Dynamic Principles of Professional Development: Essential Elements of Effective Teacher Preparation

Dynamic principles of professional development are directly and indirectly defined and applied with no particular order of sequence as one or more of these principles may be activated in unison and revisited time and again in varied degrees and contexts throughout a professional’s career. Further, this is by no means a list in the entirety of all professional principles pertaining to education, but rather a representation of the basis for the dynamic interchange that transpires and elevates professional development that is energized and authentic. These Dynamic Principles of Professional Development are as follows: introspection, participation, collaboration, transformation, identification.
Dynamic principles of professional development both illustrate and apply standards and dispositions evident within real world classroom engagement, and while working closely with teachers, administrators, and university based instructors. Classroom teachers as associated teacher educators routinely demonstrate the characteristics of these dynamic principles of professional development in their practice.
These principles often reflect elements of effective teacher preparation. Thus, these dynamic principles of professional development illuminate the key qualities of classroom teachers as associated teacher educators. Further, these dynamic principles enrich and expand the evolving definition of classroom teachers as associated teacher educators as the central focus of this text.

Caroline M. Crawford is an associate professor of instructional design and learning technologies at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. She focuses her areas of impact upon instructional design, performance improvement, and learning theories within communities of learning, communities of practice and the appropriate and successful integration of technologies into differentiated learning environments of distributed including online and mobile, hybrid and traditional.

Sandra L. Hardy is founder and executive director of Hardy Education Resources. Her primary areas of focus include research and development pertaining to leadership and induction of K-12 and higher education educators, administrators and other educational professionals’ development, and related programs. Her services are based on the unique needs of the individual teacher as learner in connection to promoting effective communities of practice through dynamic collaborations while identifying and securing the required multilevel resources.