A graduate course in curriculum and instruction was utilized as an intervention to enhance teacher awareness about their teaching practice. The researchers employed a purposeful and prolonged critical reflection approach for graduate students, who are also teachers, over a 15-week period. The teachers juxtaposed their prior experiences against a…

Teachers in professional development (PD) programs need time to adopt, enact and reflect on what they are learning in the PD within their own situations. To encourage reflective implementation and adaptation of ideas and practices promoted in the PD studied in this article, participants were asked to engage in several small action research…

Teachers in a new school setting tend to display lower teacher efficacy, which negatively affects teaching performance and student learning. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the perceptions of teacher efficacy in pre-service teachers and explore key factors influencing the perceptions as a result of pre-service training.…

This study examines 40 teachers' perspectives on the use of video-recordings of their own mathematics lessons over two years of mathematics professional development. Data sources included an end of program survey and focus groups transcripts. Findings from this study support the use of personal video-recorded lessons in professional development.…

In 2013, with a 30% state budget cut after the Great Recession, many of the 450,000 California State University (CSU) students across the 23-campus system were unable to enroll in courses they needed to move closer to graduation; there was a lack of available course sections. In addition to a reduced number of seats available for students, 30% to…

A case is made that professional development activities in science, when designed as generic programs, can limit pathways individual teachers may take or even select to meet their specific professional development needs. Teacher professional development programs in science have consistently been designed to address system wide needs. These needs…

Teacher educators need to remain current regarding the challenges that prospective teachers are going to face in their classrooms. One way to maintain this currency is for teacher educators periodically to spend some time in the K-12 classroom testing the theories they teach. This paper will discuss the benefits both teacher educators and…

Describes a model used in Santa Cruz (California) for supporting and assessing beginning teachers that moves away from traditional inservice education and staff development into ongoing teacher development. The program's emphasis on collegial partnerships, personal inquiry and reflection, and ongoing self-assessment is described in relationship to…