Comparison of Abstracts: Professional Development for Teachers

The first abstract on Professional Development for teachers gives the problem statement as achieving quality learning to transform organizations. It highlights industrialization as a factor which necessitates gaining knowledge. The abstract provides three methods of improving teachers' practice as globalization, mentoring and reforming evaluation. The recommendations are then highlighted based on the policies that need implementation. This abstract is not good because it does not give the impact of the three trends mentioned. The other weakness is that there is no overview of how the data was collected in the seven countries mentioned. There should be a small comparison with a different set of trends in other countries to establish the impact of professional development.

The second abstract focuses more on the impact of the beliefs and attitudes of teachers towards the English language on professional development. The problem is well-defined, and the objective is to facilitate quality education for students from different backgrounds. The background information given is sufficient and takes the plight of teachers who deal with students whose first language is not English. Such students are mainly known as English Language Learners (ELLs). The abstract gives an overview of the research done and the subsequent results based on the 729 teachers sampled. The abstract discusses the impact of professional development as either positive or negative. The effect is that teachers who have promising attitudes towards English Language Learners tend to value mastery of content as opposed to the manner of expression in English. The abstract also gives a guide that the article discusses the effects of the teacher attitudes on professional development. This abstract is well-written and not only provides a detailed overview, but it also develops interest and suspense to read the article.

The third abstract is for an article which aims at giving reasons on what makes professional development efficient. The abstract takes a statistical approach as it directly focuses on the data obtained. With this, the problem statement defines the necessity to understand the effectiveness of professional development. As per the abstract, a sample data collection was done among 1027 teachers in the field of Science and Mathematics. From the research, it was learned that the most crucial development activities are: emphasis on mastery of content, provision of opportunities for interactive learning, and collaboration with other learning activities. The impact of these development strategies leads towards increased skills and knowledge. The abstract then gives the factors that impact teacher learning. Such elements include the collective participation of teachers, approach taken for the activity and the duration. All in all, this abstract gives detailed information and focuses on the data methodology and results. The problem, however, is that it is deficient in the background information provided. It is for this reason that the abstract is not stable. Lack of a precise background definition implies that the reader may not entirely find the text as being relevant.

Conclusion

It is needless to say that of the three abstracts provided: the second one is the strongest. The evaluation is based on the content provided. The most important aspects include the definition of a problem, the overview of background information, the highlight of what was done and the subsequent results. From the knowledge gained, a strong abstract must then describe the impacts and give brief recommendations on actions taken. From this mode of assessment, the first abstract lacks the implications and gives insufficient information. The third abstract, on the other hand, is made weak due to lack of sufficient background information on the issue being discussed.