Sorry everyone for this being so late.
The questions that I am researching are thus: “What evidence demonstrates impact on student learning due to professional development?” and “How can teachers assess that evidence?” Basically I am looking to find information about how teachers can define and calculate the improvement of their students’ learning after completing a professional development exercise. What types of assessment would show such improvement? Would the evidence be empirical, qualitative, or both? What areas of student knowledge need be assessed? As a beginning teacher, professional development is a characteristic that I hope will always be important to me. I hope I am always looking for ways to improve my methods and teaching practices. I also feel that self-assessment is a very important quality in an educator. While it is obviously important to participate in professional development, it is all for not if you do not evaluate the effectiveness it has had on your students. I think it would be wise to have a certain criteria set as a goal to meet as a result of your professional develop. As if to say, “By my completing this developmental exercise, I will see this improvement in my students work and knowledge.” Then through self-assessment, comparing the actual results of the students work compared to that set goal. Was “this improvement” met?
“Art educators need ongoing professional development in order to keep abreast of changes that affect learning outcomes of their students” (F. Sabol, 2006, p.2). We must as professional educators always look to improve our methods and assure that the products of these improvements indeed affect the learning outcomes of our students.
Sabol, F. R. (2006). Professional Development in Art Education: A Study of Needs, Issues, and Concerns of Art Educators. Retrieved from http://www.arteducators.org/learning/professional-development
I agree with you, Kyle, about the importance of professional development, but I think you are missing a step. It sounds as if you are assuming the teacher has actually learned or gained something from the professional development, and maybe that can't be assumed. I think you might need a step in there to make sure the teacher has learned something.
ReplyDeleteI would define a professional development exercise as something you as the educator complete with the goal of gaining a skill that would improve your teaching methods or philosophy. Having completed the task, if you felt that you had not gained any additional knowledge, then obviously you would not have implemented any changes in your teaching practices, thus requiring no need to assess the effects of those changes. My goal in my research is to identify how the teacher can provide evidence that the changes they made to their practice positively affected student learning. So yes, I am assuming that teacher feels that they learned something important enough to alter their teaching style.
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