Thomas R. Guskey

Staff Development and the Process of Teacher Change

This article presents a model that describes the process of teacher change, particularly through staff development programs. The model suggests a temporal sequence of events that is hypothesized to typify the process front staff development to enduring change in teachers’ perceptions and attitudes. Research evidence supporting the model is summarized and the conditions under which change might be facilitated are described. Several principles for enhancing the change process to improve staff development efforts are also outlined.

Teacher Efficacy: A Study of Construct Dimensions

This study examined the structure of a construct generally labeled teacher efficacy. A sample of 342 prospective and experienced teachers was administered an efficacy questionnaire adapted from the research of Gibson and Dembo (1984). Factor analytic procedures with varimax rotation were used to generate a two-factor solution that accounted for 32 % of the variance in scale scores. Contrary to previous research, these factors corresponded not to a personal versus teaching efficacy distinction, but instead to a simpler internal versus external distinction, similar to locus-of-control measures of causal attribution. Implications of these findings for past and future research involving this construct are discussed.

What Works in Professional Development

hat do we really know about the relationship between professional development and improvements in student learning? What evidence validates that relationship, and how trustworthy is that evidence? What does that evidence tell us about the characteristics of truly effective professional development activities? These questions guided one of the largest and most inclusive syntheses of research on effective professional development conducted to date. Scholars from the American Institutes for Research analyzed findings from over 1,300 studies that potentially address the effect of professional development on student learning outcomes. The project was sponsored by the Regional Education Laboratory-Southwest (REL SW) and funded by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. The findings from this comprehensive analysis, titled Reviewing the Evidence on How Teacher Professional Development Affects Student Achievement (Yoon et al. 2007), shed new light on the complex relationship between professional development and improvements in student learning. It is hoped that they also will lead to new and better research on this vitally important dimension of the educational improvement What Works in Professional Development?

The Influence of Change in Instructional Effectiveness Upon the Affective Characteristics of Teachers

This study was designed to assess the influence of positive change in instructional effectiveness on several affective characteristics of teachers. Data were gathered from 117 intermediate and high school teachers, 52 of whom participated in an in-service workshop on Mastery Learning. Comparisons made through MANOVA procedures showed that those teachers who experienced positive change in the learning outcomes of their students expressed increased personal responsibility for both positive and negative student outcomes, increased affect toward teaching, but decreased confidence in their teaching abilities. Implications regarding the alterability of these teacher characteristics are discussed.

Context Variables That Affect Measures of Teacher Efficacy.

AbstractThis article presents a model describing three context variables hypothesized to affect measures of teacher efficacy. These variables include the nature of the student performance outcome (positive or negative), the ability of the students involved (high or low), and the scope of influence (single student or group of students). The results from studies investigating the influence of performance outcome and student ability variables are summarized. The present study focuses on the scope of influence variable. Data were gathered from 114 experienced elementary and secondary teachers through attitudinal and perceptual self-reports. Correlational analysis generally supported the model, but factor-analytic procedures failed to yield clearly distinct factor dimensions. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.

Analyzing Lists of the Characteristics of Effective Professional Development to Promote Visionary Leadership

In recent years, different researchers and research agencies, teacher associations, national education organizations, and the U.S. Department of Education have published lists of the characteristics of effective professional development to guide school leaders in their improvement efforts. This study analyzed 13 of the better known of these lists to determine whether they were derived through similar procedures, based on similar frames of reference, and included the same elements or characteristics. Results show that individual characteristics vary widely in their frequency of inclusion in the lists and that no characteristic is consistently named in all lists. In addition, research evidence supporting most of the identfied characteristics is inconsistent and often contradictory. Implications for leaders interested in improving professional development activities are discussed, as well as ways to enhance efforts to identify the characteristics of effective professional development.

Attitude and perceptual change in teachers

Abstract This chapter describes the evolution of one researchers work on the process of attitude and perceptual change among teachers. Extensive work with staff development projects led to the development of a theoretical model of teacher change, with implications for educational improvement efforts. Finally, several questions related to the process of teacher change and stemming from the model are discussed.

Research on Group-Based Mastery Learning Programs: A Meta-Analysis.

AbstractThis paper presents a synthesis of findings from 46 studies on group-based applications of mastery learning strategies. Meta-analytic procedures were used to combine the results of the studies and to calculate estimates of the effects of group-based applications. Results show that such applications yield consistently positive effects on both cognitive and affective student learning outcomes, as well as several teacher variables. Variation in the size of the effect across studies was found to be quite large, however, and homogeneity tests indicated that the studies do not share a common effect size. Several factors were explored as possible explanations for this variation, including the subject area to which mastery learning was applied, the grade level of students involved, and the duration of the study. Other possible explanations for this variation are discussed, along with implications for future directions in the research.

Grading Policies that Work Against Standards ... and How To Fix Them

An important element of a sucessful standards-based reform initiative includes grading and reporting that refers to specific learning criteria rather than normative criteria, Four grading policies that impose barriers to reform are described, Specific stategies to correct thse policies are offered.

The Effects of Staff Development on Teachers' Perceptions About Effective Teaching.

AbstractThis study was designed to investigate whether teachers who receive training and then implement more effective instructional practices change in terms of the reasons they offer for their effectiveness. Comparisons were made between 46 teachers who were trained in and implemented mastery learning techniques and 50 similar teachers who could not be included in the training. The results of a multivariate analysis of variance showed that the mastery learning teachers attached increased importance to teaching practices and behaviors in explaining their effectiveness after they had implemented these techniques. Furthermore, there was a significant reduction in the importance mastery learning teachers attached to personality factors. The implications of these findings for staff development are discussed.