A needs assessment conducted with 469 first-year teachers in Virginia in 1984-85 sought to determine the teachers' needs in terms of their competencies and what sort of learning experiences would be most helpful to them. Respondents indicated needs in a wide range of competency areas, with classroom management evoking the greatest concern.…

This document reports on a workshop concerned with the inservice training of educational personnel. The workshop's main objectives included: (1) review of policies and plans for the development of primary education; (2) identification of alternative objectives, issues, and growth points; (3) development of training strategies for the…

This paper considers the growing trend of collaboration among school districts, addressing the national trend in general and examining the perspective of and the trends in Mississippi in particular. The trend in Mississippi is a natural outgrowth of the reform movement in the state and will probably continue on both a formal and an informal basis…

Staff development is a requirement adopted by the Oregon Board of Education in the elementary/secondary standards as well as in state statutes. The purpose of these guidelines is to assist local Oregon school districts' board members and administrators in meeting staff development needs. The contents are suggestions; final responsibility for…

This staff development guide provides a description of the kindergarten; overviews of kindergarten classroom learning centers; and transparencies for use in a teacher training workshop. The description of the kindergarten briefly focuses on the definition and philosophy of the kindergarten; the history of the kindergarten; principles of…

Northern Arizona University's Arizona Career Ladder Research & Evaluation Project for teachers implements a procedure for rewarding teachers based on performance levels rather than on years of teaching experience and college credits. Research data is collected each spring, analyzed and fed back to the districts for improvement of key program…

A report is given of a study conducted on the nature and extent of support that local school systems in Maryland currently provide to new teachers. The study had two components: a statewide survey and case studies of promising programs. The survey polled Associate or Assistant Superintendents of Instruction in 23 of Maryland's 24 county school…

It is suggested in this paper that practical arguments can be used in teacher education and staff development programs to introduce teachers to research-based practices. Practical arguments consist of three types of premises--value, empirical, and situational--that conclude with an action, or an intention to act. Such arguments are a useful way to…

The paper outlines a procedure of providing staff development designed to meet the needs of all educational personnel, including teachers, support personnel, administrators, and parents. The role of the Central Ohio Instructional Resource Center in staff development is examined, followed by a discussion of needs assessment methods (such as content…

This paper describes a study which explored the variables of teacher knowledge of content, teacher attitude toward the content, and span of time with regard to implementation of selected teaching practices in the elementary classroom. The 32 elementary classroom teachers who comprised the sample received 2 days of training in instructional…

A training program is described that was developed to improve administrators' supervisory skills in conducting classroom observations and conferences with teachers. The program includes training in the seven phases of clinical supervision and their respective skill components, including an understanding of the six forces that affect conferences.…

Peer coaching has been identified as a methodology for increasing teacher effectiveness. This paper discusses the topic of peer coaching in three parts. First, a review of current literature on peer coaching defines the types of peer coaching and discusses their multiple benefits. The second section considers the factors influencing successful…

This document is a plan for tracking students' social growth by the college resident assistant and for evaluating the students' growth and the resident assistant's performance. The plan, based on Bloom's Taxonomy of Affective Cognitive Processes, includes a clarified purpose, objectives for implementation, shared assessment values, and continuing…

This paper presents a counseling model based on transactional analysis (TA) to be used with staff members whose professional performance is considered marginal. The introduction of the paper suggests reasons for marginal performance. Counseling from the TA viewpoint is described as a series of transactions designed to improve performance, solve a…

The North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service conducted a survey to determine if factors such as personal characteristics, organizational factors, career experiences, attributional processes, or sociodemographic factors related to the attitudes of Extension professionals toward women in management. A sample of 266 persons serving in…