Professional Development Growth Research Articles

The implementation of a multi-level reflective consultation model in a statewide infant & early childcare education professional development system: Evaluation of a pilot.

The growth in professional development for the infant-early childhood workforce has necessitated the implementation of novel, sustainable approaches to meet infant early childhood mental health (IECMH) training and reflective supervision consultation (RSC) needs. The 12-month pilot of a US statewide reflective consultation (RC) group model included IECMH consultants, grant specialists, supervisors, and program managers (n=38) and their group reflective consultants (n=6). The pilot evaluation provided an opportunity to design a study that assessed the impact of RC on infant-early childhood professionals. The mixed-methods study included an assessment of consultees' reflective practice skills and experience of their work. Findings included consultees' self-reported increased reflective practice self-efficacy and increased use of reflective practice skills. While there were no changes in the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) personal accomplishment, emotional exhaustion, or depersonalization results, qualitative findings indicated a decrease in burnout and an increase in relationship-based practice across professional roles. This unique pilot provides an example of an organizational approach to instituting RC with a broad spectrum of infant-early childhood professionals and yields valuable information about the impacts of RC models on such professionals' work experience and professional practice.

Impact of peer coaching strategy on pre-service teachers’ professional development growth in Kuwait

Abatract This qualitative study investigated how peer coaching in supervision affects Kuwait’s pre-service teachers’ professional growth and how head department supervisors can organizationally support peer coaching to improve teachers’ professional development. Pre-service teacher pairs carried out a peer coaching cycle (i.e., preview conference, lesson observation and data collection, reflective conference). Data were collected and analyzed from 12 pre-service teachers and 6 head department supervisors. The peer coaching strategy fostered teachers’ professional growth based on teaching practices, teacher learning, team cooperation, and teachers’ self-confidence, enthusiasm, and autonomy as well as the application’s obstacles. Head department supervisors’ results showed a general approach for ensuring organizational support for the peer coaching strategy. Recommendations are provided for applying peer coaching in Kuwait’s educational system.

Teacher professional development through collaborative action research: impact on foreign English-language teaching and learning

In 2011 we, a group of English-as-a-foreign-language teachers at a secondary school in Argentina, decided to investigate our teaching practices through collaborative action research so as to improve our students’ learning opportunities and thus revitalise English-language teaching in our context. We implemented and evaluated the integration of content and language learning in our classrooms through the development of our own materials. The experience revealed a growth in professional development and how our motivation and autonomy influenced our students’ motivation and language development. In our attempt to disseminate our experience as a group, this report particularly focuses on the evaluation facets of our collaborative action research project so as to encourage other teachers and teacher-researchers to adopt collaborative action research to improve their own practices.

Factors that advance and restrict programme change and professional development in dental education

The aim of this study was to explore the effectiveness of a professional development initiative using organisational change research studies to frame the inquiry. Two faculty groups and two student groups participated in a total of four focus group interviews to ascertain their perceptions of a new model of pre-clinical dental education. Using a grounded theory approach, the findings showed that there were individual, structural and resource-related issues that advanced and restricted the successful implementation of the initiative. The exchange of ideas and the development of critical thinking skills, the use of modelling in multidisciplinary clinics, and just in time consultation were benefits of the programme, while its reliance on attaining competencies to determine student skill development and continual issues with patient allocation and a sufficient pool of patients were drawbacks. The findings suggest that inviting those involved in the professional development initiative into an investigation of their instructional practices while trying out new ideas in action is key to the processes of institutionalising change and engendering professional development growth.

Personal Growth and Spirituality in Leadership Development

This article is written from the perspective of a practising headteacher in the context of the Leadership Programme for Serving Headteachers and addresses the issue of how such training might be appropriated. It seeks to inquire analytically and critically into the bias of the programme, with a special interest in the topic of personal growth and spirituality in leadership development. First, it advocates deploying Hodgkinson's taxonomy of administrative process as a means of analysing the administrative bias of LPSH in relation to the official headteacher characteristics it legitimates. This leads into deeper investigation of the ideological bias of LPSH in relation to the construction of self. Finally, it takes an ambivalent stance on personal growth in professional development, situating it negatively in relation to the tendency of LPSH to promote the dominance of only one personality-type and positively in relation to appreciating spirituality in leadership.