Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
David Heflich
Committee Member
Roger Tomberlin
Committee Member
Barbara Packer
Keywords
barriers to participation, district stakeholders, evaluation, evaluation methodology, lack of participation, online delivery methods, perceptions, professional development, professional teacher development, program assessment, Roanoke County School District, school administrators, school districts, staff development, teacher attitudes, teacher education, teacher evaluation, teacher perceptions, teachers, training effectiveness, web based training, web-based professional development
Abstract
This applied dissertation was designed to evaluate the perceptions of the staff in the Roanoke County School District toward current professional teacher development (PTD) programs and the use of web-based professional development as an alternative method of delivery. The writer utilized evaluation methodology. The writer evaluated the perceptions of the current professional development programs and the use of web-based professional development with the administration of a survey to school district teachers and administrators.
The results showed that most teachers agree that PTD is an important part of their professional careers. However, a majority of the teachers are not utilizing the existing PTD. Teachers cited numerous reasons for nonparticipation including lack of time and convenience of existing offerings. These attitudes by the teaching staff were both vague, and general in nature. The conflict of holding an activity as important but not being willing to participate in the same is not consistent. Therefore, it was assumed that there may be deeper issues regarding the lack of participation in the PTD offerings. The results also indicated that teacher perception of online delivery methods was ambiguous at best. The results of the study allowed this researcher to investigate psychodynamic and emotional reasons which teachers may avoid the PTD offerings. By approaching the problem from this perspective, some of the deeper reasons for teacher lack of participation have been discovered and documented.
This project will combine these characteristics into a complete assessment and evaluation plan of the PTD efforts sponsored by the Roanoke County School District. The results of the evaluation will determine the perceptions of teachers and administrators in the district regarding district’s PTD plan, the perceived barriers and general assessment of the program. The anticipated impact or benefit of this project is to provide district stakeholders with a proposed plan and evaluative information for use in future PTD and to enhance its effectiveness and guide the district in future training content, form, delivery, and support.