E. Jean Gubbins
Karen L. Westberg
Sally M. Reis
Susan Dinnocenti
Carol L. Tieso
Lisa M. Muller
Sunghee Park
Linda J. Emerick
Lori R. Maxfield
Deborah E. Burns

Professional development is sometimes viewed as an event or a moment in time. Administrators or teachers, with varying levels of input into the decision-making process, often determine professional development plans and time is set aside either during or after school hours. Volumes have been written about professional development. The main or partial title of innumerable books, journals, videos, and conferences is professional development. Why does this topic gain so much attention? What are the best practices in professional development? What are the best methods of gaining access to professional development? What is an appropriate working definition? What are appropriate techniques of monitoring professional development? These questions and others were important to the design and development of our 5-year research study (1995-2000) of Maximizing the Effects of Professional Development Practices to Extend Gifted Education Pedagogy to Regular Education Programs. This study included multiple phases:

• creating and disseminating a national survey of professional development practices in gifted education,
• developing a series of modules (background information, transparencies, presenters’ notes, articles, instruments, and videos) on conceptions of giftedness, curriculum modification, curriculum differentiation, and enrichment learning and teaching,
• piloting the professional development modules,
• collecting data from pilot study; conducting, interviews, and analyzing the effectiveness of the training materials,
• revising professional development modules,
• developing a series of instruments to assess the process and outcomes of the research study,
• training half of the local liaisons who would be working with a small group of classroom teachers to learn how to use the pedagogy of gifted education with their students,
• collecting data from instruments, logs, portfolios, and artifacts documenting the progress of students and teachers, and
• analyzing multiple forms of data using quantitative and qualitative techniques.

Detailed results of each phase of the research and development process are outlined in each chapter.

Reference:

Implementing a Professional Development Model Using Gifted Education Strategies With All Students
E. Jean Gubbins
Karen L. Westberg
Sally M. Reis
Susan Dinnocenti
Carol L. Tieso
Lisa M. Muller
Sunghee Park
Linda J. Emerick
Lori R. Maxfield
Deborah E. Burns
 

Conclusions

1. The use of gifted education methods in the general education classroom provides students with more choices in materials, resources, and products related to their interests and abilities.
2. Gifted education strategies help teachers recognize students’ differences in learning styles, expression styles, and abilities.
3. Gifted education trainers help teachers grow both personally and professionally by changing their routines and looking at their instructional methods with a renewed set of eyes.
4. Despite concerns about daily school schedules, testing pressures, and lack of collaboration time to participate in gifted education training, teachers are often able to implement significant changes in their classrooms.
5. Gifted education pedagogy encourages teachers to raise their level of expectations for student work, and students respond positively to changes in classroom activities.