Implement a Preservice Professional Development Program

The Professional Development Program for Beginning Vocational Teachers represents a research-based effort to provide a flexible and adaptable mechanism for beginning vocational teachers. The program consists of eleven major components:

Systematic administrative support
A detailed orientation structured around a specific set of topics
A research-based beginning teacher handbook
A structured mentoring program
A peer support group
An ongoing series of inservice workshops
Coaching in reflection
Certification courses for teachers with provisional or emergency certificates
A professional development plan individualized to the beginning teacher
A Professional Development Center
A Local Professional Development Coordinator

The Professional Development Program is designed to be implemented as a complete system; however, individual components could be implemented separately. The model program [can involve] school divisions operating as a consortium, but the program can be operated by an individual school. Further, the important structural feature of the program is that it is designed to be a collaborative effort involving the local education agency, the state department of education, professional teacher organizations, and teacher education institutions.

Excerpted with permission from:
Camp, W.G., & Heath-Camp, B. (1992). Professional development of beginning vocational teachers: An introduction to the professional development program for beginning vocational teachers (p. 1). (MDS-272). Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education, University of California- Berkeley.