There are inconsistent completion rates of professional development among elementary school teachers in a school district in the rural southeast. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore elementary teachers' perceptions of the value of professional development to improve teaching and what motivates them to complete the…

The focus of this research is the centralised provision of professional development opportunities for postgraduate teaching assistants (PGTAs) through accredited and non-accredited courses (ACs and NACs), and their perceived and actual benefits. Evidence on the impact of courses at the University of Birmingham (UK) is synthesised with evidence…

Section 504 has recently been gaining more traction among parents, educators, and government officials as more Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ineligible students become eligible for Section 504. To alleviate Section 504 being a special education responsibility and ramp up the lack of 504 professional development efforts for…

Multi-level classes, classrooms that incorporate multiple levels of learners simultaneously, have existed for decades, yet have received little scholarly attention with respect to world language programs. This article presents a review of relevant literature on the topic and reports an analysis of the data from a national survey of U.S. K-16 world…

Background: Teaching engineering at a high school level has been a subject of substantial concern during recent curriculum reforms. Many countries are increasingly including engineering-focused subjects in their technology curriculum guidelines. However, technology teachers face challenges regarding the optimal implementation of an…

Developing computational thinking (CT) skills at an early age can help develop literacy, science, and mathematics skills; however, CT instruction in grades K-2 remains limited. This study examined the perceptions of 45 K-2 teachers from 30 school districts before and after a CT professional development (PD) experience. The PD included two online…

While technology use is becoming increasingly common in education, teachers remain reluctant to use technology and hesitant on how best to incorporate it into their teaching and practice. There is a strong demand from institutions for English language teachers to cope with the changing landscape of teaching in the twenty-first century. This…

In this replication and extension study, we examined the effects of educators' participation in practice-based professional learning (PBPL) to design, implement, and evaluate functional assessment-based interventions (FABIs). We randomly assigned school-site teams (k = 69; N = 342) to cohorts trained by either university or state technical…

This is the third special issue of "Primary Science," and it is one that offers primary school teachers an insight into an initiative that does wonders for primary science leadership, learning, and teaching -- the Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM). In this article, Elizabeth Nally shares her PSQM experience and what it has done for her…

This interpretive case study explored how K-12 educators conceptualized and related mindfulness to their professional lives while completing the Stress Management and Relaxation Techniques (SMART) in Education mindfulness-based intervention program. Participants were able to construct an understanding of mindfulness and noted increased present…

In Penn State's work with aspiring teacher leaders over the last decade, two core strategies have emerged that hold significant promise for fostering teacher leadership: (1) provide teachers with the skills they need to create their own jobs; and (2) provide training and extended (e.g. post-graduate) support in developing ongoing professional…

There is a growing body of evidence that early engagement in active music-making impacts beneficially on children's wider development. Recent research indicates that individual and shared music-making in family settings contributes to positive parenting practices and identity development in young children. Children who participate in shared…

At universities where introductory physics labs are taught by graduate student teaching assistants (TAs), there is a need for specialized professional development for those TAs. This paper presents a specific instantiation of a model for lab TA professional development that uses a combination of cognitive apprenticeship and expectancy-value…

The goal of this study was to identify the impact that participation in the Urban Advantage Initiative, a professional development program designed for middle school science teachers in New York City, has had on science teaching and learning. Urban Advantage is a long-term situated learning model whereby teachers engaged in over 100 hours of…