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IMPLICATIONS FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

What does information included in these themes offer for the improvement of teachers' professional development? How can this information assist teachers in working more effectively with school-to-work transition efforts? Even though the 13 themes sometimes overlap each other, their distinctiveness can serve as focal points for teacher professional development. For example, many teachers fail to recognize how much they can learn when their students are involved in workplace experiences. However, when teachers connect students with the workplace through telephone communication and never actually go with their students to workplace locations, they miss out on many relevant learning opportunities. Likewise, many teachers take jobs during the summer to supplement their income. Their employment may or may not offer opportunities to learn more about the world of work. If a summer job does not provide useful workplace learning opportunities, a teacher may want to seek out summer employment that offers greater potential to learn. In effect, many of the activities contained in the professional development themes are within teachers' reach. Others may require that schools offer teachers incentives to learn. Still others may dictate that new policies be initiated to ensure teachers have ample opportunities to actively participate in learning about school-to-work transition.

Teachers as Learners

A meaningful way to organize teacher professional development involves focusing on teacher learning. Teachers who learn about school-to-work transition may learn in different ways. Additionally, their learning may occur in different contexts. And finally, teachers may be encouraged to learn through the use of different motivators. These three aspects of learning are evidenced in the many different professional development experiences described in the different themes. Figure 1 reflects the ways these three aspects of teacher learning for professional development relate to each other. First, teachers can learn by informal means, formal means, or a combination of the two. An example of combining both informal and formal learning would be a teacher who learns about the workplace through informal contact and interaction with several businesses; then, through these informal contacts, the teacher is invited to participate in a formal employee total quality management training program run by one of the businesses.

Second, teacher learning can occur in different contexts, the most common of which are the school, the workplace, the community, and combinations of these. For instance, one teacher may decide to enroll in school-sponsored, school-to-work professional development workshops; whereas another may decide to complete a school-sponsored internship with a local manufacturing firm. A third teacher may choose to do both.

And finally, teachers may be encouraged to develop professionally through the use of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Examples of intrinsic motivators include the personal desire to improve oneself and the pride a teacher can feel by being able to help students to learn. Extrinsic motivator examples include accruing professional development and/or recertification credit for completing a school-to-work workshop or an internship in the workplace. In some cases, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators contribute to a teacher's decision to become involved in professional development activities. An example of this would be a teacher who decides to participate in a professional development activity because it counts as a course toward the completion of a graduate degree and it helps the teacher become more effective in conducting school-to-work activities. As noted in Figure 1, the three learning considerations are both interrelated and distinctive. Learning motivators, contexts, and types may sometimes be dependent on each other and sometimes independent of each other. This essentially means the process of providing teachers with professional development is more complex and multifaceted than it appears to be at first glance.

Figure 1
Considerations in Teacher Learning for Professional Development

Combining the three considerations in teacher learning for professional development (learning contexts, learning motivators, and learning types) with the professional development framework and stages (needs, focus, delivery, and impact) described in the "Overview" section results in the creation of a useful organizer to employ when considering which teacher professional development approaches to use and when to use them. Each of the professional development stages can serve as a starting point for deciding what might be considered when teachers become involved in professional development for school-to-work transition.

Professional Development Needs

When determining what teachers' professional development needs for school-to-work transition will be, thought must be given to both contexts and potential recipients. Teachers at the sites we visited developed professionally through experiences in school, workplace, and community contexts. In some cases, individual teachers learned and developed in more than one context. Also, some of the teachers at the sites taught academic subjects and some taught vocational subjects. Although we noted that teachers from both groups were involved in professional development for school-to-work transition, academic teachers appeared to have greater involvement with school-related activities whereas vocational teachers had greater involvement in workplace-related activities. This may have been a function of teachers' backgrounds, education, and/or personal experiences as teachers. However, it infers the teacher groups may have somewhat different needs and/or their needs should be met in different ways. Based on information from our interviews and analyses, the following suggestions are provided for determining teachers' professional development needs:

Differentiate between teachers' professional needs and wants. Supporting both needs and wants can be an expensive proposition, so professional development emphasis should be placed on what teachers actually need to be effective at helping their students transition from school-to-work.
Assist teachers in understanding what their needs are. Sometimes teachers do not realize what they need to know about school-to-work transition until they spend quality time in the workplace. Other teachers may not recognize that their involvement in the workplace needs to be broadened.
Let teachers know what they will be encountering in the school-to-work environment. Many professionals, including teachers, are fearful of change. Providing teachers with a vision of what school-to-work transition will be and involving them in shaping that vision can contribute to a smoother change process.

Professional Development Focus

Professional development must reflect what high-quality school-to-work transition should be. In effect, if professional development focuses on teacher school-based learning, teachers will not be prepared to link the school and the workplace. It is, therefore, important for teachers to learn in a wide range of contexts. This is especially important when teachers must learn how to function as professional teams. Within the various professional development themes are a wide variety of experiences, each of which may have just the right focus for some teachers but not for others. The following are suggestions for focusing teachers' professional development activities:

Professional development content does not stand alone. It must focus on what teachers believe to be their needs and must be available in a meaningful context or contexts.
When considering the focus of professional development activities, begin with both individual and collective anticipated outcomes for teachers and students and build from there. If activities do not contribute in some way to the achievement of these outcomes, the activities shall be questioned.
Build context into the professional development focus. If teachers need to develop skills in providing school-to-work transition, it is important for them to experience a wide range of contexts in schools, workplaces, and wherever schools and workplaces are linked.

Professional Development Delivery

The ways professional development experiences are delivered or not delivered can affect teachers' decisions about participation. In effect, delivery is directly linked to teacher learning considerations: learning contexts, learning motivators, and learning types. If professional development experiences are to succeed, they must be provided in ways that appeal to teachers. The following are suggestions related to professional development delivery:

Provide a wide range of professional development experiences. Encourage teachers to learn through exposure to different experiences and combinations of experiences so they will have a more comprehensive knowledge and experience base from which to provide school-to-work transition.
Encourage teachers to participate in professional development by offering a wide range of incentives. Use incentives that appeal to teachers' intrinsic as well as their extrinsic needs.
Incorporate opportunities for both formal and informal learning into teachers' professional development activities. Teachers should not be turned off to professional development because it does not align with the ways they like to learn.

Professional Development Impact

Ultimately, the impact of teacher professional development must emphasize how well students are helped. In the case of school-to-work transition, the focus of this impact may be encompassed in the statement, "To what extent are students assisted in transitioning from school to work?" Teacher professional development is successful to the extent that it has a positive impact on students' school-to-work transition. Many of the people we interviewed were able to link teacher professional development with meaningful student outcomes. This offers some evidence that educators and others can describe ways that teacher professional development experiences have a positive impact on students. Suggestions for ensuring that professional development impact is incorporated in the development process include the following:

In addition to documenting what teachers' professional development outcomes should be, it is important to specify what impact this development will have on student outcomes.
Encourage teachers to document how their professional development experiences have helped them and have had a positive impact on their students.
Encourage teachers to describe what experiences were less beneficial to them and had less impact on their students. Information about which experiences are not as beneficial and how they may be improved can assist in making professional development more effective.

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