First Principles
Designing Effective Education Program for In-Service Teacher Professional Development
By
Elizabeth Leu, Ph.D.
Mark Ginsburg, Ph.D
This First Principles: Designing Effective Education Program for In-Service Teacher Professional Development provides an overview and guidance for designing and implementing in-service programs. The principles, steps, and indicators are primarily meant to guide program designs, including the development of requests for and subsequent review of proposals, the implementation of program activities, and the development of performance management plans, evaluations and research studies. The First Principles are intended to help USAID education officers specifically, as well as other stakeholders– including staff in donor agencies, government officials, and staff working for international and national non-governmental organizations– who endeavor to improve in-service delivery and performance of teachers in the classroom. The guidance in this document is meant to be used and adapted for a variety of settings to help USAID officers, educators and implementers grapple with the multiple dimensions of professional development and overcome the numerous challenges in raising the professional skills of teachers. The last section provides references for those who would like to learn more about issues and methods for supporting in-service teacher professional development. This Digest version is a brief to quickly provide basic information on teacher professional development issues. For those interested in knowing more, the Compendium version provides greater depth on this topic.