Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Abstract

In the field ofEducation, the function of professional development is to improve the quality of teaching. Through many different strategies, methods and practices, teachers, administrators and school corporations have used professional development as a means to an end—to improve student learning. Whether that is achieved on a short-term basis, long term basis, or not at all, millions of dollars and countless hours are dedicated on an annual basis for the training of teachers. How to improve or ensure effective professional development has historically been a topic of debate. Asking the actual practitioners of the field, teachers themselves, what they feel is effective professional development is the focus of this study. By using what current literature deems as integral elements for effective professional development, a survey was generated to ask randomly selected public school teachers in Marion County, Indiana questions regarding the top indictors of effective professional development. In terms of either content or process, these participating teachers helped delineate what they felt was more critical for them to improve in their field. In addition to determining what public school teachers deem as the critical elements of effective professional development, this study then took the same field of teachers who participated and statistically determined if there was a difference in perception between elementary and secondary teachers. This would serve the purpose to customize professional development for the appropriate age level that teachers instruct. This study's null was accepted. There was no significant difference between elementary and secondary teachers in their perceptions of effective professional development.

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