Thirty years after their development, David A. Kolb's Cycle of Learning and Learning Style Inventory are widely used to understand the stages of learning and the ways people prefer to receive and process new information. The model and the self-assessment are both based on Kolb's experiential learning theory, which emphasizes the need for learner…

This 1994 technical report looks at California Early Literacy Learning (CELL), a staff development program designed to help elementary teachers strengthen their teaching of reading and writing. Reading Recovery and other research-based teaching methodologies have been organized into a framework for classroom instruction, and training in the…

This report discusses literacy coaching as one strategy for professional development, describing how three San Francisco Bay Area school districts use literacy coaching, highlighting the benefits of using literacy coaching, and offering recommendations to districts and states. The report describes why the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative and…

Professional development activities are learning environments for teachers just as classroom activities are a learning environment for students. Research on effective teaching is guided by learning goals for students and how these goals can best be achieved. It follows that research on effective professional development should be guided by the…

This digest summarizes the highlights of an analysis of assessment practices used in education and professional development for educators. A research team from RAND conducted a broad review of the literature and reviewed the documents of organizations engaged in such assessments. Researchers interviewed experts, attended conferences, and conducted…

One of the key areas in the creation of a multicultural environment on college campuses is faculty development. This CRitical Issue Bibliography (CRIB) Sheet focuses on faculty development as a key component of the multicultural campus environment. The annotated bibliography describes 16 resources, all of which are in the ERIC database. (SLD)

This handbook is a roadmap for action research facilitators to help groups as they work through the research process. It offers quotations, handouts, strategies, resources, and insights from actual experiences. The sections of the handbook follow the action research cycle, focusing on: "What is Action Research?"; "What is the Action…

The idea that beginning teachers require a structured system to support their entry into the profession has moved from the fringes of the policy landscape to the center. It is now generally recognized as a critical component of a comprehensive approach to teacher development and is mandated in many states. A number of ways are offered in this book…

This chapter presents a review of what is known from evaluation studies about the impacts of professional development programs in mathematics and science education, and their role in systemic reform. Following comparisons of program focus, structure, target population, and geographic scope, an overview of program goals is presented in terms of the…

This chapter presents the results for the Multi-Agency Study of Teacher Enhancement Programs, a study of professional development programs believed to represent best practices in professional development for science teachers. Working through an interagency government task force coordinated by the National Science Foundation (NSF), representatives…

Teacher leadership development programs require careful design if they are to meet the challenges of today's science and mathematics education reform initiatives. This chapter describes the design of one such program using a design framework developed to plan and analyze effective professional development programs. The program, the California…

Since its inception in 1982, the California Mathematics Project (CMP) has sought to develop the mathematics skills and leadership capabilities of K-12 teachers through intensive summer institutes and a variety of academic year programs sponsored by regional CMP sites. This chapter focuses on ways in which one of the fifteen regional CMP sites, the…

The implementation of new standards in science and mathematics education necessitates an intensive and comprehensive professional development of science and mathematics teachers. Israel, which currently is in the process of reforming school science and mathematics, constructed a continuous lifelong framework for such professional development. This…

Science educators have reclaimed the importance of educating to promote a scientifically literate society. Project ICAN: Inquiry, Context, and Nature of Science is a professional development project designed to enhance middle and high school science teachers' knowledge and pedagogical skills that directly address the reform's call for student…

The purpose of this research was to explore two professional development models, Nevada Operation Physical Science (a three-weekend course) and Nevada Operation Chemistry (a two-week intensive course with a follow-up session in the fall), to see if there was any impact on learning and to determine the ideal length of the workshops as measured by…