The week-long, in-person Summer Institute offers students a unique and enriching experience that greatly influences their educational journey. One of the key benefits is the opportunity for face-to-face interactions, which can be transformative in an era dominated by online learning. Students can engage in real-time discussions, forge meaningful…

This pilot study investigated how a brief professional development session on the science of learning impacted teachers' attributions of usefulness to both scientific and performative concepts about teaching. Ratings were collected from teachers attending five events across the United Kingdom (N = 585) before and after receiving a 90-min training…

The health promotion laboratory (HPL-Canada) is a public health professional development program building on a collaborative learning approach in order to support long-term practice change in local health services teams. This study aims to analyse the collaborative learning processes of two teams involved in the program during the first year of…

This article focuses on professional work placements for teachers of business and management. These one-year work placements seek to develop the teachers' knowledge of the business world, allowing them to improve their teaching practice and produce new pedagogical resources. We examine here, from the teachers' point of view, two questions: What…

The Virtual Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) Process Development Project provides the context for the two areas of the research presented in this dissertation. The first area, generally referred to as feedback in this dissertation, focuses on student learning and the interactions of students and instructors that take place in the project,…

Project CRISS[R] (CReating Independence through Student-owned Strategies) is a professional development program for teachers that aims to improve reading, writing, and learning for 3rd- through 12th-grade students. The implementation of Project CRISS[R] does not require a change in the curriculum or materials being used in the classroom, but…

Self-regulated learning processes have a potential to enhance the motivation of knowledge workers to take part in learning and reflection about learning, and thus contribute to the resolution of an important research challenge in workplace learning. An equally important research challenge for the successful completion of each step of a…

This article presents findings from an ethnographic study that explored how participation in an educator network contributed to the production of meaning, identity, and agency among the teachers and school district administrators involved. Prominent in this process were the differences between practice in the network, consisting of dialogue…

Effective communication with teachers is a critical element of any successful professional development. Teachers are the foundational component of any educational system. It is vital that adequate attention is focused on appropriate and effective training of these teachers. Ideally, professional development offers a means of collaborative support…

This paper summarizes the findings from a K-6 professional development program that emphasized scientific inquiry and nature of science within the theme of scientific modeling. During the 2-week summer workshop and follow up school year workshops, the instruction modeled a 5-E learning cycle approach. Pre and posttesting measured teachers' views…

Academic conferences are places of situated learning dedicated to the exchange of knowledge. Knowledge is exchanged between colleagues who are looking to enhance their future research by taking part in several formal and informal settings (lectures, discussions and social events). We studied the processes of knowledge sharing and the influence of…

In this paper we report a large-scale study designed to evaluate the impact of masters courses on the professional development of science school teachers and, consequently, on the improvement of the quality of science education. The underlying assumption of this study is that masters teachers are widely recognized as assuming a relevant role to…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the National Board Teacher Certification (NBTC) process was an effective form of professional development for teachers that would result in changing teachers' instructional practice resulting in improved student learning. The study also examined how a cohort of NBTC candidates impacted the non-NBTC…

Increments in educational budgets have been devoted to professional development for teachers to help them accommodate their practices to the realities of their classrooms. Previous research has suggested that despite this significant investment, there has been little, if any, positive change. This begs the question of what else might be done to…

In an era of prolific funding for varied small-school models, there is a growing emphasis on schools that alter the landscape of educational design. Some of these models attempt to redesign schools to place students at the center of learning and provide powerful examples of very different ways of thinking about teaching and learning (some examples…