Evaluation of the 2000 and 2001 Rhode Island early childhood summer institutes

Abstract

This article presents the theoretical basis and methods for the process and outcome evaluations of the Rhode Island Early Childhood Summer Institutes held in 2000 and 2001. The article also discusses the evaluation results that demonstrated the institutes were received as high‐quality inservice professional development programs in which participants made significant knowledge gains. Additionally, the influence of the evaluations on the institute programs held in 2000 and 2001 as well as the impacts on the planning of future institutes are described. These evaluation studies can serve as models to others planning evaluations of professional development programs. © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.     

LEARNING ABOUT LEARNING: EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDENTS EXPLORE REGGIO

One of the greatest challenges we face as an early childhood professional community is providing short-term, affordable professional development that results in depth of understanding and change of practice. The University of Wyoming Early Childhood Summer Institute is a model for professional development that fosters reflection, inquiry, and change in beliefs and practice for early childhood practitioners. The 3-day Institute has an innovative structure and constructivist quality that allows for intense, authentic learning among participants. The research reported in this article supports this claim and clarifies key components of the model critical to the transfer of knowledge gained through the Institute to application in the workplace. In a 6-month follow-up study after the Institute, participants, Institute facilitators, and keynote speakers describe how the Institute has continued to influence their beliefs and practice over time.

Exploring a Plum

I had to do an observation of a child for a class that was part of the Institute, so I chose my grandson who was about 13 months at the time. I had planned on giving him some really cool blocks and things. Instead (it was right after I went to the Institute), I was sitting there eating a plum trying to figure out how to set things up and I looked up and he was watching me so intently that I decided to do my observation on that. I introduced him to his first plum and sat back and watched him explore and discover it. I watched him, I took pictures of him and put the story and pictures together. I could really see what they were talking about at the Institute … just stepping back and watching. (T. D. Participant 6).     

Investigating the Impact of NGSS-Aligned Professional Development on PreK-3 Teachers’ Science Content Knowledge and Pedagogy

This pilot study investigates the impact of a 2-week professional development Summer Institute on PK-3 teachers’ knowledge and practices. This Summer Institute is a component of [program], a large-scale early-childhood science project that aims to transform PK-3 science teaching. The mixed-methods study examined concept maps, lesson plans, and classroom observations to measure possible changes in PK-3 teachers’ science content knowledge and classroom practice from 11 teachers who attended the 2014 Summer Institute. Analysis of the concept maps demonstrated statistically significant growth in teachers’ science content knowledge. Analysis of teachers’ lesson plans demonstrated that the teachers could design high quality science inquiry lessons aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards following the professional development. Finally, examination of teachers’ pre- and post-Summer Institute videotaped inquiry lessons showed evidence that teachers were incorporating new inquiry practices into their teaching, especially regarding classroom discourse. Our results suggest that an immersive inquiry experience is effective at beginning a shift towards reform-aligned science and engineering instruction but that early elementary educators require additional support for full mastery.     

The effect of education on child care teachers' beliefs and classroom quality: Year one evaluation of the TEACH early childhood associate degree scholarship program

This study examined the effect of community college coursework on the beliefs and on the classroom practices of teachers in child care centers. Thirty-four teachers participated; 19 were teachers who had received scholarships to attend community college programs in child development and in early childhood education, and 15 were comparison teachers. At the time of pretesting, all participants had high school diplomas and some inservice training. At posttest, the scholarship teachers had completed at least 12–20 credit hr of community college coursework. Results revealed that the classrooms of the program participants had made significant gains on the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales (ECERS) or the Infant-Toddler Environment Rating Scales (ITERS) and the Teacher Belief Scale between the pre-and posttest and were also more developmentally appropriate, as measured by the ECERS or the ITERS, than the comparison teachers at the time of posttest. The findings are discussed in relation to professional development in the early childhood field.     

Professional development and perceived needs of science teachers

About 100 science teachers in the Sydney Metropolitan West Region were surveyed to determine their professional development needs and the ways in which these needs could be met. The findings provide a ranking of science teacher perceived professional development needs, a list of possible incentives to motivate science teachers to complete inservice programs (in priority order) and an indication of the preferred modes of presentation to meet professional development needs. In general, science teachers stated a preference for professional development related to modern trends in science education directly related to classroom practice. In contrast to recommendations from DEET, science teachers indicated a preference for traditional models of inservice. Data related to preferred mode of inservice indicated significant gender differences. Specializations: science teacher professional development. Specializations: educational psychology and research design. Specialization: constructivist approaches in science education.     

Outcomes of the primary and early childhood science and technology education project at the university of Canberra

The aim of the Primary and Early Childhood Science and Technology Education Project (PECSTEP) is to improve teaching and learning in science and technology of by increasing the number of early childhood and primary teachers who are effective educators. PECSTEP is based on an interactive model of teaching and systematically links work on gender with the learning and teaching of science and technology. The project involves: a year-long inservice program which includes the development of a science curriculum unit by teachers in their schools; linking of the preservice and inservice programs; and the development of support networks for teachers. Each phase of PECSTEP has been researched by means of surveys, interviews and the use of diaries. Research questions have focussed particularly on changes in: teachers’ and student teachers’ attitudes to teaching science and technology; their perceptions of science and technology; their perceptions of their students’ responses and their understandings of how gender relates to these areas. Specializations: primary science curriculum, science teacher education, sociology of science, technology and education. Specializations: gender and science/science teacher education, feminist theory, curriculum theory. Specializations: Science education research, curriculum development.     

Addressing the Sociopolitical Realities of Teaching through Standards-Based Reform to Post-Licensure Master’s Degree Programs

ABSTRACT

Physical education teacher education programs have a responsibility to prepare preservice teachers in the technical aspects of teaching while also preparing them for the sociopolitical realities of teaching a marginalized subject. There is also a need for inservice teachers to engage in continuing professional development related to socialization and school sociopolitics to build upon lessons learned during initial teacher education. In the United States, one such professional development opportunity is reflected in master’s degree programs. These programs are typically guided by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education advanced standards for physical education teacher education. However, these standards do not currently have any reference to socialization or sociopolitical learning. The purpose of this article is to propose that an additional standard focusing on sociopolitical skills and teacher socialization be added to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education advanced standards for U.S.-based post-licensure master’s degree programs.     

Fostering Connections to Nature — Strategies for Community College Early Childhood Teachers

ABSTRACT

How can early childhood teacher educators at the community college level create opportunities for their students to explore and relate to the natural world? This article discusses three learning opportunities in an early childhood associate-degree program that foster connections between preservice and inservice early childhood teachers and nature education — the Goldsworthy project, a local habitat course, and an animal study project in a curriculum course. Each learning opportunity helped teachers develop effective teaching strategies for engaging children with nature education and also a personal and professional disposition toward valuing nature education as future teachers.     

Training for content teachers of English Language Learners: using experiential learning to improve instruction*

Abstract

Experiential learning theory places experience at the center of learning. Kolb’s four-stage cycle of experiential learning suggests that effective learners must engage fully in each stage of the cycle – feeling, reflection, thinking, and action. This research assesses the alignment of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle with the week-long Summer Institute of Assisting, Collaborating, and Training ESL Secondary Content Teachers (ACT-ESL), the first stage of a professional development model designed to train content teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs). Qualitative and quantitative data analysis from pre- and post-surveys determined positive changes in participants’ understanding of key ELL concepts, knowledge, and understanding of instructional strategies and practices. Analysis indicated that the Summer Institute had a large effect (d > 2.00 for each scale), regardless of previous training in ELL instructional strategies. Findings show that the Summer Institute incorporated the cycle of learning and tenets of Kolb’s experiential learning theory and evidenced teacher learning.     

An examination of Chinese preservice and inservice early childhood teachers’ perspectives on the importance and feasibility of the implementation of key characteristics of quality inclusion

The Chinese Preschool Inclusion Survey, which is an adaptation of Odom et al. [2004. ‘Preschool inclusion in the United States: A review of research from an ecological systems perspective’. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs 4 (1): 17–149] a list of the features of quality preschools, was given to 234 preservice teachers and 307 inservice teachers in a large Chinese province so as to examine whether early childhood education (ECE) teachers agree on the key characteristics of high quality inclusion in terms of importance and feasibility. One significant finding of the study is that both preservice and inservice teachers highly ranked the importance of the key characteristics of high quality inclusion in ECE settings, yet both ECE teachers ranked the feasibility of implementing the key characteristics lower. Additionally, two factors that influenced preservice teachers’ perceived importance and feasibility of inclusion were years of study and courses related to special education, and five factors that influenced inservice teachers’ perceived inclusion beliefs were bianzhi, certification, years of teaching, opportunities for professional development and degree. Teacher education reform is called upon to affect change in terms of creating positive beliefs regarding high quality inclusion services and implementation of effective practices in stronger, collaborative support systems for Chinese children with special needs and their families. Implications for policy, professional development, and teacher education reform are provided.     

Provision for community college faculty development in collective bargaining agreements

While the need for community college faculty development has evolved into a top priority issue over the last decade, collective bargaining has become a significant influence on the programs and policies of two-year campuses in many states. The following study examines the trends of collective negotiations as they affect inservice education, through an examination of collective bargaining agreements. The findings indicate that few colleges declare the purpose of faculty development to be increased teaching effectiveness or link participation in professional growth activities with reward for that participation. Few colleges include faculty on inservice planning bodies. However, facilitating policies for staff development exist in significant numbers of agreements, providing for inservice days, leaves of absence, sabbaticals, tuition reimbursement for formal study, and released time for innovative program development. In all, the trend is presently one of negotiation of provisions in a piecemeal fashion rather than one with the goal of establishing comprehensive professional improvement programs.     

Against the Unchallenged Discourse of Homelessness: Examining the Views of Early Childhood Preservice Teachers

Abstract

Because of the link between teacher training and higher‐quality classroom practice, early childhood researchers and professional organizations have placed an increasing emphasis on all early childhood teachers—including those in early care and education (ECE) settings—obtaining a minimum of a Bachelor's degree as part of their professional development. Given the differing licensure requirements for ECE teachers, the variety of settings early childhood teachers work in, and the creativity needed to respond to the changing roles teachers play in those settings, however, this paper offers an additional perspective that is sometimes left out of the discussion regarding what teachers need: that of the early childhood practitioner. Using conversations with both a certified, public school teacher and a non‐certified teacher in a private ECE setting in New Jersey, this article reports on these teachers’ professional development experiences, as well as the implications of their experiences for future considerations of what teachers need in order to enhance their growth as educators.     

Contingent Faculty,Online Writing Instruction,and Professional Development in Technical and Professional Communication

ABSTRACT

Technical and professional communication (TPC) programs rely on contingent faculty to achieve their curricular mission. However, contingent faculty lack professional development opportunities. In this article, the author reports survey results (N = 91) and three cases studies that provide information on contingent faculty and their preparation for online teaching and then provides a three-step approach for TPC program administrators and faculty to follow so that programs can create sustainable professional development opportunities for contingent faculty to teach online.     

Arriving on a fast track: Perceptions of teachers from an alternative licensing program about their first four years in the classroom

Abstract

In a 4‐year study of new teachers who completed the MINT (Massachusetts Institute for New Teachers) alternative teacher‐licensing program, we found that this particular fast‐track model recruited a group of highly committed new teachers. However, these new teachers expressed dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of their teacher education program. Many of the teachers tended to use traditional teaching methods. Some regarded their professional development and mentoring experiences as insufficient. Some believed their potential for school leadership was not being fully realized. A similar set of perceptions were reported by a group of new teachers who had completed college‐based teacher preparation programs, although the college program‐prepared teachers tended to give higher ratings to their teacher preparation program and to use a wider variety of teaching strategies in the classroom.     

Preservice teachers,caring communities,and parent partnerships: Challenges and possibilities for early childhood teacher education

Abstract

The creation of caring classroom communities and a heightened focus on the central importance of partnerships between teachers and parents are two significant features of the revised guidelines for developmentally appropriate practices [Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs, revised ed., National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington, DC]. This article reports findings from a study of preservice primary grade teachers’ understandings of caring in which participants developed negative, adversarial beliefs about parents during their initial field placement period. The findings in this study indicate that in order to prepare preservice teachers to meet our expectations for high quality early childhood teaching practices, we must create teacher education programs and coursework specifically aimed at developing commitments to caring community and to parent partnership.     

Hands-on at a Distance: Evaluation of a Temperature and Heat Distance Learning Course

The No Child Left Behind Act requires that all teachers be certified within the content areas that they teach. However, attracting and retaining highly qualified science teachers in rural school districts is particularly difficult due to limited resources and geographic and professional isolation. Science professional development programs could help improve inservice teachers’ understanding of concepts they are expected to teach, but such programs are often limited in rural areas. This study evaluates a unique distance learning, inquiry-based professional development course in physical science developed to meet the needs of central Appalachian middle school teachers. Instruction through hands-on inquiry investigations distinguishes this program from other distance learning programs. Preliminary findings from the pilot study reported in this paper reveal significant growth in 43 teachers’ content knowledge for six of nine temperature and heat concepts assessed in the course. Outcomes from the distance learning project are discussed as they relate to future research goals and implications for science professional development programs in rural regions.     

Teacher professional learning in Early Childhood education: insights from a mentoring program

In Australia, as is the case in other countries around the world, the Early Childhood workforce is in the process of ‘skilling up’ to meet government demands related to quality service provision. This paper sets out to identify what constitutes effective teacher professional learning through mentoring. Guided by critical realism and social practice as theoretical perspectives, the paper uses data drawn from the State-wide Professional Mentoring Program for Early Childhood Teachers (2011–2014), Victoria, Australia. The findings identify four C’s essential to effective professional learning – Context: the association between individual aspirations and systemic requirements; Collegiality: the positioning and importance of collegial relationships; Criticality: critical deliberation in ‘safe’ learning environments; and Change: recognition that teacher learning takes place in the domains of professional dispositions, pedagogical knowledge and social capital. These findings point to the need to consider teachers’ contexts of practice in the design of professional development programs such as mentoring, and to conceptualise learning as a socially situated practice rather than a detached pedagogic event.     

CAMPUS EARLY CHILDHOOD LABORATORY SCHOOLS: PARTNERS IN TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Abstract

Making Theory and Development of Early Childhood Education come alive for elementary master's degree students in two learning sites offers opportunities and challenges. In constructing the class, a primary goal was to expose the students to the context under which early childhood educators developed programs and theories. Also, students were challenged to uncover the relationship that the education of young children had with social change and emerging human rights. Utilizing distance learning, contemporary books such as Who Moved My Cheese (Johnson, 1998) and a field trip to the National Civil Rights Museum and the Rock'n Soul Museum, students developed a sense of the place early childhood education had and continues to have in social change and the advancement of civil rights in this country.     

Technology,Professional Development and Innovations: assessing change

ABSTRACT

A telecommunications and multimedia inservice project, called Telecommunications, Environmental Education, and Multimedia (TEEM), in Arizona USA, includes the study of an evolving professional development venture that connected university‐based preparation with the ongoing education of teachers that was school based, teacher determined, and aligned to K‐12 content. This paper describes that project, its components and its intent to pro‐actively move beyond traditional forms of inservice efforts through a number of innovations which create change. Within the context of this project, the authors describe a “circling” process that accompanies the continuously evolving professional development efforts to remain teacher and school focused.