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For Teachers

Educational Research and Dissemination

What is ER&D?

The American Federation of Teachers Educational Research and Dissemination (ER&D) Program is a union-sponsored,  research-based professional development program. It was created by the AFT through collaboration between practitioners and researchers to encourage classroom educators to improve their practice and their students' achievement by becoming users of research.

The AFT has long recognized that a research-grounded knowledge base is essential to professional practice. Through the creation of the ER&D program in 1981, the AFT began a systematic process to translate, codify, and disseminate quality educational research findings about teaching and learning to classroom teachers and paraprofessionals. As a professional development program, the ER&D process is very different from traditional in-service, because it affords K-12 and post-secondary classroom educators the opportunity to gain access to research on teaching and learning in a form that gives them the ability to apply those findings effectively. It also helps participants understand the value of using research finding to guide classroom practice.

The ER&D Program has come to represent one of the union's effort to make a difference in teacher and paraprofessional performance and professional growth. Through its focus on providing educators with instructional tools to change practice and promote student achievement, it has also enhanced the union's organizing efforts and been the source of a new kind of union activism.

What makes ER&D Different?

Classroom practitioners have long been subjected to ineffective in-service sessions, which are often "district-mandated," and which are, all too often, rated as not very worthwhile by the participants. As the organizational representatives of teachers and paraprofessional, the AFT has constructed a professional development program that is meant to be an ongoing process, rather than an in-service event. In addition to providing credible, research-based information that is essential to our members as they carry out their professional responsibilities, the ER&D program is committed to:

• offering a non-threatening, non judgmental learning environment:
• providing opportunities for thoughtful discussion about teaching and learning with colleagues and researchers;
• providing opportunities for self-reflection and collegial inquiry;
• making a process available that allows for individual understanding and implementation of strategies that result in real change of practice;
• providing opportunities for professional growth, continuous learning, and validation of existing practice; and,
• offering a program that builds a sense of pride in the quality of a union service.

Education Research and Dissemination (ER&D) is a professional development program created in 1981 by the American Federation of Teachers. Its purpose is to advance teaching and learning by connecting teachers to effective research-based classroom practices.

More Information

• DCFT's ER&D Program
• Class Information
• Douglas County Schools - Staff Development Catalog

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