Team-Based Professional Development: A Process for School Reform

In this book, Judith T. Witmer and Steven A. Melnick provide an overview of adult learning and its impact on professional development. The chapters provide a theoretical foundation along with practical advice on implementing team-based professional development among educators within school districts which will lead to true systemic reform.

Table of Contents:
1 What If? The Case for Team-Based Professional Development-A New Model for Professional Growth 2 How Did We Get Here? Design Options for a Professional Development Continuum 3 Teachers Who Asked What If? Criteria for Successful Team-Based Professional Development 4 Can You Do This? Successful Programs 5 Taking One Step At A Time: Initiating and Implementing Team-Based Professional Development 6 How Do You Know It's Working? Organizing and Monitoring Professional Development Programs 7 What If It Happens? Institutionalizing and Sustaining Team-Based Professional Development

About the Author :
Judith T. Witmer holds an academic appointment at Penn State University. A former English teacher and school administrator, Dr. Witmer also has managed various projects for the Pennsylvania Department of Education and has been a program evaluator, grant writer, and researcher for many institutions, including Penn State College of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medical Center, and Milton Hershey School. Steven A. Melnick is associate professor of education and coordinator of the graduate program in teaching and curriculum at Penn State Harrisburg in Middletown, Pennsylvania. A former elementary school teacher, he teaches graduate courses in research design, measurement and evaluation, and a seminar focusing on important, timely, and controversial issues in education. He is the author of more than 125 articles, chapters, research reports and scholarly papers.

Review :
This book provides educators and administrators insights into the trials and successes of team-based, interactive K-16 learning following a ten-year research record. It reflects the reality of working with teams on site-based interactive learning while providing practical techniques on implementing and sustaining learning through team-based professional development. Judith Witmer and Steven Melnick have written a practical guide to the team-based approach to professional development. This cleverly written resource has wide-ranging appeal to both administrators and teachers and is adaptable K-16. With its real classroom examples of a grass roots approach to integrated learning, the authors present the good, the bad, and the ugly of team teaching. The book contains concise, useable guidelines for success in team building and its effects on teaching and learning. The information is ready for immediate use in your classroom. Even those who have participated in team approaches in the past will benefit from the wisdom and experience shared by Witmer and Melnick. Teaching is sometimes a lonely job. The classroom door closes, and the teacher is left in his or her own universe. Teaming allows an isolating job to become a one of collaboration and collegiality, where teachers work as equal partners. Sparks from other colleagues blaze into a forest fire, consuming not only teachers, but also students. The energy is infectious. Students also begin to understand the universal connections-all learning is related. Math and science are not divorced from language arts and history, but are different sides of the same cube. And collaboration not only energizes. It comforts, it encourages, it forms lifelong friendships. Excited teachers, enthusiastic teachers, bonded teachers create excited, enthusiastic and bonded students. This is a book for all education professionals. As a school-improvement tool, Witmer and Melnick's vision helps teachers and administrators manage change and growth. As a process for reform, it is an important consideration for current practitioners and those who prepare teacher candidates in our colleges and universities. Given their arguments' clarity, the real question left unanswered is 'Why not?'