Student-designed curricula: The graduate and professional school reaction

Recent changes in undergraduate programs now enable students to design their own curricula. In the process, many students define their post-baccalaureate goals as graduate school or professional school work.This study investigated how a graduate department or professional school would react to an applicant with a self-designed program. Questionnaires were distributed to admissions directors of the 58 graduate departments and professional schools of the State University of New York at Buffalo, a major university center in the state.The results indicate that recognition of differences between student-designed programs and standard (university-designed) ones are only beginning. Thus, (1) special-degree students are initially not differentiated from other applicants, e.g., in the first sift; (2) criteria for effectively evaluating special-program applicants, as distinct from standard ones, are necessary.To date it is the applicant's responsibility to document and communicate his worth and that of his endeavor. Admissions personnel are eager for additional information.     

美国教师专业发展学校的形成与发展

“专业发展学校”的建立是美国教师教育改革的新举措，它对美国教师教育的发展和教学质量的改善起了重要作用。该文从美国教师专业发展学校的产生因素、形成过程及其意义三方面对其形成和发展进行了探讨。     

Toward the mark of empowering policies in elementary school science programs and teacher professional development

In this commentary, I discuss how policy initiatives play out in two different contexts for elementary school teachers yet produce very similar outcomes regarding teachers’ professional development and school science learning for elementary students. Ironically, the outcomes that we want see in elementary school science learning and professional development are not realized when policies are introduced that distract from practices that were working prior to new reforms.     

Factors influencing the decision to return to graduate school for professional students

The purpose of this study was to describe factors influencing the decision to return to graduate school for a group of professional students. A causal model was proposed that included five variable sets: background characteristics, college characteristics, college experiences, work experiences, and attitudes toward graduate study. The sample was composed of 217 physical therapists who responded to a 1988 statewide survey on graduate education. The longstanding articulation of graduate education and vocational interests was confirmed. The overwhelming influence in this group was the desire to advance in clinical/technical skills. Career conditions of specialization and income further influenced the educational decision. Less influence was seen from the college experience. Cost factors that have been found to be predominant in many groups did not influence the decision.     

Adult development and adult learning styles: The message for nontraditional graduate programs

Both the content and process of graduate education promote adult development. As developing people, adults usually enroll in graduate programs at times when they are building or changing the structure of their lives. Graduate programs, particularly nontraditional programs, can address both the growing adult as well as uphold relevant standards of intellectual excellence and professional expertise.Their collaborative research has focused on life cycle adult development and on educational methodologies and environments which support adult development.     

校本课程开发与教师个体专业性发展

在我国基础教育课程从单一的国家课程模式走向国家、地方、学校三级课程管理模式的背景下，校本课程开发将成为今后我国中小学教师的一项重要任务。教师通过参与校本课程的开发工作，可以提升课程参与意识，掌握课程开发的技术，确立专业思想，拓展专业知识，发展专业能力，形成专业自我，从而不断促进教师的专业发展和教育质量的提高。     

The antecedents of teacher satisfaction with professional development programs

Literature has shown that on-the-job professional development programs are most beneficial when they are long-term, focused on students’ learning, and linked to the curricula. We hypothesized that the higher the control teachers have over job professional development processes, and the greater the resemblance of these processes to the typical teaching culture in classrooms, the greater the teachers’ satisfaction with job professional development processes. The findings of this study demonstrate that the main factors affecting teachers’ satisfaction with the instructional programs are related to their desire to maintain instructional processes “close to home”, and to shape these processes in accordance with their needs and expectations. The implications of the study are discussed with relation to decision-makers in the school setting and at the local authorities’ level.     

学科、专业的发展是大学发展的基础

学科、专业建设是大学建设的重要内容,大学人才培养、科学研究、社会服务职能的实现离不开大学学科、专业的建设和发展。大学职能的发展以大学学科、专业的发展为基础;大学的组织结构以学科、专业结构为前提;大学学科、专业发展水平决定了大学的发展水平。     

The challenges of scaling-up and sustaining professional development school partnerships

This article addresses the challenges PDS partnerships face as they go to scale. Based on Coburn's (2005) notions of scale, the article uses organizational theory to analyze data from a ten-year qualitative meta-synthesis of PDS partnership research. Based upon the analysis, the article offers four recommendations: PDS partnerships should sustain strong trajectories of research regarding their work; Stakeholders in PDS partnerships need to ensure that faculty and staff have adequate support to thrive; PDS partnerships need to be based upon enabling bureaucratic structures; and PDS partners need to create opportunities to engage with each other in positive, normative spaces.     

发展为本的课程目标与中小学教师的专业发展

基础教育正在进行新一轮课程改革．从课程目标、教学方法到学生的学习方式以及成长要求,都在发生根本性的变革。课程目标由社会为本、知识为本转变为以人的发展为本。这就要求中小学教师的教育理念、能力素质随之变革和发展。     

The value of CK,PK, and PCK in professional development programs predicted by the progressive beliefs of elementary school teachers

Teachers’ professional development (PD) receives a great deal of attention in current educational settings. However, research has shown that many teachers hesitate to attend PD programs. In this study, data were collected from 270 elementary school teachers and were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to examine their intention to attend the weekly PD programs on Wednesday afternoons (PDWAP). The results revealed that the participants value the acquisition of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) more than they value pedagogical knowledge (PK) and content knowledge (CK) because of the expected usefulness of each for teaching. Moreover, the results of this study have implications for PD program design, and call for a stronger focus on PCK.

AbbreviationAdjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI); Analysis of Moment Structures(AMOS); average variance (AVE); Chi-square(); content knowledge (CK); continuing professional development (CPD); Comparative Fit Index (CFI); degree of freedom (df); expectancy-value theory (EVT); Goodness of Fit Index (GFI); Incremental Fit Index (IFI); Mean(M); Parsimonious Goodness of Fit Index (PGFI); Parsimonious Normed Fit Index (PNFI); Parsimonious comparative-fit-index (PCFI); pedagogical content knowledge (PCK); pedagogical knowledge (PK); professional development (PD); professional development programs on Wednesday afternoons (PDWAP); Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA); standard deviation (SD); structural equation modeling (SEM); square of multiple correlation coefficients (R2); Teaching Beliefs Survey (TBS); theory of planned behavior (TPB); Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI); United Kingdom (UK)     

试论小学教师专业特性及其培养体系的构建

当前,我国小学教师培养体系"乱象纷呈",复杂异常,面临诸多发展困境,主要症结在于我们对小学教师专业特性缺乏深度研究.小学教师需要的情商应超过智商,职业情感要求更为鲜明;教育专业性超过学科专业性,教育素养要求更为突出;技艺性超过研究性,专业技能要求更为侧重;广博性超过深刻性,专业知识要求更为全面.依据这些专业特性,我们应该采取如下对策:创立全国统一的小学教师教育标准体系;创建省域统筹的小学教师培养基地;创新人格本位的小学教师培养模式.     

新世纪研究生教育的发展与矛盾

就新世纪初我国研究生教育发展中的某些趋势进行了分析,主要就规模增长、地区间差别增大、价值观念的变化及学校自主办学谈了一些看法,并指出要用科学发展观正确分析研究生教育发展中的矛盾,促进学位与研究生教育的协调发展。     

A case study of graduate professional development in the TAFE sector

There has been very little provision of professional development for teachers of mathematics in the technical and further education (TAFE) sector and even less evaluation and reporting on such programs. This paper presents a model for a professional development program in mathematics that was designed for TAFE teachers, as well as those from the K-12 sector. It is a case study that describes the implementation of the model with a group of TAFE teachers, considering such issues as the professional development needs perceived by the teachers, the components included in the program, and the evidence for the short- and long-term effectiveness of the program. The flexible structure of the program and the qualitative research base for the evaluation could be used as a model for professional development in other TAFE curriculum areas.     

The relationship between perceptions of a Chinese high school's ethical climate and students' school performance

This study examined the relationship of school ethical climate and students' school performance within the context of a Chinese high school. Gender and grade‐level differences in ethical climate perceptions were also explored. Survey data on perceptions of school ethical climate based upon the dimensions of student‐to‐teacher, student‐to‐student and teacher‐to‐student interactions and relationships were obtained from 754 students. Results of the study showed that students' perceptions of their high school's ethical climate were related to academic achievement, gender and grade level. Students' involvement in extracurricular activities and student leadership generally did not seem to relate to their perceptions of ethical climate. Based upon these findings, the school's moral education intervention programs should increase their focus on the area of teacher‐to‐student relationships and interactions and the subgroups of male students, students in higher grades and students with lower academic achievement. Implications for future research on school climate are also discussed.     

The professional development needs of secondary school information technology co-ordinators

Abstract

Analysis of a recent survey in the United Kingdom of the roles, concerns, training needs and support priorities of secondary school Information Technology Co-ordinators has revealed a number of factors and relationships amongst these variables and with other variables concerning the characteristics of schools. In this article we present and discuss the results of a recent survey in the United Kingdom of the roles, concerns, training needs and support priorities of secondary school Information Technology Co-ordinators (ITCs). We draw conclusions concerning the unique problems faced by ITCs as a result of the expectations placed upon them, not only to teach their own subject, but also to train and support other teachers in the pedagogical application of information technology (IT). In response to a great variety of needs, there is only limited support provided for them formally by their schools and by external sources. The most highly valued support comes from informal sources. We consider the implications of these conclusions for those concerned with providing professional development in IT education. We suggest that partnership approaches may provide the basis for much improved support for ITCs, with the aim of raising the standard of teaching in schools, both of IT as a subject and with IT as an aid. We also highlight the challenges for the partnerships between schools and higher education institutions which are attempting to provide initial teacher education for IT specialists.     

A study of staff development programs for improving school discipline

This paper reports two phases of an ongoing study of the effectiveness of teacher training programs related to school discipline. An exhaustive review of efficacy studies of programs such as Reality Therapy, Teacher Effectiveness Training, and Human Relations Training revealed serious methodological weaknesses. Most studies indicated programs involved teacher attitudes towards more humane discipline, but there were few demonstrations of actual behavior change in students. After phase 1, programs were examined for teaching strategies and processes taught to teachers to improve school discipline. A list of 38 processes were identified and each program examined for their presence. Phase 2 reports the incidence of these processes across programs and suggests further approaches to using these data for continuing research.The research reported here was supported by the National Institute of Education. The opinions expressed are the authors', and no official endorsement of the NIE should be inferred.Presented at the Annual Meeting of The American Psychological Association, Montreal, September 1980.     

The impacts of district policy and school context on teacher professional development

Teacher professional development has become one of the most important policy issues in the context of standards-based reform in U.S. However, our understanding of the contexts that influence teacher professional development remains limited. Using a series of 3-level Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM/3L) statistical analyses of a large nationally representative dataset, this article examines the impacts of multi-nested district and school contexts on teacher professional development. This article suggests that diverse and complex relationships among contextual factors at the district- and school-level encourage or limit time for teacher professional development. Finally, some implications are presented for school leaders and educational policy makers in attempting to broaden and enhance teacher professional development.