That's a great question, and one that merits more research. I'll weigh in, but would love to hear from others, too.

Keep in mind, the FOB evaluation was not an effort to replicate the findings of NCSALL Staff Development Study. The NCSALL Staff Development study involved practitioners in a variety of different types of professional development. But those types did not include "reading professional journals and perhaps discussing them with colleagues". So what we might be seeing is that different types of practitioners relate differently to difference types of professional development. 

In terms of what lesson it offers professional developers now: to me it says that if you don't already include reading materials with any professional development activity you conduct, you should consider adding some.

Barb Garner


 From: jataylor <jataylor at utk.edu>
Date: Thu Apr 13 09:36:40 CDT 2006
To: focusonbasics at nifl.gov
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 229]  teacher education and change

Hi Barb,
As you know, in the FOB evaluation NCSALL reported finding that "Respondents 
with higher levels of education report a higher rate of change in their 
attitudes and behaviors about adult basic education and a higher rate of 
putting into action ideas they learn as a result of reading Focus on Basics."

The report also notes the contradiction of this to the finding in the 2003 
NCSALL Professional Development Study which documents that 'teachers with 
master's degrees were less likely than those without to act upon information 
learned in staff development activities.' One hypothesis offered was that 
teachers who were more educated were possibly more "settled" in their work and 
less likely to demonstrate change based on what they learned in PD.

What are your speculations about this discrepancy as it pertains to the 
research, and what is the message you'd recommend that professional developers 
take away from this comparison as it is pertinent to their work?

Thanks, Jackie

Jackie Taylor, Moderator
Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List
jataylor at utk.edu

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