Investigating the Longer-term Impact of a Professional Development Program through Follow-up Interviews with College Teachers
Format Type
Plenary
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
13-1-2021 10:45 AM
End Date
13-1-2021 11:05 AM
Abstract
Few research studies have monitored the longer-term impact of professional development (PD) programs on teachers in higher education. For example, do changes in perspectives on teaching and learning that teachers experience in a PD program persist over time? How might they evolve? In this presentation the author first summarizes the results of her original two-year qualitative study of Quebec CEGEP (college) teachers’ perspectives on teaching and learning within a PD program. She then describes the results of a follow-up qualitative study that she conducted with the same teachers five years later. In the follow-up study, teacher interviews were coded using the constant comparative method (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994, 2002). Three major conceptual themes emerged: teachers reported engaging (outside of teaching), innovating (within teaching) and evolving (professionally and personally). Threads that appeared in the original study re-emerged in follow-up findings. Monitoring the longer-term impact of PD programs can shed valuable light on the on-going process of teacher development.
Keywords
teaching in higher education, teacher professional development, long-term impact of professional development, professional growth, identity development, teacher interviews, constant comparative method
Investigating the Longer-term Impact of a Professional Development Program through Follow-up Interviews with College Teachers
Few research studies have monitored the longer-term impact of professional development (PD) programs on teachers in higher education. For example, do changes in perspectives on teaching and learning that teachers experience in a PD program persist over time? How might they evolve? In this presentation the author first summarizes the results of her original two-year qualitative study of Quebec CEGEP (college) teachers’ perspectives on teaching and learning within a PD program. She then describes the results of a follow-up qualitative study that she conducted with the same teachers five years later. In the follow-up study, teacher interviews were coded using the constant comparative method (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994, 2002). Three major conceptual themes emerged: teachers reported engaging (outside of teaching), innovating (within teaching) and evolving (professionally and personally). Threads that appeared in the original study re-emerged in follow-up findings. Monitoring the longer-term impact of PD programs can shed valuable light on the on-going process of teacher development.
Comments
My article, Investigating the Longer-term Impact of a Professional Development Program: A Five-year Follow-up Qualitative Study, that this presentation is based upon, was recently accepted for publication in The Qualitative Report and I am in the process of completing minor revisions before final submission to the journal.
As of July 2020, my NSU Works Dashboard for my previously published TQR article, Deepening Understanding in Qualitative Research (2016, with Lynn Butler-Kisber) and my January 2017 presentation at the TQR conference at NSU entitled Uncovering Teachers' Perspectives Through Multiple Lenses of Data Collection and Analysis have generated an interest in the order of 1653: 738 for the Abstract and 915 for article/presentation downloads.