Date of Graduation

12-2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Human Resource and Workforce Development (EdD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Rehabilitation, Human Resources and Communication Disorders

Advisor/Mentor

Biggs, Bobbie T.

Committee Member

Beck, Jules K.

Second Committee Member

Schmidtke, Carsten M.

Keywords

Career Development; Professional Development; Teacher Licensure; Workplace Training

Abstract

This study, Educator Perceptions Regarding Quality Workplace Professional Development, attempted to formulate through interviews and surveys the attitudes of educators regarding their personal experiences with professional development. The study was based on Donald Super's Career Development Theory, Jack Mezirow's Transformational Learning Theory, and David Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory. These three theorists help form the conceptual foundation for the study.

One of the challenges the United States has had within the past fifty years is that workers were not being adequately prepared for the workplace during their school years or after. Super, Mezirow, and Kolb helped to identify stages of growth and career development and how to measure and assess meaningful learning. This study addressed these ideas and others found as educators were interviewed and surveyed regarding their professional development experiences and how they would make those experiences better. These data were analyzed using both qualitative data outcomes and quantitative statistical tools.

Qualitative data in this study revealed that the majority of the educators interviewed believed they were not receiving quality professional development and that the delivery of professional development should not be lecture type format. It also revealed that hands on, group, or project based professional development was preferred by a majority of the respondents.

Quantitative data indicated that when professional development was of a type that included value to the educator, they were able to learn from it. The data also indicated that the majority of the respondents were not being sent to professional development they considered quality and therefore the professional development was of little value to them.

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