Teacher perception on coaching and effective professional development implementation

2012-03-23The area of professional development, within the educational setting, is critical to on-going learning for teachers and ultimately, higher student achievement. The literature on professional development is vast; however, the empirical research on implementation of skills learned from the training to the classroom is lacking. This study looked at the efficacy of the Building Foundation Reading Skills for Diverse Learners professional development training and the application of the skills learned from this training to the classroom. A mixed method approach was used which included the use of interview, pre-, post-1, and post-2 surveys. There were 50 elementary school educators who worked in the Hawaii Department of Education on the island of Oahu who participated in this training. The data collected examined teacher efficacy, learning, and transfer of the skills and learning to the classroom. Analyses of the data concluded that the training aligned with the goals of the participants, increased self-reported efficacy, and also increased the knowledge base of participants. The analyses also indicated a gap between the supports teachers needed, the supports they expected to occur, and what they actually received on campus. Teachers desired to have coaching support after training; however, expected to have no support. Teachers’ expectations of no support paralleled what occurred on campus. Interestingly, even though there was a lack of coaching support following the training, participants reported a high confidence level in implementation. The results and implications of those findings are discussed