Supporting university content specialists in providing effective professional development: the educative role of evaluation |
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| Authors: | Fran Arbaugh Rose Marra John K Lannin Ya-Wen Cheng Dominike Merle-Johnson Rena′ Smith |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Pennsylvania State University, 269 Chambers Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA;2. School of Information Science and Learning Technology, University of Missouri, 303 Townsend Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA;3. Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum, University of Missouri,303E Townsend Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA;4. School of Medicine, University of Missouri, MA215 Medical Sciences Building, Columbia, MO 65212, USA;5. Division of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), Montgomery County Community College, 101 College Drive, Pottstown, PA 19464, USA;6. Chemistry/Physics Department, Northwest Missouri State University, 800 University Dr, GS 3600, Maryville, MO 64468, USA |
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| Abstract: | Evaluation of professional development (PD) has traditionally been composed of summative and formative feedback, and has focused on assessing the extent to which the PD impacts participating teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practices. This study establishes an additional purpose for PD evaluation – as educative opportunities for professional developers, particularly for PD providers who are university-level content specialists (e.g. scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, engineers). Through analysis of data collected as state-wide evaluators for one US Midwest state’s Improving Teacher Quality Grant PD programs, and utilizing an analysis methodology which we term ‘recommendation traces,’ we examine formative evaluation recommendations that we made to four different PD projects over three years. Findings from this study shed light on how content specialists who work in PD projects can learn about effective PD through project evaluation efforts. |
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| Keywords: | professional developer education educative opportunities for professional developers science professional development mathematics professional development educating teacher educators professional developer learning |
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