Dear All,Here I am posting an outline on "High-Quality Teaching: Providing for Rural Teachers' Professional Development" by Howley and Howley.

High-Quality Teaching: Providing for Rural Teachers' Professional Development 

Purpose: to state the features of professional development in teaching and pro & cons of teaching in rural communities.

Thesis: There are advantages and disadvantages to teaching in rural communities according to theories of professional development.

Audience: Researchers, Teachers

1. Professional development and better education

     a. Policymakers and educators

          i. improvement by professional development education across the nation

     b. epirically

          i. thin linking between professional development and better education

2. Profesional development vs instructional practice

    a.  improvement by professional development on teaching  (Sandercock, 1996; Nadolny, 1999)

    b.  successful instructional practices (Baker & Beisel, 2001; Burrowes, 2003)

    c.  persistation of traditional teaching after participation in improved instructional practice  (Caret, Birman, Porter, Desimone & Herman, 1999)

3. Three Proposed Principles of Organizational Learning 

    a.  Learning must be situated (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). 

    b. Learning requires open and sustained dialog among members of the organization (Senge, 1994). 

    c. Learning depends upon the propensity to reflect on data about organizational performance (Choo, 1998).

4. Professional learning communities 

    a. sustained programs of school-level professional development (Boyd & Hord, 1994; Hord, 1997; Hord, 1998; WaId & Castleberry, 2000). 

       i. educators assume responsibility for students' success by themselves becoming learners. 

5. Data-based improvement  

   a.  establishment of standards

      i. The Malcolm Baldrige program (Walpole & Noeth, 2002).

6. Reflective inquiry

    a. systematic examination of instructional practice 

    b. "peer coaching" and "collegial supervision" (Showers & Joyce, 1996). 

    c.  "critical friends groups" (Bambino, 2002)

    d. "working on the work" (Schlechty, 2002)

    e.  Japanese "lesson study"  (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999; Curio, 2002)

7.  Knowledge of Subject Matter

    a. School boards and administrators think teachers arrive on the job with adequate knowledge of the content they aim to teach.

    b.  teachers do not always arrive on the job with adequate knowledge of the content they aim to teach. (Ball,1988)

       i. secondary science teachers in rural schools had completed fewer subject-matter courses in science than their counterparts elsewhere (Carlsen & Monk, 1992).

       ii. other case found in teaching in schools that served poor and minority children (Jerald, 2002).

    c. teachers' knowledge of subject matter is associated with students' learning (Ferguson & Womack, 1993; Monk, 1994).

8. Graduate course work  

  a. In many states, teachers are required to renew their licenses through the completion of  graduate course work (Council of Chief State School Officers, 2000).

  b. This situation is unlikely to improve the subject-matter knowledge of the teaching workforce very much (Regan-Smith, 1994; Howley & Spatig, 1998). 

9. Preservice course work  

   a.  Course work for undergraduates

   b. a few universities have attempted to improve teacher preparation as a university-wide effort (Zeidler, 1999; Carnegie Corporation, 2001).  

10. The Rural Circumstance and Professional Development for Teachers 

       a.  broad insights from rural scholarship 

11. Structure

     a. Size 

     b. Teachers' attachments to communities 

     c. Support in addressing the problems of practice

        i. code-switching

        ii. the lack of appreciation for certain academic subjects of study, 

        iii. limited exposure to a diverse group of peers. 

      d. Additional Funding for professional development  (Theobald, 1997; Smith, 2002; Gruenewald, 2003; Sobel, 2004). 

12. Dynamics

      a. Rural places differences (Cook & Mizer, 1995).

          i. professional isolation  (Erlandson1994). 

          ii. substantive professional development

13. Cultural meanings

      a. relevance for the development of rural teachers.

          i. attachment to place;

          ii. strong commitment to community well-being;

          iii. connection to outdoor pursuits and the natural environment; 

          iv. concern for the long-term endurance and stability of life-in-place (Howley, C.B., 1997; Theobald, 1997)

14. Conclusions 

      a.  rural districts challenges

           i. subject-matter expertise

           ii.difficult professional work at the local level

           iii. attentiveness to rural practices and meanings

      b.  significant strengths

           i. structural

           ii. dynamic

           iii. cultural 

Reference

Howley, A., Howley, C. "High-Quality Teaching: Providing for Rural Teachers' Professional Development". Rural Educator. (the.FindArticles.com. 08 Aug, 2010.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4126/is_200501/ai_n13591361/)