Effective Professional Development

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Effective Professional Development

Effective professional development is intensive enough to allow people to develop new knowledge and skills (Cook, 1997). When entering into a professional development workshop, there are components which would allow you to believe you’re in the workplace as well as in a training environment. Professional development instructors believe that, "professional development enriches teaching and improves learning for all students. It is an essential link to higher student achievement" (Cook, 1997). Workshops help teachers gain support for the classroom to enable them to succeed. A classroom needs management strategies or practice with new curriculum materials (Boreen, 2000).

Attending Professional Development

There are many different ways in which an educator can attend professional development workshops. School systems offer workshops in and outside of the school building. The school administration will bring in different speakers to talk to teachers on strategies for improving their classroom skills and methods for developing higher student achievement. Most programs suggest that new teachers should have a professional development growth plan to follow.

There are three basic components to professional development: goals, pathways, and a portfolio. Goals help determine what the teachers need to learn through professional development. Portfolio contains lesson plans, units, activities, notes, pictures, etc.

(Boreen, 2000). Professional development pathways are ways in which to attend professional development courses in a different way than the norm. Some ways are attending district and school sponsored mentoring programs, professional conferences, enrolling in university or college cou...

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...has a lot of information on how professional development has help improve programs of science and mathematics in schools.

(November 22, 2001). School Notes. Washington Post. pp. T05. Retrieved November 23, 2001, from LEXIS-NEXIS.

This a newspaper article has information on how a school has had achievements due to professional development and other community involved activities.

Lamb. (November 22, 2001). Instructor Speaks Students' Language. Washington Post. pp. T05 . Retrieved November 23, 2001, from LEXIS-NEXIS.

This news article has information on how professional development workshops has awaked the idea of having teachers speak the language of their students in the classroom.

EBSCOhost. Professional Development Thesaurus. Retrieved on November 21, 2001 from ERIC Database.

This educational database is a thesaurus for terms in education.

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