Drawing on interviews with a diverse sample of teachers, this study uses the frame of professional identity to interpret the heterogeneity among teachers’ perceptions of professional development. Specifically, it examines how teachers’ “anchoring beliefs” might be reflected in or refracted by their accounts of powerful professional learning. An analysis of three case studies of teacher identity and teacher learning reveals three distinct “learning affinities”: for the what (content), the who (facilitation), and the with whom (community). This learning affinity framework may better model teachers’ experiences of professional development and thus could point the way toward improved research and design.
BallD. L.ThamesM. H.PhelpsG. (2008). Content knowledge for teaching: What makes it special?Journal of Teacher Education, 59(5), 389-407. doi:10.1177/0022487108324554
2.
BeijaardD.MeijerP. C.VerloopN. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2), 107-128. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2003.07.001
3.
BeijaardD.VerloopN.VermuntJ. D. (2000). Teachers’ perceptions of professional identity: An exploratory study from a personal knowledge perspective. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16(7), 749-764. doi:10.1016/S0742-051X(00)00023-8
4.
BorkoH. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning: Mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher, 33(8), 3-15. doi:10.3102/0013189X033008003
5.
BorkoH.ElliottR.UchiyamaK. (2002). Professional development: A key to Kentucky’s educational reform effort. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18(8), 969-987. doi:10.1016/S0742-051X(02)00054-9
6.
BransfordJ. D.BrownA. L.CockingR. R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school: Expanded edition. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
7.
BuchananR. (2015). Teacher identity and agency in an era of accountability. Teachers and Teaching, 21(6), 700-719. doi:10.1080/13540602.2015.1044329
CarpenterJ. P.KrutkaD. G. (2015). Engagement through microblogging: Educator professional development via Twitter. Professional Development in Education, 41(4), 707-728. doi:10.1080/19415257.2014.939294
10.
CreswellJ. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
11.
Darling-HammondL.WeiR. C.AndreeA.RichardsonN.OrphanosS. (2009). Professional learning in the learning profession: A status report on teacher development in the United States and abroad. National Staff Development Council. Retrieved from http://www.learningforward.org/docs/pdf/nsdcstudy2009.pdf
12.
DayC.ElliotB.KingtonA. (2005). Reform, standards and teacher identity: Challenges of sustaining commitment. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(5), 563-577. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2005.03.001
13.
GaretM. S.PorterA. C.DesimoneL.BirmanB. F.YoonK. S. (2001). What makes professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 38(4), 915-945. doi:10.3102/00028312038004915
14.
GuskeyT. R. (2003). Analyzing lists of the characteristics of effective professional development to promote visionary leadership. NASSP Bulletin, 87(637), 4-20. doi:10.1177/019263650308763702
15.
HiebertJ.GallimoreR.GarnierH.GivvinK. B.HollingsworthH.JacobsJ.. . . StiglerJ. (2003). Teaching mathematics in seven countries: Results from the TIMSS 1999 video study. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/2003013.pdf
16.
HillH. C.BeisiegelM.JacobR. (2013). Professional development research consensus, crossroads, and challenges. Educational Researcher, 42(9), 476-487. doi:10.3102/0013189X13512674
17.
HillH. C.RowanB.BallD. L. (2005). Effects of teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching on student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 42(2), 371-406.
18.
HochbergE. D.DesimoneL. M. (2010). Professional development in the accountability context: Building capacity to achieve standards. Educational Psychologist, 45(2), 89-106. 10.1080/00461521003703052
19.
HoyA. W.DavisH.PapeS. J. (2006). Teacher knowledge and beliefs. In AlexanderP. A.WinneP. H. (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (2nd ed., pp. 715-737). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
20.
KeganR. (1994). In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
21.
KellyG. (1955). The psychology of personal constructs (1st ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
22.
KorthagenF. A. J. (2004). In search of the essence of a good teacher: Towards a more holistic approach in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(1), 77-97. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2003.10.002
23.
KruegerN. F. (2007). What lies beneath? The experiential essence of entrepreneurial thinking. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 31(1), 123-138. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6520.2007.00166.x
LochmanJ. E.HolmesK. J.WojnaroskiM. (2008). Children and cognition: Development of social schema. In AsamenJ. K.EllisM. L.BerryG. L. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of child development, multiculturalism, and media (pp. 33-46). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
26.
LortieD. C. (2002). Schoolteacher: A sociological study (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
27.
McLeanK. C.PasupathiM.PalsJ. L. (2007). Selves creating stories creating selves: A process model of self-development. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(3), 262-278. doi:10.1177/1088868307301034
28.
MezirowJ. (1997). Transformative learning: Theory to practice. New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education, 1997(74), 5-12. doi:10.1002/ace.7401
29.
MocklerN. (2011). Beyond “what works”: Understanding teacher identity as a practical and political tool. Teachers and Teaching, 17(5), 517-528. doi:10.1080/13540602.2011.602059
30.
MoosD. C.PittonD. (2014). Student teacher challenges: Using the cognitive load theory as an explanatory lens. Teaching Education, 25(2), 127-141. doi:10.1080/10476210.2012.754869
PapayJ. P.TaylorE. S.TylerJ. H.LaskiM. (2016). Learning job skills from colleagues at work: Evidence from a field experiment using teacher performance data (Working Paper No. 21986). National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w21986
33.
PattonM. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
34.
PeshkinA. (1988). In search of subjectivity—One’s own. Educational Researcher, 17(7), 17-21. doi:10.3102/0013189X017007017
35.
RichardsonV. (2003). Preservice teachers’ beliefs. In RathsJ.McAninchA. C. (Eds.), Teacher beliefs and classroom performance: The impact of teacher education (Vol. 6, pp. 1-22). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.
36.
SawchukS. (2015, September30). Long beach sets course to personalize PD options. Education Week, 35(6), s2-s3.
37.
SawyerR. K. (2004). Creative teaching: Collaborative discussion as disciplined improvisation. Educational Researcher, 33(2), 12-20. doi:10.3102/0013189X033002012
38.
SchultzK.RavitchS. M. (2013). Narratives of learning to teach: Taking on professional identities. Journal of Teacher Education, 64(1), 35-46. doi:10.1177/0022487112458801
39.
SeidmanI. (2006). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
40.
ShulmanL. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4-14. doi:10.2307/1175860
41.
SloanK. (2006). Teacher identity and agency in school worlds: Beyond the all-good/all-bad discourse on accountability-explicit curriculum policies. Curriculum Inquiry, 36(2), 119-152. doi:10.1111/j.1467-873X.2006.00350.x
42.
SmylieM. A. (1989). Teachers’ views of the effectiveness of sources of learning to teach. The Elementary School Journal, 89(5), 543-558. https://doi.org/10.2307/1001721
WayneA. J.YoonK. S.ZhuP.CronenS.GaretM. S. (2008). Experimenting with teacher professional development: Motives and methods. Educational Researcher, 37(8), 469-479. doi:10.3102/0013189X08327154
45.
Webster-WrightA. (2009). Reframing professional development through understanding authentic professional learning. Review of Educational Research, 79(2), 702-739. 10.3102/0034654308330970
46.
WilsonS. M.BerneJ. (1999). Teacher learning and the acquisition of professional knowledge: An examination of research on contemporary professional development. Review of Research in Education, 24(1), 173-209. doi:10.2307/1167270
47.
YinR. K. (2014). Case study research: Design and methods (5th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
48.
YoonK. S.DuncanT.LeeW.-Y.ScarlossB.ShapleyK. L. (2007). Reviewing the evidence on how teacher professional development affects student achievement (Issues & Answers Report, REL 2007-No. 033). Washington, DC: Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED498548
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
