UCLA

This traditional form of action research project, based on the work of Kurt Lewin (Coghlan, D. and Brannick, T., 2007), addresses the problem of how to make professional development effective for teachers and implement instructional strategies in all content areas as we move into the Common Core reform movement. The research was conducted at a middle school within a large urban school district located in Southern California and the participants consisted of 56 teachers, three counselors, seven coordinators, and four administrators. The research design consisted of mixed methods in order to provide an analysis of the experiences of teachers and administrators during the implementation of a professional development model that consisted of four 5-week cycles. The secondary data analysis looked at the effects of the model on participant perception and pedagogy. The professional development model data was gathered using surveys prior to the start and at the end of the professional development model, post-professional development reflections, post cycle reflections, Instructional Leadership team (ILT) observations, interviews, and focus groups. Data was analyzed by identifying trends and themes in reflections and participant responses. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the relationship among the observations, surveys, and professional development evaluations. The action research findings showed that based on the experiences of teachers and ILT members, time, communication, collaboration, accountability, and best practices were the five major themes that stood out as strengths and weaknesses of the model. In regards to the necessary components of effective professional development, the six themes that emerged were professional delivery method, observations, feedback, reflection, profession development scaffolding, and common planning time. The last finding showed the professional development model had the following impact on teaching: an increase in use of instructional strategies with regards to reading, writing, and discussion; increase in creation and use of departmental rubrics and assessments; and an increase in departmental lesson planning. Although there was variance among the sample sizes for the quantitative data, the triangulation of the data sources revealed that the professional development model was relevant to each content area, personalized, and created a unified focus for Common Core implementation.