Professional development: Through the lens of the scholarship of teaching and learning

The link between professional development and in-service education and training to teaching practice has been the meat of research work in education for several decades now. Schools are now beginning to see the importance of professional development for their teachers in order to improve their teaching knowledge and skills (Bolam & McMahon 2004, p. 42). And hopefully, this improvement teachers experience will enable them to provide better learning opportunities for their students.

This paper investigates the substantial literature on professional development (PD) and inservice education and training (INSET) with special focus on the different studies conducted that generate different criteria for effective PD and INSET programs. Advocates of professional development programs developed different criteria for an effective PD and/or INSET programs. Among these works are those of Garet et al. (2001), Harland and Kinder (1997), Ofsted (2010) and Penuel et al. (2007).

The models from these studies are seen to have overlapping criteria; therefore, this paper aims to synthesize them into five over-arching criteria. To do this, the criteria from the different models are matched with and framed under the national professional standards for teachers developed by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). These standards are used in the synthesis because of its encompassing scope that includes the professional knowledge, practice and engagement of teachers. These components of the professional life of teachers are important factors to consider in the crafting of programs for professional development.

This paper also suggests how to develop programs for Scholarship of Professional Development using the resulting over-arching criteria and utilizing three kinds of reflection proposed by Kreber and Cranton (2000). This process suggested by Kreber and Cranton (2000) is used in developing the programs because of the depth of reflection involved both on experience-based knowledge as well as research-based knowledge of teachers in the classroom. Reflection is one of the vital integral components of the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Finally, an assessment that ensures scholarship of the resulting PD/ INSET programs is proposed using the set of standards for scholarly work of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Glassick, Huber & Maeroff 1997). The qualitative standards across the four scholarships ensure not only that the resulting professional development program inherits scholarship characteristics but also scholarship is practiced in the development process itself.