Research studies have found a number of teacher-related variables that are associated with student achievement. Professional development activities designed to improve the knowledge and skill of teachers can help students improve academically. In investigating the motivation for professional development, the findings of several researchers support…

To determine what effect a series of inservice programs for school administrators had on participating school principals and their schools, principals filled out questionnaires before and after five inservice programs. Changes were noted in three domains of participant characteristics--cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. (JW)

This paper presents some of the results of a survey of participants in the Detroit Public Schools Management Academy's Required Management Seminars and includes suggestions for full-scale evaluation of a program such as this, which ultimately seeks to improve achievement. Questionnaires were sent to 400 participants, most of whom were principals…

A year long study involving 38 students in grades 1 to 6 was conducted to assess the degree of implementation of a frequent, curriculum-based measurement and evaluation system in classrooms in which the teachers had received training in the system, and to examine the effectiveness of the measurement and evaluation system in terms of enhancing the…

Customized Contract Training (CCT), which involves contracting to design short term, non-credit courses and workshops to meet the training needs of specific employers, is the new buzz-word at community colleges. Though many assume this type of school-business partnership benefits everyone, the potential negative effects on community colleges as…

Reviews published studies (referenced in ERIC Document Retrieval Service) dealing with teacher inservice in environmental education. Includes a chronological summary of the studies between 1970 and 1980. Findings reveal that a wide variety of formats were used but that program effectiveness studies were extremely limited. (ML)

If principals are responsible for implementing educational reforms, then criteria for effective leadership skills should be developed. This paper considers criteria for identifying effective principals and proposes a training and appraisal system. The paper discusses five domains that identify effective principals: (1) vision, (2)…

Several issues have arisen from evaluations of inservice education programs in British Columbia: why evaluate and whom to survey; how can much emerge from evaluations that do not meet even the simplest cannons for effective evaluation; and how will evaluation results be used. Evaluators now need to improve their craft. (DC)

To help classify and map the field of administrative inservice, five generic administrative inservice models may be identified and their strengths and weaknesses determined based on what is known about effective inservice practices. The models are a traditional model, institutes, competency-based programs, the academy, and networking. A review of…

This survey project of 129 randomly selected school systems in Ontario, Canada, investigates: (1) dominant patterns among secondary principals' practices and their effectiveness in the improvement of school processes and outcomes; (2) differences in practices between elementary and secondary school principals; (3) factors determining secondary…

Responding to enormous enrollment increases, Mexican universities were forced to hire faculty without a Licenciatura degree (corresponds to a United States bachelors degree) and so initiated faculty development activities (FDA) to enhance the performance of underqualified and new teachers. This study assessed the impact of one of these FDAs at the…

Describes changes in teacher attitudes after completion of an inservice energy education workshop. Although there was a decrease in favorable attitudes towards curricular change, there was a modest, positive effect on participants (N=132) which should help to promote energy education. (DH)

This study examined the influence of a 1-week intensive inservice workshop on the teacher's recognition of contemporary goals of science education and for developing science-technology-society (S-T-S) instructional themes. The inservice participants consisted of a group of 13 experienced teachers from rural school districts whose instructional…

Relationships between an inquiry-oriented science inservice education program and teacher implementation of workshop-developed materials were investigated. Workshop topics included Piagetian learning theory, creating classrooms conducive to implementing inquiry-oriented science programs, use of the learning cycle, and matching learning activities…

Reports on program effectiveness for the Teacher Internship Program for Science (TIPS), a museum-school partnership. Survey results show that significantly more TIPS teachers involved their students in various science instruction activities, and TIPS teachers rated their students higher in interest in and understanding of science. (LZ)