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Nearly all teachers participate in professional development (PD), much of which is mandated by individual states and school districts. The purpose of PD is to enhance teacher knowledge and skills with the end result of positively impacting student achievement, provided the teacher applies information gleaned from the PD to the classroom (Yoon et al. 2007). However, the application of new knowledge cannot happen in a vacuum; PD is often ineffective when delivered in a one-day workshop that is often "intellectually superficial, disconnected from deep issues of curriculum and learning, fragmented, and noncumulative" (Ball and Cohen 1999, pp. 3-4).
Indeed, the evidence is mixed when evaluating the...