Teacher Professional Development in the U.S. and Abroad

Posted by on February 16, 2009

Professional development for teachers: how it stacks up internationally

The National Staff Development Council has released a new study on professional development (PD) that compares U.S. teachers’ PD with that of other high-performing nations. “Professional Learning in the Learning Professional: A Status Report on Teacher Professional Development in the U.S. and Abroad” finds that while the United States is providing support and mentoring for new teachers and bolstering content knowledge, the type of support and on-the-job training most teachers receive is episodic, often fragmented, and disconnected from real problems of practice. The report also reviews promising strategies in high-performing nations and the United States. “The research tells us that teachers need to learn the way other professionals do — continually, collaboratively, and on the job,” says Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University and the School Redesign Network, and one of the report’s authors. “The good news is that we can learn from what some states and most high-performing nations are doing.” The study is the first of three that will examine professional development within the U.S.; following studies will measure the effectiveness of professional learning at the state level and investigate what it takes to enact and implement policies that result in improved systems for teachers’ professional learning.

Read more: http://www.nsdc.org/about/news/study2_4_09_release.pdf

See the report: http://www.nsdc.org/stateproflearning.cfm