An Investigation of Long-Term Professional Development That Targets Teacher Beliefs and Practices

• In Event: Lives of Teachers: Beginning, Navigating, and Looking Back

Abstract

Teachers grading students is ubiquitous in most secondary schools in the United States and abroad and, yet, teachers’ grading processes and practices receive little empirical attention. To fill the research gap on grading practices and to investigate one approach to supporting teacher change in this area, this study examined a year-long professional development (PD) program designed to reform teachers’ grading practices. The goals of this PD demanded that teachers re-evaluate not only their grading practices but also their implicit assumptions about grades and what educational values undergird grading as an educational practice. In this way, our study examined teachers’ professional lives in relation to both grading and their year of professional development.

Authors

• Rebecca Buchanan, University of Maine

• Brad Olsen, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Joe Feldman