Contemporary Approaches to Teacher Professional Development

Teacher professional development (PD) has been in high demand during the last decade, and the design and dissemination of new PD models have been the impetus for discussion among educators around the world. Previously called teacher in-service training, the preferred label by scholars and practitioners is now teacher professional development. In this article, we consider the distinction between in-service training and “professional development, and go on to discuss the current literature on features of high-quality PD. We also provide examples of programs that illustrate these features and consider the emerging use of new technologies to enhance PD opportunities.