The effective research-based characteristics of professional development and how they relate to the National Science Foundation's GK--12 Program
Year: 2006
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This mixed methods study investigates the effective research-based characteristics \nof professional development and the National Science Foundation’s GK-12 Program. A \ncomprehensive search of texts containing effective research-based characteristics of \nprofessional development linked to student achievement and teacher behavior provided \nthe data to perform three content analyses. After rigorous inter- and intra-reliability \ntesting, the content analyses yielded 16 effective research-based characteristics of \nprofessional development. For reasons of validity, the characteristics were sent to experts \nof professional development who were later interviewed. The characteristics were then \nused to deductively investigate the GK-12 program; an NSF funded professional \ndevelopment program that supports graduate students and advanced undergraduates in \nscience, technology, engineering, and mathematics and partners them with cooperating \nteachers in the K-12 classroom. Final evaluations from 26 of 31 GK-12 sites from the \nprogram’s inception year in 1999 were analyzed in a third content analysis. The results \nof the analysis demonstrate that the GK-12 program incorporates all of the effective \nresearch-based characteristics of professional development, but to drastically varying \ndegrees. Two emergent characteristics were also derived from the third analysis and \nincluded “improves communication skills” and “has real world application”. \nImplications of the study posit that educational leaders need to be aware that effective \nresearch-based characteristics of professional development that are linked to student \nlearning exist, and should be used to guide professional development endeavors.
Author: Peter C. Cormas
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
Award: G701877844
OpenAlex ID: W1886541753