Professional development is vital to help teachers gain skills and knowledge to teach about current environmental and societal issues. For climate change education, educators may need information paired with content-specific teaching strategies in order to build confidence to incorporate the topic into their curriculum. We applied educative…

This article focuses on an evaluation of the Microsoft Peer Coaching (MPC) program in Florida, USA. First, the design of the MPC materials was analyzed using characteristics of exemplary peer coaching and technology integration models. Second, facilitators (n = 14) and coaches (n = 46) who attended the MPC workshops in Florida were surveyed…

Factors reported to be important in the design, implementation, and evaluation of professional development programs for department chairs are described. Attention is also directed to results from a goal-focused evaluation of the 6-year-old program to train new department heads in the nine state universities of Florida, a program that is being…

Described is a vocational education model designed to increase cooperative effort for the improvement of vocational personnel. The introductory section discusses the need for a systematic approach to vocational personnel development in Florida, presents the goals of the system, and briefly summarizes the salient features of each component of the…

The 2009 Professional Development Schools National Conference recognized the North Florida Urban Professional Development School Partnership for its outstanding work in an urban education context and so named it one of the three recipients of the first-ever National Association for Professional Development Schools Award for Exemplary Professional…

This paper describes a study aimed to identify most common impediments related to the introduction of an open-source mathematical software package GeoGebra. We report on the analysis of data collected during a three-week professional development programme organised for middle and high school teachers in Florida. The study identified challenges…

Based on the belief that teaching involves a lifelong cyclical process of study, practice, and reflection, this handbook details the staff development opportunities for prekindergarten personnel in Dade County, Florida for 1997-98. Procedures, workshops, explanatory descriptions, and scheduling information for staff development are presented in…

This article describes an effort to create a teacher learning community in which university and local school teachers worked together to improve the teaching of writing at elementary and secondary levels. I describe how a university's National Writing Project (NWP) engaged in developing a cadre of selected teachers to share understandings about…

Though increasing attention has been focused on overcoming basic and functional illiteracy, little attention has been paid to adult literacy educators' professional development. A study identified the education and training needs of Florida's literacy leadership. Instructor and administrator surveys were sent to all agencies receiving funding from…

This document is the second volume of the Adult Literacy Leadership Project, an effort to identify the educational and training needs of Florida's literacy personnel--instructors, administrators, and advisors. This volume contains three background research papers on topics related to the theme of the study used in preparing its analysis and…

This article describes the conceptual professional development model and implementation activities used in Florida to ensure that scientifically based instructional practices are used within the state's classrooms. It reports on the model and practices that have been implemented and validated through collaboration of research professionals, the…

Outcomes of a teacher-teaming program that was implemented among seventh-grade teachers at a Florida middle school are described in this practicum report. Training sessions on effective teaming practices were initiated to address the lack of effective teaming practices among the seventh-grade teachers. Eight seventh-grade teachers participated in…

The product of a three-year adult education teacher training project conducted for Florida's adult educators, this guide is designed to assist planners, facilitators, evaluators, and administrators of staff development programs for adult education teachers to design and conduct effective personal and professional learning experiences. It provides…

A resource for adult educators, this guide was developed as a teacher aid to be used with "Learning Activities for Adults," a curriculum supplement developed by adult education teachers in Florida that is based on Florida's Minimum Student Performance Standards. This assessment and resource is divided into five general knowledge areas:…

The development and implementation of a program to facilitate communication and improve working relationships between elementary school staff members is described. Methodology involved observation of inservice faculty training sessions and a participant survey. The program was based on three components: a series of faculty inservice workshops,…