After an examination of 13 recent lists of characteristics of "effective professional development," Mr. Guskey concludes that they vary widely and that the research that supports them is inconsistent and often contradictory. Nonetheless, he argues, we need to seek agreement on criteria for effectiveness, along with clear descriptions of contextual factors. DO WE KNOW what makes professional development effective? Have researchers and practitioners reached consensus about what factors contribute to a successful professional development experience? Do we even agree on what criteria should be used to judge professional development's effectiveness? A review of newly developed lists of the characteristics of effective professional development indicates that the answer to each of these questions is "Maybe not." Recently I analyzed 13 different lists of the characteristics of effective professional development, all published within the last decade. These lists were drawn from publications of the American Federation of Teachers, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Education Development Center, Educational Research Service, Educational Testing Service, Eisenhower Professional Development Program, National Governors' Association, National Institute for Science Education, National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching, National Staff Development Council, and U.S. Department of Education. My goal was to find out the extent to which these various lists agreed. What I discovered is that they were derived in very different ways, used different criteria to determine "effectiveness," and varied widely in the characteristics they identified. I also found that the research evidence regarding most of the identified characteristics is inconsistent and sometimes contradictory. In considering their development, I concluded that most of the lists could be described as "research-based." But that research rarely includes rigorous investigations of the relationship between the noted characteristics and improvements in instructional practice or student learning outcomes. Instead, it typically involves surveys of the opinions of researchers and educators. In other words, researchers and practitioners generally favor these characteristics and believe they are important, despite the lack of verifying evidence. Only a National Institute for Science Education (NISE) analysis and an Educational Testing Service (ETS) study show a direct link between their identified characteristics and specific measures of student achievement.1 Of the 21 characteristics distinguished in the lists, the most frequently cited was enhancement of teachers' content and pedagogical knowledge. Helping teachers to understand more deeply the content they teach and the ways students learn that content appears to be a vital dimension of effective professional development. At present, however, nearly all of the studies relating this characteristic to improvements in student learning focus on achievement in mathematics or science. Whether the same is true for achievement in language arts, social studies, or other subject areas has yet to be thoroughly investigated. Most of the lists mention the provision of sufficient time and other resources as essential to effective professional development. Obviously, educators need time to deepen their understanding, analyze students' work, and develop new approaches to instruction. But significant contrary evidence exists. The NISE analysis, for example, showed that differences in time spent in professional development activities were unrelated to improvements in student outcomes. Similarly, the ETS study found that the amount of time spent in professional development was unrelated to achievement. So while effective professional development surely requires time, it's clear that the time must be well organized, carefully structured, and purposefully directed. Another consistently noted characteristic is the promotion of collegiality and collaborative exchange. …

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/20440475.pdf

What Makes Professional Development Effective

There has been considerable interest in generic attributes in higher education for over a decade and yet while generic skills or attributes are an important aspect of policy, there is often a lack of consistency between beliefs about the importance of these skills and attributes and the degree to which exist in teaching practice. There has been an assumption that these attributes exist outside of the disciplinary context, yet the findings of this study suggest that they are strongly influenced by the disciplinary culture in which they are taught. The study reported in this paper examines the apparent gap between ideal notions of generic attributes and their enactment in teaching practice. This qualitative study examined the teaching of generic attributes in five disciplines (physics, history, economics, medicine and law) in two Australian universities. It found that the notion of generic attributes is highly complex and while attributes such as critical thinking, problem solving and communication are valued by teaching staff they are often implicit in teaching. This gap between what is valued and what is actually taught is a result of variation in interpretation of generic attributes, the difficulties of reducing complex attributes to definable learning outcomes and practical constraints on teaching caused by factors such as large classes. Furthermore, it can be explained by the finding that generic attributes are part of the epistemic culture of the disciplines and often remain tacit. The findings of this study have significant implications for scholarship, policy and pedagogy.

Generic attributes as espoused theory: the importance of context

Teaching for creativity in writing requires not only knowledge, skills and understanding, but the emotional capacity to tolerate uncertainty, take risks and engage artistically. This paper reflects upon one strand of a research project which is examining the relationship between teachers' development as writers at their own level and their efficacy as creative teachers of writing. It draws on the compositional experiences of 16 English primary teachers, who wrote regularly in project sessions, in school and at home and documented the process. The multiple data sources include: questionnaires, writing histories, composing logs, interviews, observations and analyses of the writing produced. The teachers' lived experience of composing clustered around a number of themes, these included: constraints and intuitive insights, a sense of the personal, and deep feelings of uncertainty and insecurity. This paper focuses on only one of these themes; it explores three teachers' uncomfortable encounters with ambiguity...

/pdf/creativity-uncertainty-and-discomfort-teachers-as-writers-1te4sy5yf1.pdf

Creativity, uncertainty and discomfort: teachers as writers

Generic skills and attributes are a significant issue in accounting education as a consequence of the changing business environment and a perception that graduates are not equipped for the workforce of the twenty-first century. Until recently, generic attributes have been poorly theorised and defined and have been viewed as separate from the disciplinary context. This paper examines the nature of generic attributes and presents a conceptual overview for theorising generic attributes. It reports the findings of a qualitative study which investigated the relationship between disciplinary culture and generic attributes. This study found that academics' conceptualisation of generic attributes is influenced by the culture of the discipline in which they are taught. This has profound implications for accounting education as this paper argues that generic attributes must be understood as part of the professional and scholarly practice of accounting and so taught as integral to disciplinary practice.

Generic Attributes in Accounting: The Significance of the Disciplinary Context

This paper is in two main sections. The first offers a brief historical account of the involvement of overseas students in the UK University system; the second reviews the literature on student attitudes to their stay, relating this to the contemporary experiences of a small cohort of students on a postgraduate professional training course in an older university.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3447832.pdf

Overseas Students in the United Kingdom University System.

1. Talking About Thinking 2. Commonplace Thinking 3. Remembering, Understanding, and Learning 4. Imagination 5. Patterns and Stories 6. Thinking Creatively 7. Thinking Critically 8. Thinking and Language 9. Thinking and Education Notes References Indexes About the Author

To Think: In Language, Learning and Education

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To Think: In Language, Learning and Education