How Teachers Change: A Study of Professional Development in Adult Basic Education

This chapter reports on the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) Professional Development Study, conducted with 106 adult education teachers in three New England states (Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts) between 1998 and 2000. The study investigated how adult education teachers changed after taking part in one of three different models of professional development, all on the topic of learner persistence: (1) multisession workshop; (2) mentor teacher group; or (3) practitioner research group. The study also looked at the most important individual, professional development, program, and system factors that influenced the type and amount of teacher change. Two measures of change were used: the overall amount of change (thinking and acting on and off the topic of professional development, in this case, learner persistence); and the type of change (thinking and acting on the topic of learner persistence). The study found that most teachers, even dropouts, changed at least minimally through gains in knowledge or actions in their classrooms. Changes were most often seen in their roles as classroom teachers rather than other roles such as members of the field. Multiple factors were found to influence change as a result of taking part in professional development. The most important individual factors were motivation to attend, years of experience in the field, venue of first teaching experience and level of formal education. Other factors included the amount and quality of professional development undertaken, teachers’ access to benefits and preparation time through their adult education job, and their adult education program’s history of addressing learner persistence along with the teachers’ access to decision-making in the program. A number of recommendations are proposed for policy makers, professional developers, and teachers themselves.