The purpose of the study is to examine how professional growth is sustained over time through exploring a teacher's narrative of personal and professional growth. The central question of this dissertation is: What creates sustainable and continuous positive professional change and growth in a teacher's professional life? In this study, I discuss…

In the South African context, children with severe to profound intellectual disabilities are not accommodated in the compulsory education system, although steps are being taken in this direction in acknowledgement of their right to education. Critical to this development is the training of educators and caregivers. There is a paucity of studies…

Studies relating to reflection and reflective practice in learning, specifically workplace learning, have gradually emerged from within the professional education literature. Evidence has seen a shift from an individualistic to a more collective approach to reflection, in an attempt to move away from viewing learning as an individual action.…

In conditions of continuous education reform teacher self-development is indispensable to provide high quality of teaching as well as simply to maintain the job. The goals of the paper are to analyze the intrinsic and extrinsic motives for teachers to be engaged in self-development, to show the difference between the terms "development"…

Higher education is experiencing unprecedented change due to economic and demographic projections, largely focusing on the usage of adjunct faculty. No longer will community colleges be able to rely solely on full-time faculty to ensure that students persist to graduation. This executive position paper provides a proposed plan for a formalized…

While the literature on self-authorship has focused on the development of college students and young adults highlighting various developmental tasks associated with the ages 17 through 30 (e.g., Baxter Magolda, 2001, 2003, 2004), in this article, we explore the exercise and development of faculty members' self-authorship as educators, proposing…

This article reports on the initial findings of research carried out with a cohort of science teachers engaged in a professional development course at a northwest England university. The aim was to investigate how professional development was perceived by participants and explore the experiences of those who undertook the course. Results suggest…

Reasons for college experimentation with planning methods of employee development are analyzed. Alternatives involved in designing an individual development planning process for a specific institution are described, and speculation is offered about the characteristics of the most effective approaches. (LBH)

All the articles in this collection share at least three common features. First, they all give a narrative account of a change that took place within an activity system; in this, they follow Vygotsky's (1978) injunction to investigate the history of the system in order to understand its "causal dynamic basis" (p. 62). Second, in so doing, they…

Draws on recent research on adult development for a conceptual base in examining personal and professional developmental potentials, tasks, and conflicts for college faculty in five categories: Age 30 Transition, Dual Career Couple, Midlife, Late-Entry, and Senior Retiring faculty. Three charts and an 80-item reference list are included. (JL)

This paper on the supervision and evaluation of teachers as professional personnel begins by delineating the characteristics and expectations of professionals, and then explains how they are socialized into their roles, the reasons why they should be supervised, the blocks and hindrances to supervision and evaluation, and how the blocks may be…

Leadership is a hot-button issue these days. Reformers depend on it. The public believes that it is what schools need more of. And private sector CEOs think they know exactly what it is and are anxious to share that knowledge with the "poor unwashed masses" of educational leaders. It is not surprising, then, that so many people are…

Presents six suggestions for personalizing professional development for middle school teachers: (1) encourage openness to change; (2) facilitate teachers' self-assessment; (3) urge teachers to be learners; (4) encourage a focus on the enjoyable in teaching; (5) advocate that teachers contribute to peers' growth; and (6) promote full lives beyond…

Although all academic leaders do not begin their administrative careers as department chairs, for faculty this is a common first step. And it is reasonable to assume that strong department chairs are likely to become college deans, provosts, and presidents. In this chapter, the authors examine the experiences of academicians-turned-administrators,…

Educational policy analysts have recognized the need for an educational policy that combines the merits of "top-down" mandates with "bottom-up" teacher discretion. This paper describes the Reading Recovery program as an example of an educational program that balances top-down direction and bottom-up discretion by: (1) providing an overall…