Staff development as a catalyst for individual teacher growth: Practice and potential

Educational reform has been the focus of political debate for more than a decade. Despite this attention, however, it has generally been found that the majority of proposals for reform have not produced significant changes in the entrenched practices of schools. Fullan (1982) attributes the low level of success of many change programs to a failure to account for the subjective world of those most directly involved in making changes, the teachers in the classrooms. In this dissertation I address the connection between educational reform and teachers\u27 thoughts and attitudes by studying the experiences of four veteran high school teachers before, during and after their participation in a voluntary staff development program. The research methods employed are primarily indepth interviews coupled with the informal observations made possible by my role as a participant observer. Using a synthesis of research on teacher cognition to design a framework for analysis, I examine the experiences of participants in light of their perspectives on teaching prior to the program (i.e., their locus of power, ability to articulate dilemmas, definition with their subject areas, mode of learning and guiding classroom image), their responses to specific topics in the program (i.e., learning styles, direct instruction, reflective conferencing, and varied instructional techniques), and the role the program played in their practice during the subsequent academic year. The findings indicate a critical diversity among participants which supports the main argument of the dissertation, that despite expectations of uniformity which are embedded in the prevalent form of staff development, veteran teachers, even those from apparently homogeneous backgrounds, bring to a staff development program a wide range of perspectives and a variety of needs. The inability of any uniform staff development program to meet the needs of all participants leads to a call for a form of staff development which is individualized in organization and intellectual in orientation. This new form of staff development validates practitioners\u27 experience while providing opportunities for them to generate new knowledge about teaching