Action research, also called classroom or teacher research, has been defined as "systematic, intentional inquiry by teachers". Action research encourages school personnel to systematically develop a question, gather data, and then analyze that data to improve their practice. Over the last 15 years, the complexities of using action…

This study examines professional development activities for students and teachers in two Dutch professional development schools (PDSs). The PDSs consist of a partnership between the kindergarten classes of the elementary school and accompanying playgroup (with children aged 4-6 and 2.6-4, respectively), a teacher's training college and a research…

The 21st century is often called the "age of talent." Globalization has influenced both organizational processes and employee training, creating an increased need for educated, skilled, and adaptable employees. Training and development has become an integral part of most organizations' efforts to develop and maintain competitive…

The purpose of this study was to examine the roles and related leadership competencies traditional superintendents and nontraditional superintendents identified as significant in their work as superintendents. Moreover, this study explored key experiences from traditional superintendents and nontraditional superintendents and described how each…

Efforts to professionalize counseling practice have yielded extraordinary benefits to counselors. However, professionalization has also caused counselors to adopt strict definitions of their education, practices, and ethics. In order to combat the ideological insularity brought on by professionalization, several marginalized ideas are considered.…

The broad purpose of this self-study is two-fold: first, to aid in redressing the lack of attention given to the professional development of teacher educators; and second, to forward the idea that teaching reflectively is not only an excellent framework through which self-directed professional development can be enacted, but it is also an…

A professional learning network (PLN) is a community of individuals around the world who are learning together. They can start out as strangers, people one couldn't pick out in a crowded room. But Twitter, the virtual meeting place where one's PLN comes together, helps these strangers come together to create a community built on communication and…

The purpose of this research was to determine how teachers and administrators in a successful North Carolina district perceived the purpose and value of required individual growth plans (IGPs). The IGP is the foundation of required school improvement, and the perceptions of the purpose and value of the IGP largely determine its success. This…

In this paper we described how we mixed research approaches in a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) of a school principal professional development program. Using examples from our study we illustrate how combining qualitative and quantitative data can address some key challenges from validating instruments and measures of mediator variables to…

In 2017, the National Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Neglected or Delinquent Children and Youth (NDTAC) released its first in a series of professional development briefs that focus on the professional development needs and interests of neglected or delinquent (N or D) State coordinators, correctional educators, and providers of…

This study examines discrepancies between geoscience career knowledge and biology career knowledge among Mississippi science teachers. Principals and in-service teachers were also surveyed about their perception of geoscience careers and majors. Scores were higher for knowledge of what biologists do (at work) than about what geoscientists do.…

The incorporation of reflective practices in the arena of education has been discussed in different studies in order to understand the development of "practitioners" in a target setting. This article reports on a study aimed at describing the way ten foreign language student-teachers from a public university in Colombia construct their…

Women returners are women who leave the paid workforce for a period of time following the birth of their child(ren) and subsequently seek to return to paid employment. As women returners attempt to re-enter the workforce, many of them are in need of updating their skills or re-training in a new set of skills. In this study, the training and…

Service-learning is, by nature, continually evolving. Seifer (1996) stressed the importance of partnerships between communities and schools, and stated that reflection should facilitate the connection between practice and theory, and lead to critical thinking. Before these reflective activities occur, however, much can be done to maximize…

Thousands of teachers are exploring the boundaries of their practice together on Twitter, in blogs, and at seminars, and they represent a new generation of educators who are actively redefining how innovation occurs in the schoolhouse. For many of these educators, exposure to adjacent possibilities--the first step toward innovation--starts in the…