Personalizing Professional Growth. - Review - book review

School Administrator, June, 1997 by George E. Pawlas

Educational leaders seeking strategies to individualize and personalize staff development for teachers should find Personalizing Professional Growth a welcome addition to their professional library.

Bernadette Marczely, a professor of education at Cleveland State University, based her book on her relevant experiences as a teacher, administrator, and personnel director. She presents eight distinct models of professional development that can be designed to function within an existing public school administrative and contractual structure.

Marczely discusses strategies and techniques developed outside education that can benefit a school staff, including ways teachers' individualities can be acknowledged to encourage positive growth. The power of her presentation can be found in the suggestions she offers to tailor staff members' development plans to fit their specific learning styles.

Another valuable section suggests how to reward staff members' professional achievements.

(Personalizing Professional Growth, by Bernadette Marczely, Corwin Press, 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, Calif. 91320-2218, 1996, 129 pp. with index, $18.95 softcover)