Open AccessStatewide Professional Development Conference
Author(s) -
Paul V. Bredeson,
Jay Paredes Scribner
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
education policy analysis archives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.727
H-Index - 46
ISSN - 1068-2341
DOI - 10.14507/epaa.v8n13.2000
Subject(s) - skepticism , professional development , scale (ratio) , faculty development , psychology , pedagogy , engineering ethics , sociology , political science , public relations , medical education , medicine , engineering , philosophy , physics , epistemology , quantum mechanics
In an environment increasingly skeptical of the effectiveness of large-scale professional development activities, this study examines K-12 educators' reasons for participating and beliefs in the utility in a large-scale professional development conference. Pre- and post-conference surveys revealed that while financial support played a significant role in educators' ability to participate, they were drawn to the conference by the promise to learn substantive issues related to, in this case, performance assessmentwhat it means, how to implement it, and how to address community concerns. In spite of the conference's utility as a means to increase awareness of critical issues and to facilitate formal and informal learning, well conceived linkages to transfer new knowledge to the school and classroom were lacking.