Professional Development : Perspectives, Strategies & Practices

Professional development refers to skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement and encompasses all types of facilitated learning opportunities, ranging from college degrees to formal coursework, conferences and informal learning opportunities situated in practice. In this book, the authors examine the perspectives, strategies and practices of professional development. Topics discussed include pedagogical content knowledge and action-research; team-training approaches to professional development; teacher''s perceptions of teaching at different stages of their professional development; teacher dilemmas in the new curriculum reform in China; developing reflective thinking through field research; increasing teacher engagement in professional development activities; instructional coaching as an effective structure for job embedded professional development; and improving program quality in urban child care centres.