What topics are the central focus of the formal professional development experiences that teachers are receiving?  TLC asked teachers about the in-services and workshops they had attended during the 1997-98 school year.  Among the topics which we asked about, more teachers received professional development related to computer use than participated in formal learning experiences concerning other instructional approaches associated with reform pedagogy—such as meta-cognitive awareness, peer review of writing, or teaching skills by embedding them in real-world applications. 

Among the computer-related topics, more teachers reported training focused on computer and software mechanics (40%) than on integrating computers with other instructional activities (33%). However, the differences between those two emphases are probably not as great as they once were.  In addition, 30% of teachers learned about Internet-related topics.  However, only 12% participated in staff development where a central topic was learning how to enable students to create multimedia presentations. (See accompanying figure.)

Subject-matter content is a more frequent component of staff development for elementary teachers than for teachers of older students. (See accompanying table.)   For example, elementary teachers (actually grades 4-6) were more likely to report "content to teach" than computer related topics as the focus of professional development sessions.  In fact, twice as many elementary teachers received this type of professional development compared to high school teachers (53% of "upper elementary" compared to only one quarter (25%) of high school teachers shown in the accompanying table).   Similarly, 42% of elementary teachers (grades 4-6) experienced staff development centered on new subject-matter knowledge compared to only 18% of teachers of the higher levels.

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