This paper focuses on MOOCs (massive open online courses), a fairly recent paradigm in e-learning educational projects. Despite the high dropout rate, and the impossibility of benefiting from the opportunities that bring with it a face-to-face dialogue, several factors make MOOCs a good option for ongoing teacher professional learning. The MOOCs…

Every year, new teachers collectively spend about $4.8 billion on their training requirements, nearly all of which goes to teacher preparation programs. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether that is money well spent. Despite decades of research and ongoing calls to improve the quality of teacher training, we still do not know how to sculpt an…

Many educators have created successful innovative models but have had difficulty sustaining, re-creating, and scaling these models. Classrooms and schools characterized by student-centered learning practices typically deviate from the norms of transmission teaching and the many structures and procedures that David Tyack and Larry Cuban called the…

One of the mysteries of education reform is how leaders and educators can successfully instantiate, sustain, and spread student-centered pedagogical practices from a few schools to many others. Advocates for "deeper learning" grapple with this mystery as they seek to transform teaching and learning to prepare students to meet the demands…

One of the challenges in in-service teacher education is how teachers can be given professional development (PD) that enables them to respond to national curriculum and policy change. In recent years primary teachers in New Zealand have been inundated with Ministry of Education-funded professional development programmes to help them implement a…

Many exciting and successful staff development programs with different goals and objectives and using varied techniques and approaches have been realized in recent years. Each was successful not only because of the unique approaches it utilized, but because of the careful planning and preparation that encompassed each program. A number of crucial…

The Michigan-Ohio Regional Educational Laboratory uses one of its own research projects as a model to outline recommended procedures in the planning of research efforts. The model used is an inservice teacher education program where three distinct phases operate in an overlapping manner as the program progresses. In the first phase, the problem is…

A general model for competency-based in-service training which integrates four processes used in systems engineering is described; the major problems that reduce its effective use are presented and discussed. (MM)

School focused in-service education and training (INSET) is a synthesis of course-based and school-based models. Three elements are considered: identification and definition of needs; development and execution of appropriate INSET activities to meet these needs; and evaluation. (JMF)

This practicum addressed the problem of developing and implementing a school-based in-service model that would be facilitated and presented by the elementary school teachers who were to be instructed. A literature review led to the conclusion that successful implementation could be achieved by faculty and staff ownership of the in-service model…

In designing inservice teacher training activities, it is necessary to apply educational principles and teaching and learning techniques which are suitable for adult education programs. Four models for designing inservice teacher training programs are the Malcom Knowles Model, the Leonard Nadler Model, the Cyril O. Houle Model, and the William R.…

The document is the first of three volumes (Volume 3 is a film) dealing with the demonstration of dissemination practices on special class instruction for the mentally handicapped utilizing master teachers as inservice educators. Volume I is a report on functions and guidelines for replication. Inherent in the volume is a detailed discussion on…

A model is proposed for gathering information about staff development efforts conducted by schools of education. The model can be used to evaluate staff development undertakings, report significant data, and help other institutions design comparable programs. (PP)

There are four elements which the author has found to be essential for success when designing and conducting staff development programs: awareness, application, implementation, and maintenance. Each of these elements is discussed in detail, followed by the warning that the four-phase model requires school board commitment to insure its success.…

This article presents strategies intended to enhance the efficacy of early intervention inservice training efforts, including: basing training activities on participants' needs, specifying goals and outcomes, specifying objectives and linking them to outcomes, linking specific inservice training activities to objectives, and using model sites to…