Chapter Notes: The Practical-Argument Staff Development process

Virginia Richardson and Mary Lynn Hamilton

Teachers as Inquirers has been used as a constructivist way of explicating beliefs and understandings about teaching and students for staff development.

Process/product studies identify the underlying variables through correlational studies, then use staff development training as a treatment to test relationships between teacher behavior and student outcomes.

"A practical argument is a device used to assist teachers in examining their beliefs and possibly reconstructing the. These beliefs consist of four types of premises: value, situational, empirical, and stipulative. Together, these arguments represent an intention for action."

In watching videotapes, teachers are asked to stop the tape whenever they wanted to discuss what occurred. They were asked to describe their rationale for instruction, and about their performance.

Participants who gave a presentation about something that came up in discussion embedded a medium high amount of theory and research, had high audience interest and generated considerable discussion and questions.