Wa0000

MUHAMMAD AMIR SHOAIB
EFFECT OF PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT ON TEACHERS'
METHOD OF TEACHING
EFFECT OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON TEACHERS' METHOD OF TEACHING

BK643256
B.ED. 2018
ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD

MAY-2018
EFFECT OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON
TEACHERS' METHOD OF TEACHING
By

Roll No. BK643256
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

B.Ed. (1.5 year) program in Teacher Education at DEPARTMENT OF EARLY
CHILDHOOD EDUCATION & ELEMENTARY TEACHER EDUCATION
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY, ISLAMABAD
MAY-2018
© MUHAMMAD AMIR SHOAIB, 2018
Research Project Submission Approval Form
Research Project entitled “EFFECT OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON
TEACHERS’ METHOD OF TEACHING” Submitted by MUHAMMAD AMIR
SHOAIB Roll No. BK643256 Registration No. 16PMB02282 B. Ed. Teacher Education
Programme has been read by me and has been found to be satisfactory regarding its quality,
content, language, format, citations, bibliographic style, and consistency, and thus fulfils
the qualitative requirements of this study. It is ready for submission to Allama Iqbal Open
University for evaluation.
______IQBAL ZIA_______
Name of Supervisor
Date: _____________________ _______________________________

(Day-Month-Year) Signature of the Supervisor
ii
DECLARATION
I MUHAMMAD AMIR SHOAIB Son of MIAN MUHAMMAD IQBAL Roll No.
BK643256 Registration # 16PMB02212, a student of B.Ed. (1.5 year) Teacher Education
programme at Allama Iqbal Open University do hereby solemnly declare that the research
project entitled “EFFECT OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON TEACHERS’
METHOD OF TEACHING” submitted by me in partial fulfillment of B.Ed. (1.5 year)
programme, is my original work, and has not been submitted or published earlier. I also
solemnly declare that it shall not, in future, be submitted by me for obtaining any other
degree from this or any other university or institution.
I also understand that if evidence of plagiarism is found in my thesis/dissertation at
any stage, even after the award of a degree, the work may be cancelled and the degree
revoked.
______________________________
Signature of Candidate
Date: ______________
__ MUHAMMAD AMIR SHOAIB
Name of Candidate
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Sir Iqbal Zia for the
continuous support of my B.Ed. study and related research, for his patience, motivation,
and immense knowledge. His guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing
of this research project. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for
my B.Ed. study.
M.A.S.
iv
ABSTRACT
This article examines the effects of professional development on teachers' method of
teaching. Using a purposefully selected sample of about 207 teachers in 30 schools, we
examine features of teachers' professional development and its effects on changing
teaching practice in mathematics and science. In view of the overall aim and specific
objectives set for the study and the issues under investigation, the use of both quantitative
and qualitative research methods was necessary. The questionnaire was specifically
designed on the basis of an extensive review of literature and consultations. We found that
professional development focused on specific instructional practices increases teachers' use
of those practices in the classroom. Furthermore, we found that specific features such as
active learning opportunities, increase the effect to f the professional development on
teacher's instruction.
Keywords: changing teaching practice, content, evaluation, longitudinal study,
mathematics and science, professional development
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter PAGE
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background of the Study ....................................................................................................................2
1.2 Statement of the Problem ...................................................................................................................3
1.3 Research Objective .............................................................................................................................3
1.4 Research Questions ............................................................................................................................4
1.5 Significance of the Study ...................................................................................................................5
1.6 Scope and Limitations of the Study ...................................................................................................7
1.7 Delimitation of the Study ...................................................................................................................8
1.8 Research Methodology .......................................................................................................................9
1.8.1 Population .................................................................................................................................... 10
1.8.2 Sampling Techniques ................................................................................................................... 10
1.8.3 Sample ......................................................................................................................................... 11
1.8.4 Research Instrument .................................................................................................................... 12
1.8.5 Data Collection ............................................................................................................................ 13
1.8.6 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 14
1.9 Operational Definitions .................................................................................................................... 15
2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 19
2.1 Theoretical Framework .................................................................................................................... 20
2.2 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR EXPERIENCED TEACHERS .................................... 21
2.3 TEACHERS’ STAGES AND PATHWAYS ................................................................................... 24
3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 29
3.1 Research Design ............................................................................................................................... 29
3.2 Population ........................................................................................................................................ 30
3.3 Sample & Sampling Techniques ...................................................................................................... 31
3.4 Instrumentation ................................................................................................................................ 33
3.5 Validity & Reliability of Instrument ................................................................................................ 34
3.6 Data Collection................................................................................................................................. 35
3.7 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 36
4 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 41
4.1 Descriptive Statistics ........................................................................................................................ 41
4.1.1 Analysis of Responses ................................................................................................................. 42
4.2 Inferential Statistics .......................................................................................................................... 43
4.2.1 Analysis of Data........................................................................................................................... 44
4 SUMMARY, FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 46
5.1 Summery .......................................................................................................................................... 46
5.2 Findings ............................................................................................................................................ 47
5.3 Discussion ........................................................................................................................................ 48
5.4 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 50
5.5 Recommendations ............................................................................................................................ 51
BIBLIOGRAPHY 54
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Name Page No.

Table 3.1 Effects of Professional Development on the Use of Technology 37
Table 3.2 Effects of Professional Development on the Use of Higher

38
Order Instruction
Table 3.3 Effects of Professional Development on the Use of
39
Alternative Assessments
Table 3.4 Relationship between Features of Professional Development and
Activities Focused on Specific Teaching Practices (Sign and 40
Significance of Relationships)
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figures Page No.
Figure 2.1 Professional development program 20
Effects of professional development on the use of teaching 31

Figure 3.1 strategies
Figure 4.1 Effects of professional development on the use of 45
calculators and computers to develop models, by the
activity's focus on specific technology use practices, and
active learning.
viii
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix Name Page No.

Appendix 1 Professional Development Needs Questionnaire 57
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1
EFFECT OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON TEACHERS’ METHOD OF TEACHING
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
What are the characteristics of professional development that affect teaching practice? This
study adds to the knowledge base on effective professional development. The success of
standards-based reform depends on teachers' ability to foster both basic knowledge and
advanced thinking and problem solving among their students, and such effective practices
require teachers to have a deep understanding of the content they teach. Professional
development is considered an essential mechanism for deepening teachers' content
knowledge and developing their teaching practices. As a result, professional development
could be a cornerstone of systemic reform efforts designed to increase teachers' capacity to
teach to high standards. The research reported here focuses on the effects of professional
development on changing classroom teaching practice. Using a purposefully selected
sample of teachers in 30 schools, we examine features of teachers' professional
development and their effects on changing teaching practice in mathematics and science.
2
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Over the past decade, a large body of literature has emerged on in-service professional
development, teacher learning, and teacher change. The research literature contains a mix
of large and small-scale studies, including intensive case studies of classroom teaching,
evaluations of programs designed to improve teaching and learning, and surveys of
teachers about their pre-service preparation and in-service professional development
experiences. In addition, there is a considerable amount of literature describing "best
practices" in professional development, drawing on expert experiences. A professional
consensus is emerging about particular characteristics of "high quality" professional
development. These characteristics include a focus on content and how students learn
content; in-depth, active learning opportunities; links to high standards, opportunities for
teachers to engage in leadership roles; extended duration; and the collective participation
of groups of teachers from the same school, grade, or department. Although lists of
characteristics such as these commonly appear in the literature on effective professional
development, there is little direct evidence on the extent to which these characteristics are
related to better teaching and increased student achievement. Some studies conducted over
the past decade suggest that professional development experiences that share all or most of
these characteristics can have a substantial, positive influence on teachers' classroom
practice and student achievement. A few recent studies have begun to examine the relative
importance of specific characteristics of professional development. Several studies have
found that the intensity and duration of professional development is related to the degree
of teacher change. In addition, there is some indication that compared to professional

3
development focused on general pedagogy or management strategies, professional
development that focuses on specific mathematics and science content and the ways
students learn such content is especially helpful, particularly for instruction designed to
improve students' conceptual understanding. Given the size of investment in professional
development and the dependence of education reform on providing effective professional
development, the knowledge base on what works must be strengthened. The longitudinal
results reported here provide a replication of cross-sectional results on a nationally
representative sample. Together, the earlier study and the one reported here clarify the
extent to which findings from qualitative case study work generalize across teachers and
districts.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
How professional development of teachers effect their method of teaching? And what are
their insights about these activities as to: (a) applicability in the classroom, (b) importance
in the teaching profession, and (c) impact on student performance?
1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to provide baseline data on professional development & its
impact on mathematics and science students. Also, a professional development model for
teachers is proposed.
4
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
We asked teachers about personal background information, such as gender and years of
experience, only in the baseline wave of the survey. We did not ask teachers the total
number of professional development activities in which they participated during the year;
we did, however, ask them the number of types of professional development activities in
which they participated, as well as the number of hours spent on each type. For the 0 to 3
response scale, standard deviations for use of teaching strategies in the three areas ranged
from .58 to 1.02. These scales are identical to the scales used in the analysis of our national
data. The survey included a final category, "other organized forms of professional
development," and asked the teacher to describe the form. We reclassified all responses
into one of the eight forms. Teachers were also given the following options: teachers as
individuals; teachers as representatives of their departments, grade level, or schools; and
other configurations. Teachers could check all that applied. The observation questions
asked (1) whether the teacher received coaching or mentoring in the classroom as part of
the activity; (2) whether the teacher's teaching was observed by the activity leader(s) and
feedback was provided; (3) whether the teacher's teaching was observed by other
participants and feedback was provided; and (4) whether the activity was evaluated in part
on the basis of an observation of the teacher's classroom. The classroom implementation
questions asked whether, as part of the activity in which the teacher participated, the teacher
(1) practiced under simulated conditions, with feedback; (2) met formally with other
activity participants to discuss classroom implementation; (3) communicated with the
leader(s) of the activity concerning classroom implementation;( 4) met informally with

5
other participants to discuss classroom implementation; and (5) developed curricula or
lesson plans that other participants or the activity leader reviewed. The questions pertaining
to reviewing student work were (1) whether the teacher reviewed student work or scored
assessments as part of the activity; (2) whether work completed by students in the teacher's
classroom was reviewed by other activity participants or (3) the activity leader; and (4)
whether student outcomes were examined as part of an evaluation of the activity. The
questions for presenting, leading, and writing were whether, as part of the activity, the
teacher (1) gave a lecture or presentation;( 2) conducted a demonstration of a lesson, unit,
or skill; (3) led a whole-group discussion; (4) led a small-group discussion; or (5) wrote a
paper, report, or plan.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Teaching is one of the essential professions through which all other professions are made
possible. What teachers know and are able to do is of critical importance. In this context,
the task of preparing and supporting the career-long development of teachers’ knowledge
and skills assumes primary importance.
The education systems are at a point where the teaching force is ageing and the
effectiveness of traditional teaching techniques and professional development activities is
being questioned. There is an apparent lack of support structures and adequate time for
teachers to engage in professional development activities focusing on pedagogy for student
and school improvement. It is a problem that should be addressed at a time when there is
6
resurgence in professional development activities for teachers around the world. There is
adequate supporting evidence relating to the positive effects of professional development,
particularly how mastery of instruction affects student. In this context, the purpose of this
study was to assess the professional development needs of teachers with a view to
satisfying the teachers’ needs through the development of a professional development
program schedule to improve the pedagogical practices of educators. The specific
objectives of the study were to:
 Examine the professional development practices, including pedagogical
techniques, employed by teachers.
 Identify pedagogical strategies that need to be updated and further developed for
individual and institutional effectiveness.
 Develop a professional development program schedule including pedagogical
strategies for practitioners.
 Identify the work-embedded support structures needed to enhance professional
development and practices of the educators.

7
1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
There are several weaknesses to our design strategy as well. One concerns sample size.
Given the number of variables and complexity of our models, it would have been better to
have at least twice as many teachers. This sample size problem had two implications. First,
while we did replicate many of the findings from our earlier cross-sectional study, we did
not replicate all of them. In general, however, the effects were in the hypothesized
directions. This could be a problem of low statistical power due to small sample size.
Second, it would have been preferable to put all six of the a priori identified dimensions of
professional development in the same model. This would control for their potentially
positive inter correlations, and at the same time would allow us to look at how the
dimensions work in combination. Instead, we had to fit a separate model for each of the
characteristics of professional development, due to insufficient sample size to support the
more inclusive model. Another weakness of our design strategy was that, due to response
burden considerations, teachers were asked to describe only a single professional
development activity. We asked them to select the one that had been most influential not
in any specific way, but generally. Obviously, most teachers participate in more than one
professional development activity during a single year. We would have greatly preferred
to have a comprehensive and complete description of each respondent's entire professional
development experiences as they relate to mathematics and science. Describing one
professional development activity out of, say, three or four, is analogous to having only a
few items on a student achievement test. Undoubtedly, the result is low reliability of our
measures of experiences with professional development. In short, when a teacher reports

8
that they participated in professional development that focused on uses of technology, the
estimate of participation that we extract from the response may under-or over represent the
teachers' actual participation in such professional development. If they participated in other
professional development activities that also focused on technology, then ours is an
underestimate. If they participated in other professional development activities, none of
which focused on the use of technology, then ours is an underestimate. Our small sample
size, our inability to put all of our independent variables into one model, and our less than
complete measure of each teacher's professional development experiences all lead toward
our not finding the effects of professional development on instructional practices that we
sought to find. Still, our results that content focus of professional development affects
instructional practices tied to the content focus were clear and strong. And for the other
five a priori identified hypotheses about dimensions of quality professional development,
four were supported at least to some extent.
1.7 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
Nevertheless, our design is not an intervention study, where a well-established and
implemented approach to professional development is given to one random half of
teachers, while the other random half of teachers does not experience the intervention. Our
study is based on natural variation, and so suffers the possible third-variable problem
(actually seventh variable in this case). For example, we do not have a good measure of the
extent to which the professional development activity described focused on knowledge of
how students learn particular mathematics or science content. Yet we know from the
9
literature that professional development that has a focus on how students learn specific
content can be effective in changing teachers' instructional practices, which in turn can be
effective in promoting gains in student achievement. What if knowledge of student learning
is a feature of professional development that also emphasizes active learning of
participants? It could be that when we find effects of active learning, really what we're
finding is effects of a seventh and unknown variable. We are certain that the six features
that we investigated are not the only six important features of professional development;
but we are not certain of all of the other important features of effective professional
development, nor are we certain of their likely positive covariation with the six features
investigated. This seventh variable problem adds some tentative-ness to our conclusions.
Admittedly, our longitudinal design and requirement of complete data did result in studying
only approximately 207 teachers out of an original sample of over 500. But such selectivity
does not produce confounding; rather selectivity is a potential threat to external validity.
When we looked at the characteristics of our longitudinal sample, they paralleled the
characteristics of our national probability sample on such factors as sex, race, and years of
experience. So, even threats to external validity may not be as severe as one might
otherwise imagine.
1.8 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
We conducted analyses on the basis of data from all three waves of the Teacher Survey.
We sought to explain teaching practice in Year 3, on the basis of teachers' professional
development experiences in Year 2, controlling for teachers' classroom teaching practices
in Year 1.
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1.8.1 POPULATION
For our study, we surveyed teachers at three points in time. The three waves of the survey
provide data pertaining to science and mathematics. Although our study does not measure
the effects of professional development on student achievement directly, the measures of
teaching practice that we use have been associated with gains in student achievement. In
any event, the effects of professional development on gains in student achievement must
surely be mediated by changes in teacher class-room practices.
1.8.2 SAMPLING TECHNIQUES
We expected systematic differences in results by school level, so we chose one elementary
school, one middle school, and one high school in each of the 10 districts. We selected
districts, and schools in the sample that had adopted diverse approaches to professional
development in addition to traditional workshops and conferences. If such professional
development is more effective than traditional approaches, then the teachers' instruction in
the sample schools might be better than that of the average teacher. In sum, we selected the
sample to maximize the opportunity to investigate important differences in approaches to
professional development. The sample is not meant to be taken as nationally representative,
but neither is it extremely unusual. It allows a focused, exploratory examination over
several years of the characteristics of professional development that foster change in
teachers' instructional practices.

11
1.8.3 SAMPLE
We surveyed all the teachers who taught mathematics and science in each of the 30 schools
in the sample. In elementary schools, we randomly administered mathematics surveys to
half the teachers and science surveys to the other half. Four hundred and thirty (430)
teachers responded to the first survey; 429 teachers responded to the second survey; and
452 teachers responded to the third survey. The response rate for the first wave was 75%;
for the second wave, it was 74%; and for the final wave was 75%. Given our analysis
strategy of looking for change over time in the same teachers, the sample for the analysis
is restricted to teachers who returned all three waves of the survey, who participated in first
professional development survey, and who continued to teach the same course over all
three waves of the survey. The last restriction is necessary because changes in the course
taught might introduce changes in teaching practice apart from the effects of professional
development experiences. Finally, the sample is restricted to teachers who provided
complete data on all of the necessary items. The number of teachers meeting these
conditions was 207. The sample is 74% female and 18% minority. Ninety three percent of
the sample are certified teachers. Twelve percent of mathematics teachers and 18% of
science teachers in the sample are novice teachers, or teachers who have taught the
surveyed subject for three or fewer years. The data in this report are unique in that they
provide consistent information on teaching practice and professional development over a
three-year period for a sample of teachers of mathematics and science. These data enabled
us to analyze relationships between teachers' professional development experiences and
classroom practice, while controlling for prior differences in their classroom practice.
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1.8.4 RESEARCH INSTRUMENT
We drew on research and best practice to identify the key features of professional
development to use in our study. We concluded that six key features of professional
development could be hypothesized as effective in improving teaching practice. Three are
"structural features", or characteristics of the structure of a professional development
activity. These structural features include the form or organization of the activity-that is,
whether the activity is organized as a reform type, such as a study group, teacher network,
mentoring relationship, committee or task force, internship, individual research project, or
teacher research center, in contrast to a traditional work-shop, course, or conference; the
duration of the activity, including the total number of contact hours that participants spend
in the activity, as well as the span of time over which the activity takes place; and the
degree to which the activity emphasizes the collective participation of groups of teachers
from the same school, department, or grade level, as opposed to the participation of
individual teachers from many schools. The remaining three features are core features, or
characteristics of the substance of the activity: the extent to which the activity offers
opportunities for active learning-that is, opportunities for teachers to become actively
engaged in the meaningful analysis of teaching and learning, for example, by reviewing
student work or obtaining feedback on their teaching; the degree to which the activity
promotes coherence in teachers' professional development, by incorporating experiences
that are consistent with teachers' goals, aligned with state standards and assessments, and
encourage continuing professional communication among teachers; and the degree to

13
which the activity has a content focus-that is, the degree to which the activity is focused on
improving and deepening teachers' content knowledge in mathematics and science.
1.8.5 DATA COLLECTION
To estimate the effect of participating in professional development focused on a particular
teaching practice within one of the three areas (i.e., technology, higher order instruction,
and alternative assessments), we created two new variables: the mean focus the activity
gave to the set of practices within an area and the relative focus the activity gave to each
of the specific practices in an area.
Mean focus. To assess the extent to which the professional development activity that a
teacher attended focused on multiple, related practices, we calculated the average or mean
focus given to the teaching practices we measured. The mean focus for technology use is
the average emphasis placed on the four technology practices; mean focus for higher order
instruction is the average emphasis placed on the five higher order instructional practices;
and for alternative assessments, mean focus is the average emphasis placed on the six
alternative assessment strategies. Since each practice is coded 1 if it was given attention as
part of the teacher's professional development activity and 0 if it was not, the mean focus
for each of the three areas ranges from 0, if no practices within a particular area were
covered in the activity, to 0.5 if half of the practices in an area were covered, to 1 if all of
the practices in an area were covered. The more practices the activity focused on, the higher
the mean focus.

14
We used mean focus and relative focus to characterize professional development activities
because the variables clearly distinguish between the benefits of focusing on one practice
rather than another within a professional development activity (captured by the relative
focus) and the benefits of professional development activities that focus on many or few
practices (captured by the mean focus).
1.8.6 DATA ANALYSIS
The results of our analysis for technology are presented in Table 1, for instruction in Table
2, and for assessment in Table 3. Each table contains the results for seven models. Model
1 examines the effects of focusing on a practice during professional development in Year
2 on use of the practice in Year, but does not include the effects of the professional
development features. Models 2 through 7 examine each feature, one at a time (reform
type, time span, hours, collective participation, active learning, and coherence).
15
1.9 OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS
Following terms will be used in the research. Definitions of these terms given below in
order to understand context.
 Affective Measures -- procedures or devices used to obtain quantified descriptions
of an individual's feelings, emotional states, or dispositions.
 Aggregate -- a total created from smaller units. For instance, the population of a
county is an aggregate of the populations of the cities, rural areas, etc. that comprise
the county. As a verb, it refers to total data from smaller units into a large unit.
 Bias -- a loss of balance and accuracy in the use of research methods.
 Causal Hypothesis -- a statement hypothesizing that the independent variable
affects the dependent variable in some way.
 Central Tendency -- any way of describing or characterizing typical, average, or
common values in some distribution.
 Chi-square Analysis -- a common non-parametric statistical test which compares
an expected proportion or ratio to an actual proportion or ratio.
 Classification -- ordering of related phenomena into categories, groups, or systems
according to characteristics or attributes.
 Construct Validity -- seeks an agreement between a theoretical concept and a
specific measuring device, such as observation.
 Content Analysis -- the systematic, objective, and quantitative description of the
manifest or latent content of print or non-print communications.

16
 Control Group -- the group in an experimental design that receives either no
treatment or a different treatment from the experimental group. This group can thus
be compared to the experimental group.
 Correlation -- a common statistical analysis, usually abbreviated as r, that
measures the degree of relationship between pairs of interval variables in a sample.
The range of correlation is from -1.00 to zero to +1.00. Also, a non-cause and effect
relationship between two variables.
 Deviation -- the distance between the mean and a particular data point in a given
distribution.
 Distribution -- the range of values of a particular variable.
 External Validity -- the extent to which the results of a study are generalizable or
transferable.
 Framework -- the structure and support that may be used as both the launching
point and the on-going guidelines for investigating a research problem.
 Group Behavior -- behaviors of a group as a whole, as well as the behavior of an
individual as influenced by his or her membership in a group.
 Hypothesis -- a tentative explanation based on theory to predict a causal
relationship between variables.
 Meta-Analysis -- an analysis combining the results of several studies that address
a set of related hypotheses.
 Null Hypothesis -- the proposition, to be tested statistically, that the experimental
intervention has "no effect," meaning that the treatment and control groups will not
differ as a result of the intervention. Investigators usually hope that the data will
17
demonstrate some effect from the intervention, thus allowing the investigator to
reject the null hypothesis.
 Population -- the target group under investigation. The population is the entire set
under consideration. Samples are drawn from populations.
 Probability -- the chance that a phenomenon will occur randomly. As a statistical
measure, it is shown as p [the "p" factor].
 Questionnaire -- structured sets of questions on specified subjects that are used to
gather information, attitudes, or opinions.
 Reliability -- the degree to which a measure yields consistent results. If the
measuring instrument [e.g., survey] is reliable, then administering it to similar
groups would yield similar results. Reliability is a prerequisite for validity. An
unreliable indicator cannot produce trustworthy results.
 Sample -- the population researched in a particular study. Usually, attempts are
made to select a "sample population" that is considered representative of groups of
people to whom results will be generalized or transferred. In studies that use
inferential statistics to analyze results or which are designed to be generalizable,
sample size is critical, generally the larger the number in the sample, the higher the
likelihood of a representative distribution of the population.
 Sampling Error -- the degree to which the results from the sample deviate from
those that would be obtained from the entire population, because of random error
in the selection of respondent and the corresponding reduction in reliability.
 Standard Deviation -- a measure of variation that indicates the typical distance
between the scores of a distribution and the mean; it is determined by taking the
18
square root of the average of the squared deviations in a given distribution. It can
be used to indicate the proportion of data within certain ranges of scale values when
the distribution conforms closely to the normal curve.
 Statistical Analysis -- application of statistical processes and theory to the
compilation, presentation, discussion, and interpretation of numerical data.
 Statistical Bias -- characteristics of an experimental or sampling design, or the
mathematical treatment of data, that systematically affects the results of a study so
as to produce incorrect, unjustified, or inappropriate inferences or conclusions.
 Statistical Significance -- the probability that the difference between the outcomes
of the control and experimental group are great enough that it is unlikely due solely
to chance. The probability that the null hypothesis can be rejected at a
predetermined significance level [0.05 or 0.01].
 Testing -- the act of gathering and processing information about individuals'
ability, skill, understanding, or knowledge under controlled conditions.
 Unit of Analysis -- the basic observable entity or phenomenon being analyzed by
a study and for which data are collected in the form of variables.
 Validity -- the degree to which a study accurately reflects or assesses the specific
concept that the researcher is attempting to measure. A method can be reliable,
consistently measuring the same thing, but not valid.
 Variable -- any characteristic or trait that can vary from one person to another
[race, gender, academic major] or for one person over time [age, political beliefs].
19
CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Recent literature reveals a growing interest in professional development initiatives
designed to address the professional development needs of mid-career teachers. A variety
of studies have been undertaken that explore the complexities of effective professional
development for midcareer teachers. These studies illuminate a range of factors that need
to be carefully considered when determining appropriate delivery modes, standards and/or
approaches for assessing professional learning (Berliner, 2005; Elmore, 2004; Feiman-
Nemser, 2001; Fullan, 2001, 2005; Guskey, 1995, 2000, 2005; Hammerness et al., 2005;
Hawley & Valli, 1999; Lieberman & Wilkins, 2006; Tomlinson, 2005; Warren-Little,
1999).
20
Figure 2.1: Professional development program
2.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Study groups and writing groups, professionally oriented graduate programs, use of action
research and lesson study methodologies at school sites, career ladder schemes,
differentiated certification and incentives are only some of the approaches to professional
development that have been undertaken. While many of these methods appear to have some
efficacy in professional learning, there is no consensus in the literature regarding outcomes
and clearly no panacea.

21
Context, the unique professional knowledge of the teacher-learner, school and system
supports and initiatives and a myriad of other factors must be considered in designing and
determining high quality professional development.
The impact of infrequent, poorly designed and/or inadequately delivered approaches to
teachers’ professional development is evident in the literature. Not only costly, some
approaches to professional development, continue to be dominated by a “one size fits all”,
transmission orientation to learning and in many ways are unproductive. “Nothing has
promised so much and been so frustratingly wasteful as the thousands of workshops and
conferences that led to no significant change in practice when teachers returned to their
classrooms”. These strategies for professional learning, it is now understood, are no longer
sufficient.
2.2 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR EXPERIENCED
TEACHERS
Professional development is understood and described in different ways. Joyce et al. (1976,
p. 6), for example, defined professional development as “formal and informal provisions
for the improvement of educators as people, educated persons, and professionals, as well
as in terms of the competence to carry out their assigned roles.” Gall and Renchler (1985,
p. 6) described professional development more specifically as “efforts to improve teachers’
capacity to function as effective professionals by having them learn new knowledge,
attitudes and skills.” Fullan (1995, p. 265) defined professional development as “the sum
22
total of formal and informal learning pursued and experienced by the teacher in a
compelling learning environment under conditions of complexity and dynamic change.”
Indeed, Fullan, Hill and Crevola (2006, p. 21) have begun to intentionally use “professional
learning” to refer to the ongoing, focused “daily learning of teachers individually and
collectively”, finding professional development a “more narrow conceptual term.” Day’s
(1999, p. 27) definition perhaps best highlights teachers' continuous professional learning
within the broader context of change and its interconnected elements. According to Day,
“Professional development consists of all natural learning experiences and those conscious
and planned activities which are intended to be of direct or indirect benefit to the individual,
group or school, which constitute, through these, to the quality of education in the
classroom. It is the process by which, alone and with others, teachers review, renew and
extend their commitment as change agents to the moral purposes of teaching; and by which
they acquire and develop critically the knowledge, skills and emotional intelligence
essential to good professional thinking, planning and practice with children, young people
and colleagues throughout each phase of their teaching lives.”
Not surprisingly, professional development for teachers is often located in one or more
paradigms. Generally scholars criticize the “deficit” paradigm articulated by Gall and
Renchler above that characterizes professional development as targeted to compensating
for a lack in skills or knowledge and viewing teachers as empty vessels “to be filled”
Garmston (1991, p. 64). Some locate it within a “professional growth” paradigm that
characterizes development as more self-directed arising from the learner’s interests and
needs (Feiman-Nemser, 2001). Some locate it within an “educational change” paradigm
which views development as focused upon bringing about change (Fullan, Hill & Crevola,
23
2006; Warren-Little, 2001). Still others position professional development within a
“problem solving” paradigm which links development to making improvements to address
identified issues like student achievement needs (Ball & Cohen, 1999; Joyce & Showers,
2002; McLaughlin & Zarrow, 2001). Guskey (1994, p. 63) emphasizes and connects the
growth and problem-solving notions of professional development, suggesting it is
“increasingly seen as a process, not an event, that the process in intentional and is a
systematic effort to bring about positive change or improvement.” Many other researchers
call for a similarly integrative view of professional development (Day et al., 2005; Goodall
et al., 2005; Lieberman & Miller, 2000, 2001).
Professional development for experienced teachers is most often discussed in the literature
as a segment or phase within a career long or continuing professional development (CPD)
process. Within the continuum of teacher development, professional development for
experienced teachers includes different components and takes many forms. Fullan, Hill &
Crevola, (2006) claim, for example, that professional learning that focuses on contextually-
based, personalized, data-driven instruction is one of the three central components of
Breakthough thinking that will be critical to successful educational reform and that will
noticeably improve and sustain learning for students and teachers alike. In their view,
teachers must be learning in their classrooms every day.
Coherence is a critical feature of successful professional development approaches. Goals
and standards, processes and practices, and assessment approaches of professional
development need to have transparent, meaningful, and manageable standards and
demonstrable outcomes that align and are integrated with student learning, organizational
and societal learning needs and purposes.

24
Underpinning and shaping any particular learning process is ongoing consideration of
multiple and interconnected factors including: student and teacher learning and
performance; the learning context; the realities of the day-to-day work of teachers; research
and knowledge bases that inform the act of teaching; teacher’s interests and level of
development; independent and collaborative learning activities and processes that are
responsive to teachers’ different ways and levels of learning and knowing; accountability
and ways of assessing professional growth; meaningful, and manageable standards for
teachers; alignment among personal, school and system goals; and attention to broader
change processes (e.g. a sustained timeframe, varied forms of pressure and support).
2.3 TEACHERS’ STAGES AND PATHWAYS
Professional development for experienced teachers is usually not given exclusive attention
in the professional development literature. More often, it is discussed as a segment or phase
within a career long or continuing professional development process. There is an implicit
developmental aspect to these phases and stages that may not entirely capture the
complexity and intricacy of ongoing professional learning.
Studies of professional learning suggest that experienced teachers have varied and unique
professional needs according to personal and professional circumstances, histories, and
contexts and not merely due to career length or life stage. Matching appropriate
professional development provision to particular professional needs (immediate and
developmental) must to be taken into account. This “fit” is critically important in ensuring
25
that there is a positive impact for student learning within the context of the classroom and
school (Goodall et al., 2005).
As well, widely held psychological stage theories outline distinctive and qualitative
differences in thinking and cognition at various stages of development (e.g. Kohlberg’s
moral development; Erikson’s Psychosocial theory; Hunt’s Cognitive Developmental
Theory; Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs). These psychological theories underscore the
growing sophistication and capacity to move beyond the self as learners mature. These
understandings of adult development and learning support the professional development
research that suggests that teachers’ self-affirmation and self-actualization needs are key
aspects of their personal learning and professional development.
A number of frameworks have been developed specifically to help understand the stages
of teachers’ professional development throughout the course of a career (e.g. Berliner,
1994; Feiman-Nemser, 1983; Fessler, 1995; Glaser, 1996; Guskey, 1995; Hammerness et
al., 2005; Huberman, 1995; Steffy & Wolfe, 2001). These frameworks suggest potential
career cycle trajectories, with varying needs at different stages. They also remind us that
the sequence and timing of these stages may be variant, uniquely individual, and recursive
and spiraling rather than linear.
Huberman (1995), for example, connected research on life cycle stages with teachers’
professional development needs. He explained that in the time between Phase 1 or “career
entry” to the final phases of “serenity” or “disengagement”, the phases of “diversification
and change” (phase 3) and “stock-taking and interrogation” (phase 4) at mid-career are the
most variable and extensive. In the third phase, teachers are aiming to increase their skills
and effectiveness and to look beyond the classroom to collaborative projects and activism.
26
In the fourth phase, typically between 12 - 20 years of experience according to Huberman,
the teacher engages in self-questioning and may consider a career change as part of a
broader “life review”. If the answers to the questions are positive, then serenity and
continued growth can follow. If disappointment or dissatisfaction occurs, then
conservatism or even disengagement can be the outcomes. Huberman further discovered
that career teachers tend to associate three actions or relationships with their most satisfying
experiences in mid-career:
1) Undertaking a role shift (e.g. becoming a literacy lead, instructional leader, etc.);
2) Experiencing strong rapport with special classes or groups of students;
3) Experiencing significant results from their teaching activities in their particular
context, in other words, impacting student learning and achievement.
Steffy and Wolfe (2001) have proposed a six-phase career life cycle, in which movement
forward is propelled by the mechanisms of reflection and renewal or impeded by
withdrawal. In this model, the phases relate very directly to needs, tasks and experiences
in which the teacher is engaged.
The initial phases are:
Novice Phase: when preservice students first encounter the practicum experience as part
of Teacher Ed program.
Apprenticeship Phase: when teachers receive responsibility for planning and delivering
instruction to students independently – until integration and synthesis of knowledge,
pedagogy and confidence emerges – usually induction period and into second or third year
of teaching.
Mid-career professionals fall into the next 2 or potentially 3 phases.

27
Professional Phase: as confidence grows through experience, teachers begin utilizing
student feedback to develop their skills, very much linking their learning and growth to
that of their students.
Expert Phase: at this stage, teachers achieve the highest standards set in professional
standards frameworks.
Distinguished Phase: occurs when particular “gifted” educators begin to influence
decisions at city, state and national levels (Steffey and Wolfe (2001) suggest that
professional development for these three stages should include collaboration and
personalization through activities such as study teams, peer coaching, PD seminars to
examine assumptions, and serving as a mentor or coach); and the final phase following a
career characterized by learning and renewal is the
Emeritus Phase: retirement after a lifetime of achievement in education. Feiman-Nemser
(2001, p. 1048) also proposed a continuum of professional learning and highlighted the
need to be attentive and responsive to teachers’ needs at different stages based upon key
learning tasks.
Looking at the central tasks of learning to teach over time, we see important threads of
continuity related to subject matter knowledge, inquiry and repertoire development. The
use of terms like “deepening”, “refining”, and “extending” to frame these tasks implies that
learning to teach involves continuing growth and development in core aspects of teaching.
At the same time, each phase in the continuum has a special agenda.
In particular, in the mid to late career stages of experimentation and consolidation and
mastery and stabilization, the tasks for continuing professional development must:
• extend and deepen subject matter knowledge for teaching;

28
• extend and refine repertoire in curriculum, instruction and assessment;
• strengthen skills and dispositions to study and improve teaching; and
• expand responsibilities and develop leadership skills.
While specifying the areas of focus for these learning tasks, she underscores the importance
of matching of appropriate professional development provision with particular, individual,
contextualized professional needs.

29
CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
We will conduct analyses on the basis of data from all three waves of the Teacher Survey.
We will seek to explain teaching practice in Year 3, on the basis of teachers' professional
development experiences in Year 2, controlling for teachers' classroom teaching practices
in Year 1.
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN
We concluded that six key features of professional development could be hypothesized as
effective in improving teaching practice. Three are "structural features", or characteristics
of the structure of a professional development activity. These structural features include
the form or organization of the activity-that is, whether the activity is organized as a reform
type, such as a study group, teacher network, mentoring relationship, committee or task
force, internship, individual research project, or teacher research center, in contrast to a
traditional work-shop, course, or conference; the duration of the activity, including the total
number of contact hours that participants spend in the activity, as well as the span of time
over which the activity takes place; and the degree to which the activity emphasizes the
collective participation of groups of teachers from the same school, department, or grade
30
level, as opposed to the participation of individual teachers from many schools. The
remaining three features are core features, or characteristics of the substance of the activity:
the extent to which the activity offers opportunities for active learning-that is, opportunities
for teachers to become actively engaged in the meaningful analysis of teaching and
learning, for example, by reviewing student work or obtaining feedback on their teaching;
the degree to which the activity promotes coherence in teachers' professional development,
by incorporating experiences that are consistent with teachers' goals, aligned with state
standards and assessments, and encourage continuing professional communication among
teachers; and the degree to which the activity has a content focus that is, the degree to
which the activity is focused on improving and deepening teachers' content knowledge in
mathematics and science.
3.2 POPULATION
For our study, we surveyed teachers at three points in time. The three waves of the survey
provide data pertaining to science and mathematics. Although our study does not measure
the effects of professional development on student achievement directly, the measures of
teaching practice that we use have been associated with gains in student achievement. In
any event, the effects of professional development on gains in student achievement must
surely be mediated by changes in teacher class-room practices.

31
Figure 3.1: Effects of professional development on the use of teaching strategies
3.3 SAMPLE & SAMPLING TECHNIQUES
We surveyed all the teachers who taught mathematics and science in each of the 30 schools
in the sample. In elementary schools, we randomly administered mathematics surveys to
half the teachers and science surveys to the other half. Four hundred and thirty (430)
teachers responded to the first survey; 429 teachers responded to the second survey; and
452 teachers responded to the third survey. The response rate for the first wave was 75%;
32
for the second wave, it was 74%; and for the final wave was 75%. Given our analysis
strategy of looking for change over time in the same teachers, the sample for the analysis
is restricted to teachers who returned all three waves of the survey, who participated in first
professional development survey, and who continued to teach the same course over all
three waves of the survey. The last restriction is necessary because changes in the course
taught might introduce changes in teaching practice apart from the effects of professional
development experiences. Finally, the sample is restricted to teachers who provided
complete data on all of the necessary items. The number of teachers meeting these
conditions was 207. The sample is 74% female and 18% minority. Ninety three percent of
the sample are certified teachers. Twelve percent of mathematics teachers and 18% of
science teachers in the sample are novice teachers, or teachers who have taught the
surveyed subject for three or fewer years. The data in this report are unique in that they
provide consistent information on teaching practice and professional development over a
three-year period for a sample of teachers of mathematics and science. These data enabled
us to analyze relationships between teachers' professional development experiences and
classroom practice, while controlling for prior differences in their classroom practice.
We expected systematic differences in results by school level, so we chose one elementary
school, one middle school, and one high school in each of the 10 districts. We selected
districts, and schools in the sample that had adopted diverse approaches to professional
development in addition to traditional workshops and conferences. If such professional
development is more effective than traditional approaches, then the teachers' instruction in
the sample schools might be better than that of the average teacher. In sum, we selected the
sample to maximize the opportunity to investigate important differences in approaches to

33
professional development. The sample is not meant to be taken as nationally representative,
but neither is it extremely unusual. It allows a focused, exploratory examination over
several years of the characteristics of professional development that foster change in
teachers' instructional practices.
3.4 INSTRUMENTATION
We drew on research and best practice to identify the key features of professional
development to use in our study. We concluded that six key features of professional
development could be hypothesized as effective in improving teaching practice. Three are
"structural features", or characteristics of the structure of a professional development
activity. These structural features include the form or organization of the activity-that is,
whether the activity is organized as a reform type, such as a study group, teacher network,
mentoring relationship, committee or task force, internship, individual research project, or
teacher research center, in contrast to a traditional work-shop, course, or conference; the
duration of the activity, including the total number of contact hours that participants spend
in the activity, as well as the span of time over which the activity takes place; and the
degree to which the activity emphasizes the collective participation of groups of teachers
from the same school, department, or grade level, as opposed to the participation of
individual teachers from many schools. The remaining three features are core features, or
characteristics of the substance of the activity: the extent to which the activity offers
opportunities for active learning-that is, opportunities for teachers to become actively
engaged in the meaningful analysis of teaching and learning, for example, by reviewing
34
student work or obtaining feedback on their teaching; the degree to which the activity
promotes coherence in teachers' professional development, by incorporating experiences
that are consistent with teachers' goals, aligned with state standards and assessments, and
encourage continuing professional communication among teachers; and the degree to
which the activity has a content focus-that is, the degree to which the activity is focused on
improving and deepening teachers' content knowledge in mathematics and science.
3.5 VALIDITY & RELIABILITY OF INSTRUMENT
There are several additional aspects of our design, which should be kept in mind as one
interprets our results. Our data are based on self-report surveys. While observations have
been put to good effect in studying some aspects of pedagogy, this has only worked well
when the practices studies have been so typical as to occur during virtually every
instructional period. Some pedagogical practices are not sufficiently stable to be well
studied using such methods, even with a robust sampling approach. Since most of the
instructional practices we investigated change from week to week, if not day-to-day, a
sampling approach was inadequate for our purposes. Further, when not linked to rewards
or sanctions, teacher descriptions of practice have generally been consistent with the
descriptions of practice provided by other sources such as classroom observation and
analyses of instructional. Also, studies have shown that teachers do a good job of recalling
their practice for a given school year, when surveyed near the end of that year. We took a
number of steps to maximize the validity and reliability of the survey data. For example,
although the teacher survey is based on self-reports, most of the data represent an
35
accounting of behaviors, not direct judgments of quality that might be more likely biased
in a positive direction. In addition, the substantial variation in the responses that teachers
in both our national and longitudinal sample provided to these behavioral items, as well as
the consistency in district and teacher responses in the national data pro-vides support for
the validity of the data. Further-more, research has shown that composite indicators have
higher validity and reliability than single indicators, and most all of our measures are
composites. Finally, our analyses did find hypothesized relationships, even though the data
were collected at different times across three years. This argues for reliability, if not
validity. Our dependent variables are changes in teaching practice. While it would be useful
to have student achievement gains as the dependent variable that was not feasible for both
cost and logistical reasons. Instead, we chose our dependent variables to represent the
factors that the literature showed were related to student achievement.
3.6 DATA COLLECTION
To estimate the effect of participating in professional development focused on a particular
teaching practice within one of the three areas (i.e., technology, higher order instruction,
and alternative assessments), we created two new variables: the mean focus the activity
gave to the set of practices within an area and the relative focus the activity gave to each
of the specific practices in an area.
Mean focus. To assess the extent to which the professional development activity that a
teacher attended focused on multiple, related practices, we calculated the average or mean
36
focus given to the teaching practices we measured. The mean focus for technology use is
the average emphasis placed on the four technology practices; mean focus for higher order
instruction is the average emphasis placed on the five higher order instructional practices;
and for alternative assessments, mean focus is the average emphasis placed on the six
alternative assessment strategies. Since each practice is coded 1 if it was given attention as
part of the teacher's professional development activity and 0 if it was not, the mean focus
for each of the three areas ranges from 0, if no practices within a particular area were
covered in the activity, to 0.5 if half of the practices in an area were covered, to 1 if all of
the practices in an area were covered. The more practices the activity focused on, the higher
the mean focus.
We used mean focus and relative focus to characterize professional development activities
because the variables clearly distinguish between the benefits of focusing on one practice
rather than another within a professional development activity (captured by the relative
focus) and the benefits of professional development activities that focus on many or few
practices (captured by the mean focus).
3.7 DATA ANALYSIS
2 on use of the practice in Year, but does not include the effects of the professional
37
type, time span, hours, collective participation, active learning, and coherence).
Table 3.1: Effects of Professional Development on the Use of Technology

38
Table 3.2: Effects of Professional Development on the Use of Higher Order Instruction
39
Table 3.3: Effects of Professional Development on the Use of Alternative Assessments

40
Table 3.4: Relationship between Features of Professional Development and Activities Focused on Specific
Teaching Practices (Sign and Significance of Relationships)
41
CHAPTER 4
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Identifying and describing a professional development activity is complex. Teachers
experience many different types of professional development throughout their careers,
Furthermore, the nature of these professional development experiences can be described
on many dimensions. Choosing a Professional Development Activity to Describe In waves
two and three of the survey, we asked teachers to describe the professional development
activities in which they had participated during the prior 12 month period. For example, in
the third wave, we asked teachers who received the mathematics form of the survey to
"report all mathematics related professional development you participated in over the
previous year." We described in the survey the activities that might be considered
professional development, including mentoring, teacher networks, resource centers,
research institutes, in addition to the traditional workshops, conference and college courses.
4.1 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
We classified three types of activities as traditional in form: (a) within district workshops
or conferences, (b) courses for college credit, and (c) out of district workshops or
42
conferences. We classified the remaining five types of activities as reform activities: (d)
teacher study groups, (e) teacher collaborates, networks, or committees, (f) mentoring, (g)
internships, and (h) resource centers. The variable was measured as a dichotomy, coded 1
if the activity was reform type, and 0 otherwise. 18.7% of the activities the teachers
reported on were reform type. We asked teachers the total number of contact hours that
they spent in the professional development activity, including all components of the
activity that were held during the one year target period. The measure indicates the number
of contact hours the teachers spent in the activity on which the teacher reported. The mean
was 18.2 hours with a standard deviation of 21.7 hours. We asked about the span of the
activity, or the period of time in days, weeks, months, or years over which the activity was
spread. The options were (a) less than a day, (b) one day, (c) two to four days, (d) a week,
(e) a month, (f) two to five months, (g) six to nine months, (h) 10 to 12 months, and (i)
more than a year. The composite for time span was coded on a 9-point scale, where 1 =
less than a day and 9 = more than a year. The Year 3 mean was 3.81 with a 2.3 standard
deviation.
4.1.1 ANALYSIS OF RESPONSES
2 on use of the practice in Year 3, but does not include the effects of the professional
43
type, time span, hours, collective participation, active learning, and coherence). The
parameter estimates for Model 1 (column one of Tables 1-3) are presented in two main
groups. The first group of parameter estimates for Model 1 contain the parameters for the
strategy-level parameters that do not vary among teachers (Level 1), that is, the parameter
for the effects of Year 1 use of each practice on Year 3 use, and parameters representing
the average Year 3 use for each specific practice relative to the others, controlling for Year1
use. (The subscripted coefficients in parentheses on each row of the table refer to the
coefficients in the equations in Figure 1.) The second group of parameters presented for
Model 1 contains the parameters representing the effects of teacher activity variables
(Level 2) on each teacher's intercept and slope in the strategy-level model.
4.2 INFERENTIAL STATISTICS
We conducted analyses on the basis of data from all three waves of the Longitudinal
Teacher Survey. We sought to explain teaching practice in Year 3, on the basis of teachers'
professional development experiences in Year 2, controlling for teachers' classroom
teaching practices in Year 1. A strength of this design is that our baseline, independent
variable and dependent variable data each came from a separate survey, thus eliminating
any within instrument and time collinearity in our data that might otherwise have
contributed to spuriously high correlations. A weakness of the design is that while there
are two years of professional development activities between our baseline and post
measures of teaching practice, we examine only one year, to avoid collecting independent
and dependent variable data in the same questionnaire and to ensure that the professional
44
development described preceded in time the instruction described. Again, our investigation
of the relationship between professional development and changes in instructional
practices takes a conservative approach. With the exception of content focus, we used
measures that had been used and validated with our national data, and we used the exact
same set of questions over the three years of the study. With our data we conducted three
parallel sets of analyses, each focusing on a different area of teaching practice. First, we
examined the effects of professional development on teaching practices involving the use
of technology; then, we examined instructional methods; and finally, we examined
assessment practices. To clarify the approach we used, we describe the data, measures, and
statistical model in detail in the next section. Creating Measures: Mean Focus and Relative
Focus of Professional Development We used the data to address three main issues about
the effects of professional development on teaching practice. First, we used the data to
examine whether teachers who participated in professional development that focused on a
particular teaching practice (e.g., the use of calculators or computers to develop models)
increased their classroom use of that practice more than did similar teachers who did not
report participating in professional development that focused on the strategy.
4.2.1 ANALYSIS OF DATA
We conducted separate analyses for each of the three areas under study (use of technology,
higher order instruction, and alternative assessments). For each area, we estimated seven
models, one including only the mean focus and relative focus and controls, and the others
adding each of the six professional development features, one at a time. Given the relatively
45
small overall sample size, we estimated separate models for each feature instead of
including all features in a single model. Models two through seven, then, provide a test for
the contribution to instructional change of each of the six features given that the described
professional development activity did focus on the same content as measured for degree of
emphasis on instruction.
At the teacher level, the sample size for our analyses is about1 25.23 Since, for each
teacher, we have data on four technology use practices, the sample size available to
estimate the effects of professional development on classroom use is about 4 x 125 = 500.
The sample of practices for the analysis of instruction is about 5 x 125 = 625; and the
sample for assessment is about 6 x 125 = 750.
Figure 4.1: Effects of professional development on the use of calculators and computers to develop models,
by the activity's focus on specific technology use practices, and active learning.
46
CHAPTER 5
SUMMERY, FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND

RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 SUMMERY
Tables 1, 2, and 3 illustrate that in each of the three areas examined in our analysis
technology use, higher order instructional methods, and alternative student assessments
teacher participation in professional development that focuses on a particular teaching
practice predicts increased teachers' use of that practice in their classrooms. As described
above, these effects are independent of teachers' prior use of these practices, the subjects
they teach, and the school level. We did not ask teachers to choose an activity that was
helpful in a particular area (e.g., technology use), but rather asked them to identify an
activity that was the most helpful in general. Nor did we use data from the same survey to
form baseline, independent and dependent variables. Thus, our findings that activities
focused on particular practices increase the use of those practices are not tautological.
Further-more, there was variance in the degree of influence among the selected activities,
and the characteristics of those activities (e.g., mean or relative focus on technology use)
explained that variance. In addition to expecting effects of practice-focused professional
development on teachers' use of a particular practice, we hypothesized that professional

47
development that focuses on other specific practices within the same area of professional
development also would increase teachers' use of a specific practice within that area. In
other words, we hypothesized a "spillover" in the effects of professional development on
classroom uses of specific teaching practices. Our results indicate that the spillover is in
the expected direction, but results are not significant. Perhaps studies with a larger number
of teachers would yield results with stronger support for the spillover hypothesis. If the
spillover hypothesis is correct, however, then it is likely not a strong effect.
5.2 FINDINGS
The results suggest a benefit to technology related professional development when there is
collective participation of teachers from the same school, department, or grade level. This
is consistent with ideas about best practice and the way teachers learn and implement new
knowledge, which suggest that teachers benefit from relying on one another in developing
technological skills. Our findings are also consistent with the idea that professional
development characterized by "active learning," where teachers are not passive "recipients"
of information, also boosts the impact of professional development activities, as illustrated
by results from Tables 1 and 2. These findings are consistent with research and reformers
that suggest that teachers must engage in active learning such as interacting with their
colleagues on a regular basis to discuss their work and their students' learning, in order to
develop a deeper understanding of how children think and learn. It is also necessary to
implement conceptual, higher order instruction and alternative "authentic" assessments.
Finally, the results in Tables 2 and 3 suggest a substantial benefit when teachers participate
48
in reform types of professional development that focus on a set of higher order instructional
or alternative assessment methods. While either traditional or reform activities can provide
constructive interaction, reform activities tend to have a longer duration, which allows
them to offer more active learning opportunities for teachers. These reform types of
activities may be more responsive to teachers' needs and goals. No effects for duration were
found.
5.3 DISCUSSION
There are a number of strengths to our approach. First, we control for instructional practices
prior to the professional development experiences. When we find that teachers who
participate in professional development that focuses upon use of technology have relatively
high uses of technology in Year 3, that finding is not explained by those teachers having
been high users of technology prior to participation in the professional development.
Second, our measures of professional development precede in time our measures of our
dependent variables. In short, the professional development measures and Year 3
instructional practices measures are not overlapping in the time period described. Third,
our findings are not due to such alternative explanations as changes in the courses teachers
taught, nor are they likely due to changes in the students taught, since our design only
included teachers teaching in the same school and teaching the same grade level or course.
There could be a cohort effect of students, but the changes in student composition would
have to be correlated with the features of professional development under investigation,
which seems unlikely. Features of professional development were defined and described
49
for the previous year, when the teacher was not working with the students that they were
working with when we measured our dependent variables. Fourth, our baseline-control
variables, professional development independent variables, and instructional practices
dependent variables are each measured through a different survey, at a different point in
time. There are no spurious correlations amongst these three sets of variables due to having
been collected in the same instrument. To the extent that our findings from the earlier study
are replicated in this longitudinal study, they are all the more convincing.
There are several weaknesses to our design strategy, as well. One concerns sample size.
Given the number of variables and complexity of our models, it would have been better to
have at least twice as many teachers. This sample size problem had two implications. First,
while we did replicate many of the findings from our earlier cross-sectional study, we did
not replicate all of them. In general, however, the effects were in the hypothesized
directions. This could be a problem of low statistical power due to small sample size.
Second, it would have been preferable to put all six of the a priori identified dimensions of
professional development in the same model. This would control for their potentially
positive inter correlations, and at the same time would allow us to look at how the
dimensions work in combination. Instead, we had to fit a separate model for each of the
characteristics of professional development, due to insufficient sample size to support the
more inclusive model. Another weakness of our design strategy was that, due to response
burden considerations, teachers were asked to describe only a single professional
development activity. We asked them to select the one that had been most influential not
in any specific way, but generally. Obviously, most teachers participate in more than one
professional development activity during a single year. We would have greatly preferred
50
to have a comprehensive and complete description of each respondent's entire professional
development experiences as they relate to mathematics and science. Describing one
professional development activity out of, say, three or four, is analogous to having only a
few items on a student achievement test. Undoubtedly, the result is low reliability of our
measures of experiences with professional development. In short, when a teacher reports
that they participated in professional development that focused on uses of technology, the
estimate of participation that we extract from the response may under or over represent the
teachers' actual participation in such professional development.
5.4 CONCLUSION
Results from our longitudinal study replicate and extend cross-sectional findings by
providing evidence of the link between focusing on specific teaching practices in
professional development (content focus) and having teachers use those specific practices
in the classroom. The results were also in the right direction to support our spillover
hypothesis but were not statistically reliable. Specifically, in our longitudinal study, we
found that professional development focused on specific teaching practices increased
teachers' use of those practices in the classroom. From prior research, we concluded that,
in addition to content focus, five key features of professional development are effective in
improving teaching practice: three structural features (characteristics of the structure of the
activity) reform type, duration, and collective participation-and two core features
(characteristics of the substance of the activity) active learning and coherence. The findings
reported here provide partial support for the importance of four of the additional five
51
features of professional development. Our longitudinal data indicate that professional
development is more effective in changing teachers' classroom practice when it has
collective participation of teachers from the same school, department, or grade; and active
learning opportunities, such as reviewing student work or obtaining feedback on teaching;
and coherence, for example, linking to other activities or building on teachers' previous
knowledge. Reform type professional development also had a positive effect. Surprisingly
there were no effects for duration.
5.5 RECOMMENDATIONS
Our findings on the effects of professional development should be considered in the context
of the nature and quality of teachers' experiences in professional development. Our results
suggest that change in teaching would occur if teachers experienced consistent, high-
quality professional development. But we find that most teachers do not experience such
activities. On average, the activities experienced by teachers in our longitudinal study are
about the same quality as those experienced by our earlier. As we described earlier, the
typical professional development experience is not high quality. Nevertheless, our national
data also document great variation in the quality of teachers' professional development
experiences, which indicates that at least some teachers participate in high quality
activities, at least some of the time. Schools often must choose between serving larger
numbers of teachers with less focused and sustained professional development or providing
higher quality activities for fewer teachers. As we noted, good professional development
requires substantial resources. Reallocating resources and combining funding sources can
52
be effective in increasing funds for professional development, and can help form a coherent
professional development strategy. However, in the absence of increased resources, the
federal government, provinces, districts, and schools still have to make difficult choices
whether to sponsor shorter, less in-depth professional development that serves a large
number of teachers or to support more effective, focused, and sustained professional
development for a smaller number of teachers. The results of this study support the idea
that schools might have to focus professional development on fewer teachers in order to
provide the type of high quality activities that are effective in changing teaching practice.
The longitudinal study reported here indicates that much of the variation in professional
development and teaching practice is between individual teachers within schools, rather
than between schools. This finding provides evidence that schools generally do not have a
coherent, coordinated approach to professional development and instruction, at least not an
approach that is effective in building consistency among their teachers. Participation in
professional development is largely an individual teacher's decision; teachers often select
the professional development in which they will participate from a number of options
available from a highly disparate set of providers. An increased emphasis on the
importance of strategic, systematic planning for professional development may encourage
both education department and schools to focus efforts on high quality professional
development. The provision of high quality programs of professional development by
schools and education department may not completely solve the problem of the variation
in the quality of professional development, since participation in professional development
remains primarily the decision of individual teachers. Nevertheless, education department
and schools could go a long way in developing high quality professional development
53
activities. To develop meaningful professional development plans, education department
and schools would have to (a) overcome challenges to focusing on and setting priorities for
professional development activities over time, given limited resources; (b) acquire
knowledge about the features of effective professional development; and (c) build the
infrastructure to design and implement the types of activities that teachers need to improve
student learning. Funding, guidelines and technical assistance from federal, provincial, and
local sources could play an important role in helping education department and schools
overcome these challenges and develop high-quality professional development
experiences.
54
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TOPIC APPROVAL FORM FOR RESEARCH PROJECT (CC: 8613)
Student Name: MUHAMMAD AMIR SHOAIB

Registration Number: 16PMB02282
Roll Number: BK643256

Programme: B. ED. 1.5 YEARS
Supervisor Name: MR. IQBAL ZIA
Date of Approval of Topic: ___________________
Topic of Research Project:
“EFFECT OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON

TEACHERS’METHOD OF TEACHING”
Workshop Coordinator Signature: ________________________________

(Name)
Resource Person Signature: ______________________________________
(Name)
Resource Person Signature: ______________________________________
(Name)
62
EVALUATION PERFORMA FOR RESRACH PROJECT

S/No Component of Research Project Marks Comments
.
1. Formatting (margins of 1” on top, bottom and right side of
page while 1.5” margin on left side of page, Page number on
top right corner, double line spacing, font size (chapter
heading 16 bold, main headings 14 bold and text 12 size)
2. Preliminary section and references are given (tile page, approval
sheet, declaration, acknowledgement, abstract, table of contents,
list of figures, list of tables, list of abbreviations, list of
appendices, references)
3. Abstract (approx.150-250 words) contains information about
research objectives, research design, population, sampling
technique, sample, research instrument(s), results and
recommendations.
4. Introduction (2-3 pages) provides background information about
research problem, purpose of the study and in-text citation of
resources such as books, research articles consulted. There is a
logical connection between paragraphs of introduction section.
5. Statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research
question and/or hypotheses and significance of the study are
clearly described and aligned together. Operational definitions
of variable(s) and specific terms are provided.
6. Research Methodology clearly describes research design,
population, sampling technique used, sample size, research
tool(s), validity and reliability of research tool(s) and data analysis
techniques. Research methodology section is aligned with
statement of the problem and objectives of the research study.
7. Findings and discussion are written on the basis of analysis of
collected data. Discussion includes properly cited and relevant
scholarly work such as books, research articles related to the
research problem. Findings and discussion are clearly written.
8. Conclusion and recommendations are written in connection
with research objectives of the study. Conclusion and
recommendations are clearly written.
9. References (APA referencing style is used for referencing
throughout the document.)
Total
General Remarks:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

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MUHAMMAD AMIR SHOAIB

MUHAMMAD AMIR SHOAIB

ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD

MUHAMMAD AMIR SHOAIB

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

Research Project entitled “EFFECT OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON

TEACHERS’ METHOD OF TEACHING” Submitted by MUHAMMAD AMIR

University for evaluation.

Date: _____________________ _______________________________

I MUHAMMAD AMIR SHOAIB Son of MIAN MUHAMMAD IQBAL Roll No.

BK643256 Registration # 16PMB02212, a student of B.Ed. (1.5 year) Teacher Education

project entitled “EFFECT OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON TEACHERS’

METHOD OF TEACHING” submitted by me in partial fulfillment of B.Ed. (1.5 year)

degree from this or any other university or institution.

I also understand that if evidence of plagiarism is found in my thesis/dissertation at

This article examines the effects of professional development on teachers' method of

teaching. Using a purposefully selected sample of about 207 teachers in 30 schools, we

examine features of teachers' professional development and its effects on changing

professional development focused on specific instructional practices increases teachers' use

active learning opportunities, increase the effect to f the professional development on

Keywords: changing teaching practice, content, evaluation, longitudinal study,

mathematics and science, professional development

Table Name Page No.

Table 3.2 Effects of Professional Development on the Use of Higher

Figures Page No.

Figure 2.1 Professional development program 20

Effects of professional development on the use of teaching 31

Appendix Name Page No.

development is considered an essential mechanism for deepening teachers' content

knowledge and developing their teaching practices. As a result, professional development

could be a cornerstone of systemic reform efforts designed to increase teachers' capacity to

development on changing classroom teaching practice. Using a purposefully selected

sample of teachers in 30 schools, we examine features of teachers' professional

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

evaluations of programs designed to improve teaching and learning, and surveys of

teachers about their pre-service preparation and in-service professional development

experiences. In addition, there is a considerable amount of literature describing "best

practices" in professional development, drawing on expert experiences. A professional

consensus is emerging about particular characteristics of "high quality" professional

characteristics such as these commonly appear in the literature on effective professional

these characteristics can have a substantial, positive influence on teachers' classroom

importance of specific characteristics of professional development. Several studies have

of teacher change. In addition, there is some indication that compared to professional

development focused on general pedagogy or management strategies, professional

improve students' conceptual understanding. Given the size of investment in professional

development and the dependence of education reform on providing effective professional

results reported here provide a replication of cross-sectional results on a nationally

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

in the teaching profession, and (c) impact on student performance?

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

individuals; teachers as representatives of their departments, grade level, or schools; and

on the basis of an observation of the teacher's classroom. The classroom implementation

activity participants to discuss classroom implementation; (3) communicated with the

leader(s) of the activity concerning classroom implementation;( 4) met informally with

other participants to discuss classroom implementation; and (5) developed curricula or

teacher (1) gave a lecture or presentation;( 2) conducted a demonstration of a lesson, unit,

paper, report, or plan.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

and skills assumes primary importance.

effectiveness of traditional teaching techniques and professional development activities is

teachers to engage in professional development activities focusing on pedagogy for student

adequate supporting evidence relating to the positive effects of professional development,

Date: _ ___________