Teacher development courses should be based on both research and literature to promote their success and impact in practice. In this article, we translate the findings of research studies and theories into evidence-based design principles for a professional development course for honors teachers. This course was evaluated on the level of teacher reaction, teacher learning, outcomes, and organizational response. Nine design principles were formulated and translated into concrete actions, resulting in a one-year course (study load of 140 hours), ‘A Teacher’s Road to Excellence.’ We evaluated the impact of the course with a questionnaire filled in by participants (N=10) who finished the course one year ago. The design principles showed to be helpful in developing this course for honors teachers. The course, ‘A Teacher’s Road to Excellence,’ seems to be instructive for honors teachers and impact on student learning outcomes is seen. More research is needed to improve its impact further, on organizational level.
Vocational teachers continuously tailor their teaching to changes in occupational practice, technologies, and student diversity. Teacher professional development is crucial for dealing with these changes. A longitudinal study was conducted to study the professional development activities of vocational teachers in the Netherlands. It resulted in a typology of formal and informal professional development activities. This typology consolidates preceding typologies, and specifies these for the context of vocational education. During a two-and-a-half year period, 26 experienced teachers detailed their informal and formal professional development activities in learner reports. The 386 activities identified were grouped in six categories of informal professional development activities and in five categories of formal activities. In total, three quarters of the activities could be characterised as informal, embedded in daily practice. Our typology could encourage vocational schools in facilitating professional development more effectively.
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Over the last two decades, institutions for higher education such as universities and colleges have rapidly expanded and as a result have experienced profound changes in processes of research and organization. However, the rapid expansion and change has fuelled concerns about issues such as educators' technology professional development. Despite the educational value of emerging technologies in schools, the introduction has not yet enjoyed much success. Effective use of information and communication technologies requires a substantial change in pedagogical practice. Traditional training and learning approaches cannot cope with the rising demand on educators to make use of innovative technologies in their teaching. As a result, educational institutions as well as the public are more and more aware of the need for adequate technology professional development. The focus of this paper is to look at action research as a qualitative research methodology for studying technology professional development in HE in order to improve teaching and learning with ICTs at the tertiary level. The data discussed in this paper have been drawn from a cross institutional setting at Fontys University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands. The data were collected and analysed according to a qualitative approach.
