Today's staff developers juggle eight roles as their work has broadened to incorporate more responsibility and accountability for continuous changes in educational programs. The eight often-overlapping roles are trainer/designer, coach, resource provider, program manager, consultant, task facilitator, process facilitator, and catalyst for change.…

Collective bargaining can be used to provide more relevant and effective professional development of staff by emphasizing faculty competencies over activities. (RN)

Focusing on the institutional benefits of professional development, this article discusses ways institutions can encourage staff members to maintain contemporary knowledge and skill levels and how they can retrain both administrators and teachers to undertake new assignments. (DS)

Educators involved in staff development share insights about changes in the field over 25 years, discussing staff development as a professional function, reflections from a founder of the National Staff Development Council, professional advances, staff development as a major force for educational change, and blending individual development with…

Staff development as a transferable package of bite-sized knowledge pieces is outdated. To implement reform plans, teachers must be able to discuss, think about, try out, and hone new practices. Teachers can learn by observing children, adopting new subject-matter approaches, using strategies for learning together, integrating assessment with…

Discusses the importance of conducting research on the impact of professional development on student learning, explaining why research has not provided any answers and describing an alternative approach that involves beginning from the end then working backward. The paper presents four staff-development principles common to the diverse mix of…

Questions and answers about staff development examine: what it is; why it is important; what teachers did not learn in college; collaboration; funding; connections between staff development and student learning; indicators of effective staff development; and improving staff development quality. Data come from six key national reports on…

Profiles of three introspective U.S. corporations show how they have taken significant steps to promote organizational learning. By considering the implications for schools, staff developers can foster organizational learning practices for professional development and school improvement. This paper discusses the learning organization as a common…

This interview with staff-development expert, Bruce Joyce, discusses the effect of staff development on student achievement, focusing on the importance of teachers and administrators continuously studying what they are implementing, research on how staff development affects student achievement, assessment as part of the process of instruction, the…

Numerous studies indicate that student learning is directly linked to the quality of teaching that occurs in the classroom. School boards can play a vital role in staff development. They should adopt standards for student learning, teaching, leadership, and staff development. Adequate funding and an incentive system that rewards improvements in…

An evaluation report is presented of the Resident Supervisory Support for Teachers, a peer supervision program designed to improve classroom instruction by training school personnel in concepts and strategies of school supervision, with an emphasis on a peer clinical approach. Participants are trained to help teachers identify their strengths and…

College administrators need to understand staff development as an integral part of the total process of organizational development. A 6-stage paradigm is suggested as one conceptual framework within which a college may identify and act upon its staff development needs. (Editor/PG)

The project provides for a five-State (Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and New Mexico) consortium designed to upgrade competencies of all levels of Adult Basic Education (ABE) personnel. The major points of focus are: establishing bases for higher education; training State Department, university, and local ABE personnel by means of…

Because of the rapid increase of technological and general knowledge, the maintenance and development of teaching staffs has become a major problem, especially for the small school district. Cooperative programs uniting several school districts, such as the school study councils utilized in Texas, seem to present the most favorable solution.…

Hagerstown Junior College, Maryland, has had a staff development program for the past five years. The major components have been evaluated, revised, and integrated into a gestalt paradigm--a total institutional thrust designed to insure that the goals of the college meet the challenges presented by the service area. Each component exists to foster…