Assessing Professional Development Following Pre-Service and In-Service Courses

Abstract

The last several chapters showed that the professional knowledge teachers need for successful implementation of the TSC project is indeed complex. This raises the question of the feasibility of teacher professional development in this area. Professional development programs are often limited in terms of their length due to budget and time constrains. Is it possible to induce significant change in teachers’ knowledge following a program that would be practical in terms of its budget and length? This question was addressed by two members of the TSC team— Yehudit Weinberger and Noa Schwartzer in two independent studies conducted as the basis for their PhD thesis. Weinberger addressed this question in the context of pre-service education while Schwartzer worked in the context of in-service education. Their findings are described in the present chapter.