Discussion: Teacher professional development in the era of change

Abstract

This discussion chapter’s focus is on the third section of the book titled, Developing Teacher Learning Communities in the Era of Change. The chapter attempts to analyze and put into an education context the following three chapters in this section: Waldman and Blonder’s, A Sense of Community in a Professional Learning Community of Chemistry Teachers: A Study of an Online Platform for Group Communication, Brandes, Ben-David Kolikant, and Beeri’s, From Practice to Practical: Computer Science Teachers Teaching Teachers, and Levy, Bagno, Berger, and Eylon’s, Motivators, Contributors, and Inhibitors to Physics Teacher-Leaders’ Professional Development in a Program of Professional Learning Communities. All three chapters address the issues around professional development (PD) of Israeli science teachers in view of the recent changes in secondary chemistry, physics, and computer science curricula. To these analyses, we add the discussion on the research findings and insights from Canada and elsewhere, regarding the PD practices for mathematics, finding both the common themes and important differences.