Reform efforts in different parts of the world call for the adoption of integrated approaches to STEM education. However, little is known about how teachers work, as members of learning communities, to design STEM teaching material such as lesson plans. To address this gap in the literature, we examined the design of STEM lesson plans by…

Designing effective faculty-led professional development (PD) workshops is easier than it sounds and is a highly rewarding way for faculty to become change agents on their own campuses. This chapter presents the authors' experiences leading PD workshops and provides a roadmap to make the workshop development process straightforward and fun for…

One of the specific areas of the global digital transformation in education is the continuing professional training of teachers. In this formal adult training that has taken place alongside work in the last 30 years, the impact of digital transformation can be considered a process suitable for general conclusions. About 25,000 students have…

This qualitative case study explored the perspectives of teachers towards their professional development (PD) in a school with a high population of low-income students. The study focus was driven by critical theory with a unique application of attribution theory as a part of the data analysis. This moved the data analysis beyond simply a…

Recent legislative efforts have been aimed at increasing the accountability of schools to meet the educational needs and improve outcomes for students. States and districts across the nation have responded differently. One emerging pattern has been the rise in alternative schools which address the educational needs of students unsuccessful in…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how, through the cultivation of reform ownership in the professional development (PD) program, the Pathway Project, agency was achieved for the development of teacher professionalism and teacher expertise in the cases of Mrs. Cruz and Mrs. Keyes. This, in turn, provided opportunities to advance…

This report analyzes the design process that campus teams use to create sustained professional development (SPD) programs such as faculty learning communities for VITAL faculty. The authors begin with a description of the larger research project that this report contributes to, including an overview of earlier research and methodology for the…

In education systems around the world, planners and policymakers are calling for more attention to whole-system improvement. To best address teaching and learning outcomes, teachers and head teachers need whole-system support to build professionalism and improve their practice. The middle tier of education systems, composed of professionals…

Since 2017, Jackson State University's (JSU) Minority Advancement through Recruitment and Retention in Science via Outreach Program (MARRS-OP) developed a series of professional development (PD) programs designed for 6th-12th science teachers in under-resourced Mississippi school districts. Due to COVID-19, MARRS-OP's original program design was…

In response to national concerns a decade ago, driven by research that showed that higher education was making little impact on students' development of broad competencies and critical thinking, the provost and president of Purdue University, a research university, instituted a program whose goals were to build on the accumulated knowledge on…

In 2018 a new, more inclusive concept, of preschool education was adopted in Serbia with plans to implement the change from September 2019 to 2022. This paper examines how the national reform in Early Childhood Education (ECE) was perceived by Hungarian kindergarten pedagogues, who are the largest ethnic minority group in Vojvodina, Serbia. To…

Many early care and education (ECE) institutions--including Head Start, state quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS), and school district pre-K programs--use classroom quality observations in their quality improvement or monitoring processes. As many states expand their ECE programs, they grapple with questions about how best to use data…

In the context of national collaborative efforts to increase the prevalence of active learning strategies in undergraduate precalculus and calculus classrooms, we discuss the context, strategy, and processes used at one university to create change within a mathematics department. We highlight the use of a unified active learning approach and the…

San Diego State University recently embarked on a major initiative to revitalize the Precalculus, Calculus 1, and Calculus 2 sequences. In addition to program features such as course coordination, a new active learning component led by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) was added to each of the Precalculus, Calculus 1, and Calculus 2 courses, and…

Building on ecosystem models that examine individuals' development within professional environments (Roxa, 2014; Hannah & Lester, 2009), we explore how campus centers for educational development and research can provide a range of experiences for faculty to learn about scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), conduct individual or…