The seven-step Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) outlines the stages people move through when adopting an innovation. The 4Mat System applies learning style research and research on brain dominance to teaching practices. When combined, the two systems form a comprehensive model for staff development. (PGD)

A 1981 national survey revealed that members of both the Council of Professors of Instructional Supervision and the National Staff Development Council strongly supported the Readiness, Planning, Training, Implementation, and Maintenance (RPTIM) Model for designing inservice programs for professional educators. Support was also high for the…

Fred Wood and Steven Thompson claim that inservice educational practices should be changed because, first, more adults are operating at a lower stage of cognitive development than previously believed, and, second, adults prefer learning in informal social situations. This article challenges the adequacy of the research analysis underlying these…

Defends the claims made in an earlier publication by the authors that inservice programs should be more experiential because the cognitive development of adults is less uniformly advanced than previously supposed and because experiential learning is more effective. Cites additional supportive research. (PGD)

Delineates a model staff development program based on adult learning theory and requiring both specified instructional techniques applied in structured and flexible ways and the provision of follow-up support through clinical, on-site supervision. (PGD)

Evidence suggests that curricular content and the educational process shape and are shaped by sociocultural factors. This article explores changing ideas concerning how schools should respond to the societal environment and points out that no educational approach is completely neutral. The author urges that school-society relations be regarded…

Outlines the content and training methods used in the Program for Effective Teaching (PET), the successful staff development program of Newport News (Virginia). PET promotes application of five instructional skills: selecting learning objectives, teaching to the objectives, establishing learner focus, monitoring learner progress, and enhancing…

Reviews the range of contextual factors, possible content orientations, training models (from one-day overviews to courses offering three college credits), and follow-up mechanisms that must be considered by administrators who have committed their districts to providing inservice programs to develop teachers' computer literacy. (PGD)

Pennsylvania's Content Area Reading Program uses a network of 50 trained instructors to help teachers improve students' content area reading skills. This article covers program content, instructor recruitment and training, variations in program presentation, factors underlying program success, and steps in planning inservice programs in content…

The National Writing Project's widespread summer institutes bring teachers together to experience writing techniques directly and to develop their own curricular approaches to teaching writing. The project owes its success to involving teachers in the problem-solving process rather than having them depend on externally developed curricular…

According to De Charms' model of Origins and Pawns, some people feel they direct their own lives, while other people feel their fates are controlled externally. Administrators can encourage teachers to accept responsibility and feel greater self-confidence by planning inservice activities that treat teachers as self-directed persons. (PGD)

Of 300 teachers and administrators making only positive statements for 24 hours, 76 percent discovered with surprise their normal negativity, 75 percent found being positive difficult, 71 percent received increased friendly feedback, 22 percent were inspired to change their instructional methods permanently, and 28 percent reported heightened…

The Instructional Leadership Project of the Anne Arundel County (Maryland) Public Schools determined staff development needs in the district's secondary schools and designed a three-year program to help administrators, guidance personnel, and department chairpersons build the requisite staff development skills. (PGD)

Discussions of relevant teacher effectiveness research, feedback from a teacher-coach, and group and individual self-evaluations were the three major techniques used in a staff development program aimed at improving the classroom performance of first-year teachers in a suburban high school district. (PGD)

The Merrimack Education Center in Chelmsford (Massachusetts) responded to needs for stress management training and morale boosting in its 22-district service area with a midwinter "Fitness for Educators" conference. Participants learned techniques for maintaining physical fitness, managing hyperactivity, developing holistic health practices, and…