The University of Georgia (UGA) is the flagship public research university for the state of Georgia. Located in Athens, UGA enrolls about 40,000 students across 18 colleges. UGA awards baccalaureate, master's, doctoral, and professional degrees. About 43% of full-time faculty at UGA are in VITAL faculty roles, with a majority of VITAL faculty in…

This edited collection focuses on general principles and practices of professional learning and development in both pre-service and in-service teacher contexts for language education around the world. The field of teaching is a constantly evolving profession, and one of the most important aspects of teaching is learning. Research shows that the…

When educators utilize curriculum-related resources, they must interpret a variety of curriculum components and determine the value, meaning, and proper sequencing of the curriculum-related resource and the planned instructional episode. This descriptive study aimed to describe the relationship between Indiana agricultural educators' pedagogical…

The student population in the United States is becoming increasingly diverse, but the educator base, including teachers and other school professionals, remains primarily White and female. Educators are encouraged (and at times required) to participate in professional development training to increase their multicultural competence. Although…

For the purposes of this study, teachers received collaborative and applied digital competence training in creating interactive e-books. After the training, the changes in these teachers' perceptions of digital competencies and how teachers plan to use their experiences while performing their profession were examined. Case studies provided data…

Although instructional coaches are deeply committed to continuous improvement, they rarely have access to professional learning themselves. Rarer still is differentiated professional learning that meets coaches where they are in their careers and their professional growth. Just as Florida's Orange County Public Schools accentuates the importance…

Purpose: Despite the continuous growth of empirical studies exploring professional learning communities (PLCs) across different education systems, little is known about PLC instruments developed and used in existing research. This article aims to capture a full picture of existing PLC instruments developed since 1990. In so doing, the authors also…

The past decade has witnessed a strong, standards-based call for improving what mathematics is taught and how it is taught. In the USA, districts have hired instructional coaches to help teachers shift their teaching from algorithm-based instruction to instruction that is more student-centered and conceptually focused. The purpose of this study…

The competency-based approach is currently introduced throughout the whole pre-school education system, and this process reveals the uncertainty, doubts, confusion, and unpreparedness of teachers for the implementation of this task. It also highlights the need to provide new guidance for the professional development of in-service teachers. The…

The Netflix series, "The Chair," illustrates a dramatic portrayal of the role of the chair. The reality of the department chair's role is complex and becoming more so. The inherent structure of the department chair is rife with paradoxes. Following a brief overview of the leadership literature and a quick summary of "The Chair"…

Purpose: Professional development interventions (PDIs) are crucial for equipping teachers to use data effectively. Relying on previous studies reporting on such interventions, this paper aims to identify and synthesise the goals, dimensions and conditions of PDIs for data use. This paper also examines the evidence of the effect of such…

While reports of teachers' use of curriculum materials are common, that of teachers as designers of their own materials are far less so. We argue that these (rare) instructional materials, defined as materials that are classroom-ready and that carry the teachers' actual instructional goals, are 'objects' that are suitable as records of teachers'…

Research has extensively linked teacher collaborative work with opportunities for both explicit and implicit professional development. However, while teachers work together more often than before, little is known about how workplace collaborative contexts are structured in terms of who and how frames the problems of practice. Drawing on an…

Of the estimated 0.6 million teachers employed at government schools in Pakistan, 43 percent have not received any professional development training. A considerable amount of research has focused on the effects of teachers' psychological characteristics and academic qualifications on subsequent student achievement but there is limited evidence on…

Purpose: Coaching for teachers has evolved as a form of professional development. The benefits of such interventions have been examined with regard to student, teacher and school outcomes, but the purpose of this paper is to present an investigation relating to the benefits of instructional coaching (Knight, 2006) to teachers as perceived by the…