Investigating the effectiveness of a dynamic integrated approach to teacher professional development

This paper argues that research on teacher professional development
could be integrated with validated theoretical models
of educational effectiveness research (EER). A dynamic integrated
approach (DIA) to teacher professional development is
proposed. The methods and results of a study comparing the
impact of the DIA and the Holistic - Reflective Approach (HA)
to teacher professional development are presented. Teaching
skills and teacher perceptions of teaching of 130 teachers and
the achievement of their students (n=2356) were measured at
the beginning and at the end of the intervention. Teachers found
to be at a certain developmental stage were randomly allocated
evenly into two groups. The first group employed the DIA and
the second the HA. Teachers employing the DIA managed to
improve their teaching skills more than teachers employing the
HA. Teacher perceptions and attitudes towards teaching have
not been modified due to their participation in the interventions.
On the other hand, the use of DIA also had a significant
impact on student achievement. Implications of findings for the
use of EER for improvement purposes are drawn and suggestions
for research and practice in teacher professional development
are provided