PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Report on Continued Professional Development Impact on Educational Settings: An Evaluation

      Introductions in Research Articles (RAs) serve the purpose of guiding readers on seeing the problem under study in a clear and explicit manner. Within introductions, literature reviews mainly provide an account of what the scientific literature tells the academic world about the topic chosen for research. Bennett et al.’s (2011) report provides a list of connected paragraphs in the form of summarized studies which contain a concise reference to the authors or organizations involved, followed by a brief description and evaluation of their main findings. Bennett et al.’s (2011) brief paper consists of a series of enumerated sub-sections that presumably form part of the report’s introduction. These portions of text have been labeled under different sub-titles respectively.

     Under the sub-heading “Review of Relevant Literature” (p.7), the three moves within introductions in research papers (Swales and Feak, 1994) can be perceived. Bennett et al. (2011) describe the scope of the literature explored to support their evaluations on the state of the arts in relation of their object of evaluation. Move 1 - what has been done - refers to the systematic review of the literature, especially to Bennett et al.’s (2010) previous report and to Guskey’s (2002) impact model. In Move 2 - the motivations for the study in the form of a rationale - the authors declare that they intend to extend on the “systematic review of the literature on the nature and extent of change in classroom practice as a result of PD interventions in our previous report” (Bennett, Braund and Lubben, 2010, p.7). As far as Move 3 is concerned, the authors state what the present research is about as regards their objectives and purposes. As expressed by Bennett et al. (2011), “The current study focuses on factors influencing level 4 impact, and assumes, with Guskey, that any level 5 impact will indicate an appropriate level 4 impact” (p. 7).

          On average, Bennett et al.’s (2011) report ends with the argument that the current study fills in some gaps in research, specifying what it focuses on, and briefly explaining PD interventions and drawing relationships among the factors found in the previous literature review. All in all, the concise paper under the current exploration appears to be an unfinished report on a larger, complete academic paper. Thus, the section being explored principally presents information that is most likely to be found in the Introduction sections to Research Papers (RPs) or Research Articles (RAs). Furthermore, the report seems to have been adapted for the purpose of thorough analysis in academic settings.

                                                              References

American Psychological Association (2007). Concise rules of APA style. Washington, DC: British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.

American Psychological Association (2010). Publication Manual (6^th ed.). Washington, DC: British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.

Bennett, J., Braund, M., Lubben, F. and Mason, Y. (2011). Modes of professional development. An evaluation of the impact of different course modes operated across the National Network of Science Learning Centres. University of York, Department of Education.

Swales, J.M., & Feak, C.B. (1994).  Academic writing for graduate students: 
Essential tasks and skills. Ann Harbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.