Professional Development Research, Essay Example for Free Use

In any group, it is always easy to observe or tell a dysfunctional group member. Most often, they display certain characters that are most likely to weaken the cohesiveness of a group. The dysfunctional group member can be an aggressor, recognition seeker, self-confessor, a playboy or playgirl, help-seeker or a special interest pleader among others. The group leader can assume the dysfunctional role because it is their responsibility to monitor the advancement of the group. For that matter, the group leader can assume a dysfunctional role.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The dysfunctional behavior of the group member that I observed was solely due to their personality. To add on that, the discussions seemed to be agitating to the dysfunctional group member and it contributed more to this behavior. The leader was critical in trying to address the individual. First, the group leader made observation of the member on how and when the dysfunctional behavior occurs. The second thing the leader did was trying to understand the him on why there was persistence in the behavior and whether the behavior was used as a mask for underlying emotions. The next thing the group leader did was communicating with the member without denigration. Letting the individual understand the effect that his behavior had on the entire group would be very helpful as they would like to reform. The next step was addressing some ground rules for future behaviors in order to avoid occurrences of dysfunctional behavior from the person. Finally, to show that progress was being made to his behavior, there was redirection of unfavorable behavior. That was the most appropriate way that the leader used to address the dysfunctional behavior.

Professional development

Professional development is a wide variety of formal education, training which is specialized or professional learning at an advanced level with intentions to aid teachers, administrators and even other educators to improve on their knowledge, skill, effectiveness and competence. Despite that fact, professional development has a poor reputation in PK-12 among the teachers since it is an obstacle especially when it comes to finding sufficient time during the school days, for the teachers to participate in the development. In addition, there is citation from the teachers of irrelevant material, poor planning and major inconveniences like securing of adequate funds for the whole process.

Chapter 17; Question Two

In this chapter, if the ideas that have been presented can be implemented effectively, then there is a greater chance that the teachers attitude towards professional development would change. Specifically, skill development programs, teacher leadership, teacher as writer, networking and even individually planned professional development would have the greatest positive impact on professional development and in their collective form, the teachers attitudes toward professional development would change. Mentorship and peer coaching are the major themes in the district wide, school-based and individualized professional programs. The theme has been termed as very significant among all the three levels as through that, relationships that are very collaborative are built and there is a reflective dialogue among the teachers about teaching and even how to further improve the process. This has been proven to be very helpful as the teachers are now changing their attitudes towards the entire professional development issue and are starting to embrace it.

A teacher might become leery of research because of a mere fact that there is no symbolic or functional expression that teachers have the adequate capacity to make wise instructional decisions and those that are collective on behalf of students. This can make the teacher hesitate to take part in action research together with the students. First, for a teacher who is becoming leery of research, it is important for him or her to receive preparation that is very basic in the gathering and analyzing of data. Introduction to the simple data-gathering methods that are both qualitative and quantitative are crucial to the development of the research skills of the teacher. If the teacher gets to understand the ethical guidelines that support action research, then it will be easier for them to submit to the action research. Discussing with the teacher, that they might have an opportunity of sharing their action research with the school community and even other teachers from other schools and at the end of the exercise get recognition from other teacher-researchers would help change their attitude towards research. This would eventually aid the teacher when it comes improving basic instructions inside their classroom and also offer a basis for dialogue that is reflective between the leery teacher and the other teachers.

Chapter 19; Question Two

Action research and democratic governance are naturally related to each other in a way that if action research that is collaborative is turned, the renewal of the commitment to teaching that is thoughtful often leads to the development of professionals into the community who are active.

Reference

Carl D. Glickman, Stephen P. Gordon, Jovita M. Ross-Gordon. (2013). SuperVision and Instructional Leadership: A Developmental Approach.