A Complexity Analysis of Teacher Learning From Professional Development: Toward an Explanatory Theory

• In Event: 66.058 - Applying Complexity Perspectives on Educational Research

Abstract

Despite growing consensus about what constitutes high-quality professional development, teachers vary greatly in what and how much they learn through such programs. Drawing upon data from a comparative case study of two teacher colleagues who participated in a professional development initiative, I demonstrate how research in a complexity paradigm can be used to explain under what conditions, why, and how teachers learn, elucidating a wide variety of learning pathways. I propose a framework for analyzing professional development learning conditions through a complexity lens. This study contributes to a broader understanding of teacher learning. There are also implications for designing and selecting professional development to meet the needs of individual teachers in specific school contexts.

Author

• Meredith Cromwell Moore, Massachusetts Institute of Technology