ORIENTATIONS TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION: UNDERSTANDING THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO PD OUTCOMES ACROSS MULTIPLE PROJECTS

Given the large investment in teacher professional development (PD), further understanding of the factors that impact PD success is needed. In a previous study, the authors established a framework for categorizing PD projects using the notion of orientations. A PD orientation is comprised of project characteristics that drive the PD design and implementation for that project. In this study, we applied this orientation framework to 14 science and mathematics PD projects and examined the relationship between projects of differing orientations and PD outcomes (e.g. perceived improvement in teaching practices). The results provide support for the value of the framework and demonstrate that PD projects with different orientations exhibit differing participant outcomes. This study also provides evidence of the value of this research framework for understanding how PD implementation characteristics are related to PD outcomes, as well as points to the value of a “balanced” orientation where both content and pedagogy are addressed in equal parts.     

Considering science and language arts connections: A study of teacher cognition

The Elementary Science Integration Project (ESIP) brought together teachers knowledgeable about, and committed to, whole-language instruction with their science-oriented counterparts to explore connections between the disciplines and build from teachers' strengths. By recognizing commonalities, that both hands-on science and whole language center on inquiry and focus on children's learning processes, ESIP was designed to reveal the issues both groups of teachers see as important as they go about making classroom decisions. The ultimate goal of the project was to promote science as central to cross-curricular study, thus increasing the comfort level of teachers, the amount of time devoted to science in the classroom, and an interest in inquiry. This article described the project and identified the considerations teachers used to evaluate science–language-arts connections. Twenty expert and 7 novice teachers worked together over a 2-year period to construct and elaborate their own understandings of curricular integrátion, designing action research projects to explore their newfound understandings. Teachers kept journals and participated in extensive group discussions and interviews that provided the data sources for this article. Results revealed the influence of teachers' scholarly and pedagogical orientations on the way they think about science–language-arts connections and the influence of personal experiences in convincing teachers that science–language-arts connections are worth fostering in the classroom.     

The Pedagogical Orientations of South African Physical Sciences Teachers Towards Inquiry or Direct Instructional Approaches

In recent years, inquiry-based science instruction has become widely advocated in science education standards in many countries and, hence, in teacher preparation programmes. Nevertheless, in practice, one finds a wide variety of science instructional approaches. In South Africa, as in many countries, there is also a great disparity in school demographic situations, which can also affect teaching practices. This study investigated the pedagogical orientations of in-service physical sciences teachers at a diversity of schools in South Africa. Assessment items in a Pedagogy of Science Teaching Test (POSTT) were used to identify teachers’ science teaching orientations, and reasons for pedagogical choices were probed in interviews. The findings reveal remarkable differences between the orientations of teachers at disadvantaged township schools and teachers at more privileged suburban schools. We found that teachers at township schools have a strong ‘active direct’ teaching orientation overall, involving direct exposition of the science followed by confirmatory practical work, while teachers at suburban schools exhibit a guided inquiry orientation, with concepts being developed via a guided exploration phase. The study identified contextual factors such as class size, availability of resources, teacher competence and confidence, time constraints, student ability, school culture and parents’ expectations as influencing the methods adopted by teachers. In view of the recent imperative for inquiry-based learning in the new South African curriculum, this study affirms the context specificity of curriculum implementation (Bybee 1993) and suggests situational factors beyond the curriculum mandate that need to be addressed to achieve successful inquiry-based classroom instruction in science.     

Supporting university content specialists in providing effective professional development: the educative role of evaluation

Evaluation of professional development (PD) has traditionally been composed of summative and formative feedback, and has focused on assessing the extent to which the PD impacts participating teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practices. This study establishes an additional purpose for PD evaluation – as educative opportunities for professional developers, particularly for PD providers who are university-level content specialists (e.g. scientists, mathematicians, statisticians, engineers). Through analysis of data collected as state-wide evaluators for one US Midwest state’s Improving Teacher Quality Grant PD programs, and utilizing an analysis methodology which we term ‘recommendation traces,’ we examine formative evaluation recommendations that we made to four different PD projects over three years. Findings from this study shed light on how content specialists who work in PD projects can learn about effective PD through project evaluation efforts.     

The Effects of a Kit-Based Science Curriculum and Intensive Science Professional Development on Elementary Student Science Achievement

The science achievement of 226 5th graders from districts that have a kit-based inquiry science curriculum supported by intensive professional development (PD) is compared with data from a group of 173 5th graders from other districts that use nonkit science materials and do not have systematic science PD for teachers. Within the kit-based project, the sample of project teachers is stratified to select teachers with a high number of science PD hours versus those with few hours. While there were no significant differences in the mean total scores for kit-based students with low PD versus high PD teachers, the kit-based classrooms scored significantly higher than students in nonkit classrooms on both the pretest and posttest, though there were significantly more minutes of science instruction in the nonkit classrooms. Finally, nonkit teachers taught more units of shorter length and reported lower levels of preparedness to use reform pedagogical approaches.     

Chemistry Teachers’ Emerging Expertise in Inquiry Teaching: The Effect of a Professional Development Model on Beliefs and Practice

This study investigates the beliefs and practices of seven high school chemistry teachers as a result of their participation in a year-long inquiry professional development (PD) project. An analysis of oral interviews, written reflections, and in-class observations were used to determine the extent to which the PD affected the teachers’ beliefs and practice. The data indicated that the teachers developed more complete conceptions of classroom inquiry, valued a “phenomena first” approach to scientific investigations, and viewed inquiry approaches as helpful for facilitating improved student thinking. Analysis of classroom observations with the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol indicated that features of the PD were observed in the teachers’ practice during the academic year follow-up. Implications for effective science teacher professional development models are discussed.     

How different are ICT-supported pedagogical practices from extensive and non-extensive ICT-using science teachers?

This paper aims to understand the differences between characteristics of ICT-supported pedagogical practices of grade 8 science teachers of extensive and non-extensive ICT-using science teachers. The differences of the pedagogical practices are described in terms of innovative and traditionally important practice orientations. The innovative practice orientation reflects a demand for education in an information society (e.g. communication skills; ability to learn at own pace), while the traditionally important practice orientation (e.g. subject-matter knowledge) reflects teaching and learning in an industrial society. The purpose of this study was to explore differences between the ICT-supported pedagogical practices of extensive and non-extensive ICT-using science teachers. As part of the SITES 2006 study extensive ICT-using science teachers nominated their most satisfying pedagogical practice. Perceived student outcomes and teaching practices have been analyzed using the SITES 2006 database. In addition, the regular pedagogical practices of these science teachers were, using the SITES 2006 database, compared with the regular pedagogical practices of non-extensive ICT-using science teachers. The results show that although traditionally important practices within the context of ICT are still dominant in science education, changes in the equilibrium between traditionally important and innovative practice orientations are taking place across educational systems.     

An Examination of the Changes in Science Teaching Orientations and Technology-Enhanced Tools for Student Learning in the Context of Professional Development

This research examines how science teaching orientations and beliefs about technology-enhanced tools change over time in professional development (PD). The primary data sources for this study came from learning journals of 8 eighth grade science teachers at the beginning and conclusion of a year of PD. Based on the analysis completed, Information Transmission (IT) and Struggling with Standards-Based Reform (SSBR) profiles were found at the beginning of the PD, while SSBR and Standards-Based Reform (SBR) profiles were identified at the conclusion of PD. All profiles exhibited Vision I beliefs about the goals and purposes for science education, while only the SBR profile exhibited Vision II goals and purposes for science teaching. The IT profile demonstrated naïve or unrevealed beliefs about the nature of science, while the SSBR and SBR profiles had more sophisticated beliefs in this area. The IT profile was grounded in more teacher-centered beliefs about science teaching and learning as the other two profiles revealed more student-centered beliefs. While no beliefs about technology-enhanced tools were found for the IT profile, these were found for the other two profiles. Our findings suggest promising implications for (a) Roberts' Vision II as a central support for reform efforts, (b) situating technology-enhanced tools within the beliefs about science teaching and learning dimension of science teaching orientations, and (c) revealing how teacher orientations develop as a result of PD.     

Catching the moments – coteaching to stimulate science in the preschool context

An important task for the preschool teacher is to create meaningful learning situations where children have opportunities to experience science. However, many teachers have both weak subject knowledge and a lack of confidence to teach science. The aim of the project presented in this article was to capture how nine preschool teachers developed their learning of and self-confidence in teaching science during a two-year professional development (PD) project while coplanning, coteaching, and coreflecting on their teaching activities. During the project, the preschool teachers’ self-confidence and attitudes played an important role for the their approach to science activities. Their collaborative learning and reflection became important for their PD and for the way science phenomena were included in the preschool context. As such, the project is based on opportunities for preschool teachers to develop their ideas about science and to reframe their work with the aim to stimulate children’s curiosity for science.     

EVALUATING SELECTED PERCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHERS IN AN ALTERNATIVE CERTIFICATION PROGRAM

In 2003 the University of Missouri (with the aid of US National Science Foundation funding) initiated an alternative certification program (ACP) to address the well-documented need in the US for increasing the quantity and quality of mathematics and science teachers for the middle and secondary levels. Nationwide current certification programs do not provide the quality and quantity of mathematics and science teachers needed in schools. As a result most American states have begun to experiment with ACPs as a way to address the shortage of math and science teachers. To evaluate the success of this program, we collected data from ACP participants regarding perceived preparation, self efficacy, and outcome expectancy at three time points in the program. State standards for beginning teachers were used to construct a perceived preparation instrument. Analysis of data suggests that over time, ACP participants exhibited an increasingly positive view toward their preparation for classroom teaching, as well as increased self efficacy. However, there was little change in the students’ outcome expectancy over time. In this article we share details of the unique ACP program and we describe steps taken to collect and evaluate a project data set. Our work provides useful guidance to researchers and practitioners in the field of science and mathematics teacher education.     

Science Teachers’ Meaning-Making When Involved in a School-Based Professional Development Project

A group of teachers?? meaning-making when they are collaboratively analyzing artifacts from practice in local science classrooms in a school-based professional development (PD) project is examined through repeated interviews and represented as meaning-making maps. The interpretation of the teachers?? meaning-making includes both their reference to outcomes from the project and their expressed ideas about teaching and learning of science. All four teachers refer to experiences from experimenting in their classrooms and interpret the collected artifacts in relation to students?? learning. Furthermore, they all felt encouraged to continue collaboration around science. During the interviews, the teachers emphasize various elements apparently connected to concrete challenges they each experience in their professional work. Implications in relation to the design of PD are discussed.     

Understanding Changes in Teacher Roles Through Collaborative Action Research

The purpose of this article is to present the design and findings of a collaborative action research study that involved five secondary science teachers as action researchers and me, as facilitator, collectively articulating the teachers’ changing teaching roles when the teachers taught with computer technology. Data included interviews, observations, and focus group discussions. Data analysis entailed thematic analysis of data to identify initial and changes in teachers’ roles. Collaborative action research context helped the teachers to perceive their changing teaching roles through collective negotiation. Implications for facilitators of action research include the need to articulate their theoretical orientation prior to the onset of facilitating action research projects and to acknowledge and accept action researchers as fellow active knowledge producers.     

Science teachers' beliefs about curriculum design

Teacher beliefs about curriculum design affect the quality of science education in schools, but science researchers know little about the interrelation of beliefs about alternative curriculum designs. This article describes a quantitative study of secondary science teachers' beliefs about curriculum design. A 33-item Science Curriculum Orientation Inventory (SCOI) was developed to measure five distinct orientations to curriculum: academic, cognitive processes, societycentred, humanistic, and technological. Data were collected from 810 integrated science, chemistry, physics, and biology teachers in Hong Kong. A confirmatory factor analysis of teacher responses to the SCOI indicated that science teachers' beliefs about curriculum design had a hierarchical structure; the five distinct curriculum orientations were positively correlated, forming a second-order curriculum, meta-orientation. Physics teachers were less society-oriented than biology, integrated science and chemistry teachers, and integrated science teachers were more humanistic than physics teachers. Although science teachers' beliefs about any of the five alternative curriculum designs did not vary with their teaching experience, the difference between beliefs about the cognitive processes orientation and the humanistic orientation increased when teachers had gained more teaching experience. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Case‐based Long‐term Professional Development of Science Teachers

Reform efforts are often unsuccessful because they failed to understand that teachers play a key role in making educational reforms successful. This paper describes a long‐term teacher professional development (PD) program aimed at educating and training teachers to teach interdisciplinary topics using case‐based method in science. The research objective was to identify, follow and document the processes that science teachers went through as they assimilated the interdisciplinary, case‐based science teaching approach. The research accompanied the PD program throughout its 3‐year period. About 50 teachers, who took part in the PD program, were exposed to an interdisciplinary case‐based teaching method. The research instruments included teacher portfolios, which contained projects and reflection questionnaires, classroom observations, teacher interviews, and student feedback questionnaires. The portfolios contained the projects that the teachers had carried out during the PD program, which included case studies and accompanying student activities. We found that the teachers gradually moved from exposure to new teaching methods and subject matter, through active learning and preparing case‐based team projects, to interdisciplinary, active classroom teaching using the case studies they developed.     

Determinants of K-2 School Teachers' Orientation towards Inquiry-Based Science Activities: A Mixed Method Study

The purpose of this study was to describe attitudes of first and second grade teachers in Benin, toward school science and their instructional preferences (inquiry-based and traditional noninquiry-based instruction), and determine some factors that could explain these attitudes and preferences. Three hundred (N=300) preparatory classroom teachers (first and second grades) were randomly selected and surveyed regarding their attitudes and preferences. Data was gathered via the Revised Science Attitude Scale, the Science Teachers' Ideological Preference Scale, and open-ended questions. The results indicated that first and second grade teachers have a low regard for school science and low level of orientation toward both inquiry-based and traditional instruction. This means that these teachers rejected traditional approaches of science teaching but at the same time did not accept inquiry teaching as a legitimate alternative. Participants' low level of orientation towards inquiry-based instruction could be explained by three dimensions of attitude; handling (handling of science equipment), time (time required to prepare and teach science), and need (the basic needs students have for science). However, time and handling significantly contributed to their orientation towards traditional noninquiry-based instruction. Four categories from the open-ended responses – perceived instructional practices, student-centeredness of the curriculum, lack of materials and supplies, and training – were used to understand and further explain participants' attitudes and instructional preferences.     

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE TEACHERS AS A REFLECTION OF LARGE-SCALE ASSESSMENT

Professional development (PD) of teachers comprises a major challenge in many countries. The empirical relations between teaching–learning processes and student achievements occupy educators who construct teachers’ in-service training programs. Student achievements serve as a measure for testing improvements in learning. Many investigators view teachers’ content–didactic knowledge as influencing the quality of teaching and student achievements. Large-scale assessments (national and international evaluation frameworks) in the Israeli educational system offer teachers opportunities for improving their teaching–learning processes and student achievements. We developed a program for the PD of science teachers based on the curriculum and large-scale assessments. The model is long term and integrates theoretical and practical knowledge. The activities should be effective and cooperative and should use diverse teaching methods and integrate advanced technologies. This article presents considerations for the construction of the program, its goals, its performance, teachers’ reports on the components, and the contribution of the program’s components to their PD.     

FIRST YEAR IMPLEMENTATION OF A PROJECT-BASED LEARNING APPROACH: THE NEED FOR ADDRESSING TEACHERS�� ORIENTATIONS IN THE ERA OF REFORM

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which three teachers’ professional experience and existing orientations toward teaching and learning mathematics and science influenced their implementation of a project-based curriculum (i.e. project-based learning (PBL)). Data sources included interviews, videotapes of classroom activity, and a teaching philosophy questionnaire. Data analysis was conducted using an iterative coding technique. We found coherency between the teachers’ perceived orientations and their emergent ideas about PBL, their sense of PBL as being compatible with their goals, and the specific challenges with which they struggled. All the teachers wanted their students to be successful; however, different definitions of success led to quite different approaches toward teaching, and for the most part, these differences appeared to have occurred because of existing orientations the teachers held for teaching their discipline. Implications for professional development taking into account teachers’ orientations and thus their professional experience are discussed, as well as disciplinary challenges to using PBL.     

One Science Teacher’s Professional Development Experience: A Case Study Exploring Changes in Students’ Perceptions of Their Fluency with Innovative Technologies

The purpose of this case-study is to narrate a secondary science teacher’s experience of his professional development (PD) education and training in innovative technologies (IT) in the context of engaging students in environmental research projects The sources from which the narrative is derived include (1) the science teacher’s reflective reports during three summer institute programs and (2) the science teacher’s reflective reports while subsequently engaging students in IT-embedded environmental research projects in his classroom. The science teacher’s explanations for changes in students’ perception of their IT fluency illuminate his personal narrative. The science teacher attributed his growth and significant changes in students’ perceptions of their IT fluency to the following mechanisms: (a) a personal commitment to developing his own and his students’ IT abilities in the context of doing environmental research projects, and (b) an increase in class time devoted to science education due to school-time scheduling policy. The study implies that immersive professional development opportunities have the potential to produce significant increases in students’ perceptions of their IT fluency.     

Engineering design in the classroom: Is it good science education or is it revolting?

The changing emphasis of science education today includes a shift from a narrowly disciplinary view of science to a more socially and technologically situated perspective. This article reports on the implementation of engineering design projects in about two dozen U. S. secondary science classrooms, following an inservice professional development course conducted at a university engineering college. Using data from an evaluation of the project and three sociological themes—secrecy and ownership, social persuasion and the status of facts, and the relationship between money and science—I argue that technological design projects provide a sociologically fruitful approach for teaching new themes in science education. However, teachers must rethink the nature of their subject matter, something that may be difficult if their training was disciplinary in emphasis.