Abstract
Research strongly supports the idea that the greatest impact for improving educational systems
is by increasing collective teacher efficacy, but precisely how to accomplish this remains a
significant challenge. One small way that many scholars propose to improve the quality of
teaching is through Professional Development. In an attempt to make an applied contribution
to knowledge, this dissertation narrows its focus further to examine a single contextualized
application, a podcast, and to evaluate its effectiveness as a delivery device for continuing
professional development.
Across a variety of established definitions and forms of Continuing Professional Development
(CPD), existing literature and robust research have identified three major obstacles to its
effectiveness; (1) time (2) money, and (3) faculty resistance. Additionally, transportability of
effective programming has been identified as a barrier to scalability. In an attempt to address
these obstacles and barriers, the Teaching for Mastery podcast was created using short episodes
that deliver relevant, actionable, and evidence-based applications based on the neuroscience of
teaching and learning, positive psychology, and best practices in pedagogy.
The podcast series was then shared with over 20,000 teachers and instructional leaders who
worked within one of three distinct typologies of CPD. These typologies represent varying
degrees of structure and support from Instructional Leaders, contextualized in their respective
schools and served as the control and study samples for this dissertation. They were
characterized as (1) No CPD, (2) Standard CPD and (3) Integrated CPD.
A Mixed Method approach was adopted, in which both quantitative and qualitative data sets
were gathered in order to evaluate if, and to what degree, podcasting-as-a-delivery-device may
reduce or remove these major obstacles to professional development, thereby increasing its
effectiveness. Further thematic analysis of the qualitative data shed light on the ways that
participants received and used the podcast in their respective contexts, providing additional
nuance and potentially valuable information for further research and podcast developers.
Findings indicated that within and across these three typologies of CPD, the podcast served as
an effective delivery device for professional development to the extent that it assisted in
removing or reducing the three primary obstacles to professional development. Additionally,
findings suggested that the degree of effectiveness was directly correlated with the amount of
structural support from Instructional Leaders. As such, the findings not only demonstrate some
degree of value in using podcasting for professional development, but also point to, and
reinforce, the important role of Instructional Leadership in effective professional learning.
We conclude that utilizing podcasting as a delivery device, as one part within a school
improvement strategy, may be a valuable addition to a school leader’s professional
development strategy, help to raise the collective efficacy of teachers, and play a role in
enhancing school improvement. Importantly, additional research is indicated to further
substantiate the findings and improve the intervention