Professional Readings
Professional Readings
Professional Readings
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/profdevl/pd2fiph.htm
The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (n.d.) has developed a research-
based professional development framework that promotes ongoing professional
development and encourages individual reflection and group inquiry into teachers'
practice. In practice, the five phases overlap, repeat, and often occur
simultaneously:
Changing Your Practice. The purpose of this phase is to translate your new
knowledge into individual and collaborative plans and actions for curricular
and instructional change. Activities might include action research, peer-
coaching, support groups, and curriculum development.
Every day, teachers make countless real-time decisions and facilitate dozens
of interactions between themselves and their students. Although they share this
commonality, educators all over the country often talk about these decisions and
interactions in different ways. The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS),
developed at the University of Virginias Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and
Learning, helps educators view classrooms through a common lens and discuss
them using a common language, providing support for improving the quality of
teacher-student interactions and, ultimately, student learning.
Emotional support refers to the ways teachers help children develop warm,
supportive relationships, experience enjoyment and excitement about learning, feel
comfortable in the classroom, and experience appropriate levels of autonomy or
independence. This includes:
Classroom organization refers to the ways teachers help children develop skills to
regulate their own behavior, get the most learning out of each school day, and
maintain interest in learning activities. This includes:
Behavior management how well teachers monitor, prevent, and redirect
misbehavior;
Productivity how well the classroom runs with respect to routines, how
well students understand the routine, and the degree to which teachers
provide activities and directions so that maximum time can be spent in
learning activities; and
Instructional learning formats how teachers engage students in
activities and facilitate activities so that learning opportunities are
maximized.