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Given the time and resources invested in professional development, it makes sense to find ways to extend positive outcomes over the long term. However, there is little research investigating what e...

This exploratory study examines the relationship between preservice teachers’ performance on a teaching performance assessment for licensure in elementary mathematics and a measure of knowledge that, in studies of practicing teachers, was found to predict effective mathematics teaching. A sample of 89 preservice teachers completed the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) and the classroom video analysis (CVA) instrument. Correlation analyses found overall weak associations between measures for the whole group. For groups of high, medium, and low performers on PACT, average scores on the CVA measure and its subscales varied in the predicted direction. However, individuals within the PACT performing groups had a relatively broad range of scores on the CVA, and several preservice teachers who performed poorly on PACT had average or better than average performance on the CVA. Similarly, several of the PACT high performers scored below the whole group CVA average. In addition to suggesting areas for future research, the findings raise questions about assessing preservice teachers’ readiness to teach mathematics and the use of a single measure to make licensing decisions.

This study investigates the impact of a professional development program that included two distinct components: strategies for infusing student-talk into grade-level lessons in science and mathemat...

This study investigated the extent to which a state-funded teacher professional development program designed to improve K–2 science education led to changes that persisted beyond the funding period. The study used a longitudinal, mixed-methods approach and examined persistence of changes in teachers’ content knowledge, self-efficacy, instructional time, and instructional practices in science. It also examined the extent to which school contexts and resources provided ongoing support for teachers to implement what they learned in the professional development. Data sources, collected over a 5-year period, included a teacher survey, a self-efficacy assessment, content knowledge tests, interviews, and classroom observations. Findings indicated a beginning pattern of decline during the 2 years after the program ended, but outcomes remained higher than before the professional development. Contextual factors varied widely across schools and influenced, in particular, the amount of time teachers devoted t...

This longitudinal study examined the extent to which teachers’ participation in a 3-year professional development program enhanced their self-efficacy and prompted changes in science instruction in the early elementary grades. The study used a mixed-methods design, and included 39 teachers who taught in kindergarten, first grade, or second grade classrooms in rural school districts. Data sources, administered pre-program and at the end of each year, included a self-efficacy assessment and teacher survey. Interviews and classroom observations provided corroborating data about teachers’ beliefs and science instruction. Results showed significant increases in teachers’ overall self-efficacy in teaching science, personal efficacy, and outcome expectancy efficacy during the 3 years. Gains in self-efficacy were correlated with changes in reported instructional practices, particularly student participation activities. However, changes in self-efficacy tended not to be correlated with changes in instructional time. Contextual factors beyond teachers’ direct control, such as curricular and testing requirements in mathematics and language arts influenced time allotted to science instruction.

This study investigated the extent to which teacher professional development led to changes in science instruction in K-2 classrooms in rural school districts. The research specifically examined changes in (a) teachers’ content knowledge in science; (b) teachers’ self-efficacy related to teaching science; (c) classroom instructional time allotted to science; and (d) instructional strategies used in science. The study also investigated contextual factors contributing to or hindering changes in science instruction. Data sources included a teacher survey, a self-efficacy assessment, content knowledge tests, interviews, and classroom observations. After one year in the program, teachers showed increased content knowledge and self-efficacy in teaching science; they spent more instructional time on science and began using different instructional strategies. Key contextual factors included curricular demands, resources, administrative support, and support from other teachers.

I am a border woman. I grew up between two cultures, the Mexican (with a heavy Indian influence) and the Anglo (as a member of a colonized people in our own territory).... Living on borders and in margins, keeping intact one's shifting and multiple identity and integrity, is like trying to swim in a new element, an 'alien' element (Anzaldua, 1987, preface). In Borderlands, Gloria Anzaldua describes her experiences in straddling two cultures and points out that borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them (p. 3). Similar to the setting Anzaldua portrays, schools and universities exist as two distinct cultures with borders differentiating the practitioners from the professors. The emergence of school-university partnerships has created a borderland where those who work in both settings may find themselves trying to swim in a new element. Many school-university partnerships are based on the premise of equal partners working together in a mutually beneficial relationship (Sirotnik & Goodlad, 1988). Professional development schools (PDSs), for example, create a new institutional coalition of universities, schools of education, and public schools, a coalition based on the notion of true reciprocity (Holmes Group, 1990). Emerging as one of the most common collaborative arrangements for preparing prospective teachers (Yinger & Hendricks, 1990), PDSs have three main goals: to support student learning, to support the professional education of novice and veteran teachers, and to encourage inquiry and research related to educational practice (Levine, 1988, 1992). Extending beyond other school reform efforts, PDSs offer promising possibilities in creating new frames for teacher learning, building new ways of knowing, and providing new opportunities for mutual restructuring of schools and universities (Darling-Hammond, 1994). However, the process of creating professional development schools is a complex enterprise, particularly because it involves combining institutions with distinctive and possibly conflicting missions, organizational structures, and cultures. These distinctions lead to a variety of challenges such as defining roles and responsibilities (Miller & Silvernail, 1994), resolving conflicting fundamental interests (Snyder, 1994), establishing interinstitutional authority and fiscal responsibility (Neufeld, 1992), and providing longterm rewards (Lieberman, 1992; Sandholtz & Merseth, 1992). Some find the university, more than the schools, to be tradition-bound with a culture based on individual entrepreneurship, deep seeded conservatism, and an avoidance of risk and change (Miller, 1993, p. 5). Others encounter a large gulf between teachers' and professors' views on teaching and learning that results in people frequently working at cross-purposes (Winitzky, Stoddart, & O'Keefe, 1992). Institutional differences arise in nearly every aspect of these collaborative ventures. A strategy for bridging these differences is the creation of viable liaison positions in which people, both knowledgeable about and comfortable with the cultures of the collaborating institutions, move freely between them, interpret the language, understand the reward systems, and translate the ideas of those in one culture to those in another (Clark, 1988, p. 61). These boundary spanners, if legitimate in both institutions, establish critical links between schools and universities. Recruiting such individuals is challenging, given the established reward system for university faculty and the structured schedule of public school teachers. Lieberman (1992) points out that these boundary-spanning positions involve the traditional categories of teaching, research, and service, though not in the traditional sense and thus generally not recognized in the university's promotion process. For teachers, released time or joint appointments can be difficult to arrange, and additional work outside of school hours becomes burdensome. …

Collaborative teacher education programs add to the already heavy demands on practicing teachers, who may question the payoffs for the extra time and effort required. Inducements-contribution theory is used to examine teachers' experiences in such a program, identify the demands and rewards for the teachers, and analyze the balance between the two. The paper provides a framework for analyzing individuals' decisions to participate in collaborative programs and offers suggestions for program designers.