professional development in education with adults (Zwart, R. C., Korthagen, F. A. J., & Attema-Noordewier, S. (2014). A strength-based approach to teacher professional development. Professional Development in Education, 41(3), 579–596. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2014.919341) it is not yet known how teachers experience PPC. The purpose of this paper was to gain an understanding of how PPC is experienced by beginner teachers undergoing challenging circumstances. This initial explorative study adopted a qualitative approach using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (Smith, J., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2009). Interpretative phenomenological analysis: Theory, method and research. Sage). Four superordinate themes emerged: ‘perfectly normal to feel this way’; making sense and ‘joining the dots’; increased positive emotion; and, time to think ‘in an easy-going environment’. Further studies of the application of PPC in educational settings are needed.

Spaced Education Through e-Learning for Ongoing Professional Development.

The practice of emergency medicine has become increasingly complex. Constant advances in clinical practice, innovative technologies, patient safety and quality initiatives, and local and national policy changes continue to add to the cognitive load on providers. New and innovative professional development approaches are needed to help providers remain current despite busy and disparate clinician schedules. We used a Web-based, spaced education platform, to distribute questions to faculty and fellows within the Division of Emergency Medicine. Included content was prioritized within four subject areas: clinical practice, quality improvement, division and institution policies, and educational efforts. All questions were scenario-based (clinical or administrative), with multiple-choice responses. The platform provided real-time feedback on correct response, with explanations including integrated learning materials. Invited faculty developed the questions internally using standardized resources followed by peer review. Questions were delivered weekly. Metrics regarding engagement and performance were followed, including an anonymized leaderboard. Participants were also surveyed regarding perceptions of individual questions and the overall initiative. Every faculty member (n=55) and fellow (n=18) engaged in the program at some point. Ninety-two percent of participants completed all the questions. The overall correct response rate on first attempt was 65%. For the three most challenging questions, first attempt responses were correct 41% of the time, which increased to 90% on repeat testing. Qualitative analysis of survey comments revealed the following themes: enjoying the e-learning approach, the appreciation for the relevance of the content, and the value and quality of the explanations with integrated educational materials. We outline the use of a Web-based, spaced education curriculum for ongoing professional development in a large emergency medicine division. This initiative effectively engaged faculty members and trainees and was perceived to be of high value. The intervention successfully utilized the principles of spaced learning, test-enhanced learning, and gaming theory within a flexible and innovative professional development curriculum.

Supporting Elementary Teachers' Collective Inquiry into the “E” in STEM

In the USA context of the Next Generation Science Standards, elementary teachers face challenges in implementing engineering practices in their teaching due their lack of experience and training in engineering design. The paper reports about a multiple case study that examined one professional development approach to improve teachers’ understanding and implementation of the STEM discipline of engineering. Two teams of elementary teachers analyzed their students’ written work and assessments during facilitated professional learning community sessions with a science/engineering education researcher after their first implementation of an engineering design unit. The results indicated that the teachers noticed students’ understandings and misconceptions about the work of engineers, the disciplinary language for a specific engineering unit, the operational mechanism of a design, and engineering epistemic practices (i.e., envisioning design proposals, making evidence-based decisions, evaluating solutions based on criteria). From this collaborative, focused analysis of student work for the engineering challenge, the teacher teams constructed their understanding of students’ thinking and generated recommendations for pedagogical changes in their own STEM teaching practice for engineering design. The findings from this study have implications for forms of professional development that sustain teacher learning about the STEM discipline of engineering design.

Mentoring Matters in Workplace: The Impact of Formal Mentoring Program on EFL Instructors’ Performance at ELI, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia

An unprecedented acceleration in globalization, cross-culture integration and intensified innovation are a few elements that have triggered the need for availability of mentoring as the professional identity of any institution of higher learning. It has got the status of a foundation stone of mutual accomplishments between universities in the provision of teacher development. Therefore, this research study was carried out to evaluate the experiences of faculty members who participated in a formal mentoring program organized by the English Language Institute (ELI) at King Abdulaziz University (KAU) from 2017 to 2019. In this mixed-method study, a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to gather data in order to respond to questions connected to the effectiveness of the mentoring program for mentors and mentees. The study particularly sought to discover the character of the work issues discussed and the worth judged by participants as emerging from their contribution to a programmed mentoring correlation. Data analysis transpired that mentoring promoted all of those who participated in the program. The study concluded that mentoring could assist in constructing capability in two ways: featured and standardized mentoring of trainee teachers through overt mentoring practices, and demonstrating and deconstructing teaching methods and practices for mentors&amp;#39; pedagogical progression. This study emphasizes the worth and value of the formal mentoring program as a valued and fitting professional development approach.&amp;nbsp;

A self-defined professional development approach for current and aspiring educational developers

Professional development offerings for current and aspiring educational developers can be sparse and neither fully contextually appropriate nor personally relevant given the range of experiences people bring to the field. In the absence of suitable professionalization programs, we created a self-defined professional development approach to support us in our educational developer work. Using a framework for reflective writing, we describe our approach and the strategies we implemented, and we consider at a “meta” level what contributes to the viability or success of our self-defined professional development plan. Measures for assessing success were framed using utilization-focused evaluation. We outline implications for future practice and propose that a self-defined approach to professional development could be adopted and adapted by other current and aspiring educational developers.