 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
|
||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||
 |
|
||||||||
The NSRC Professional Development Center:
Working to Improve the Quality of
Inquiry Science Teaching and Learning
David Marsland
Co-director, Professional Development Center,
National Science Resources Center
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *The National Science Resources Center (NSRC) is an organization engaged in science education reform. It was established for this purpose under the umbrella of the National Academies and the Smithsonian Institution of the USA. The NSRC uses a model for science education reform that consists of five elements. These are the use of research-based inquiry curriculum, materials support, community involvement, appropriate assessment strategies, and professional development. The NSRC established the Professional Development Center (PDC) to provide support for the implementation of this model and its curriculum products--Science and Technology for Children (STC) and Science and Technology Concepts for Middle Schools (STC/MS). Applying characteristics of high quality professional development that have been identified by experts in the field, the PDC has created a line of products and services that combine inquiry curriculum and immersion into that curriculum as a strategy for improving the quality of science instruction. Many of these learning experiences are delivered on-site using a cadre of trained master teacher consultants. The PDC is exploring other models for professional development including graduate-level syllabi based on NSRC curriculum materials and week-long academies in partnership with museums and science centers. In addition, the PDC is working with a number of partners to support and evaluate the impact of PD on their school systems.
Established in 1985, the NSRC is an organization of the National Academies and the Smithsonian Institution of the USA. The mission of the NSRC is to promote and support effective science programs for school students, a policy that it calls “Science for All Children.” The NSRC’s strategies are informed by current research on how people learn and based on best practices used in schools in the USA and around the world.
The NSRC’s science education reform model is rooted in five essential elements of reform, those that need to be in place to ensure the reform process is carried through. Briefly these elements are:
• The selection of well researched standards based inquiry science curriculum
• The provision of materials support (providing and renewing materials, both written and hands-on)
• Support from schools and district administrators, local and corporate leaders and the scientific community (the latter often being a University or, in the international context, an Academy of Sciences)
• Tools for appropriate assessment of the students
• Professional development (PD) to support the implementation of the curriculum.
Figure 1: The five elements of reform model adopted by the NSRC
This paper will focus on the provision of professional and a model that has been adopted as part of the NSRC’s three center approach to this reform process. The Professional Development Center (PDC) compliments the Curriculum Development Center and the LASER Outreach Center in the process that supports the five elements of reform model.
II. Description of the NSRC Professional Development
Center’s Approach to Science Teacher Professional DevelopmentThe PDC was established in 2002 to create a line of PD materials and services to promote the implementation of inquiry-based science. In particular it was intended that the major focus of this support would be contextualized to NSRC curriculum products, Science and Technology for Children (STC) and Science and Technology Concepts for Middle Schools (STC/MS). These two curriculum products provide the option of a complete inquiry-based science curriculum, consisting of 24 elementary and 8 middle school units, for schools in Grades 1 through 8. The PDC’s plan is not to work in isolation, providing PD at standard venues through a year, but to support the reform programs and PD initiatives of school districts, states, corporations and educational establishments. Funding for the PD Center comes partly through institutional support, partly through fees for service and partly through the funding from jointly planned initiatives. The development of partnerships in which the PDC provides some components of PD and supports training of trainers, is the preferred model adopted by the center.
The PD center has identified from existing research (Center for Research in Math and Science Education, 2005) a number of major characteristics of high quality professional development and has incorporated these into its strategy. Those considered key elements are those that:
• align with, and support, system-based changes (i.e. the five elements of reform);
• are informed by best available research and practice;
• have the teaching of students and their learning at the core of the experience; and
• build upon existing teacher knowledge and experience.Care has been taken to ensure that PD is targeted at, and relevant to, the teachers’ needs, including particular reference to aspects of organization, presentation and practice. Pedagogy and content are delivered simultaneously using materials that teachers and students will use in the classroom, those that directly support the curriculum. In most of the courses and workshops teachers conduct inquiries, using the same materials and learning cycle as their students. At each stage they are encouraged to think about how their students come to understand the concepts that pertain to the activity and the strategies they should use to address common student preconceptions about a topic. The key to effectiveness is contextualization of the PD experience to classroom practice and fidelity to the curriculum materials the teacher will be using in the school classroom.
The PDC sees the delivery of PD as a long-term process that starts with building awareness and never ends, but evolves into the delivery of PD to an increasingly expert and sophisticated group of teachers that have been through a continuum of PD experiences.
Figure 2: The professional development continuum developed by the PDC leads teachers from novice to competent over a period of 5 or more years. Professional development is seen as a continual process that occurs throughout the career of the teacher.
Where teachers fit into the continuum is related to the teacher’s own experience with the inquiry approach to teaching science. It also depends on their content knowledge. Generally all teachers—regardless of years of experience—implementing the curriculum for the first time, will attend an implementation workshop and move up through all stages of the continuum, but at different speeds according to their exhibited expertise.
To support the STC and particularly the STC/MS curriculum the PDC has designed and is implementing a series of products that support this continuum starting with building awareness programs to inform teachers and school districts of the need for and nature of inquiry science curriculum. After adoption of STC or STC/MS curriculum materials the PDC provides 20 plus hour courses for each middle school unit or module. These courses are intended to enable teachers to implement these materials in the classroom with a high level of fidelity. Follow up, “Second-level” courses for these users to share their experiences and improve their implementation are provided after teachers have used the materials with their students. These are followed by courses, for which the NSRC has developed syllabi, designed to improve teacher content knowledge of the concepts delivered in the curriculum as well as more advanced workshops in pedagogy and technology. These courses are still grounded in the student inquiry but extend them to a higher level. They are designed to be co-taught by a university professor and a highly skilled teacher who is familiar with the curriculum materials. These syllabi are intended for use in intensive two week training sessions held during summer vacations.
Opportunities are also provided to bring teachers in contact with subject specialists from academic institutions and museums. The PDC is developing and testing a model for an academy that is run in conjunction with museum complexes, and is piloting its first Smithsonian Science Education Academy for Teachers (SSEAT) in the summer of 2005. The SSEAT combines morning sessions involving exemplary pedagogy and materials with afternoon “behind the scenes experiences” in museums and other scientific institutions.
The PDC is studying a variety of strategies to support groups of teachers and teachers in rural areas including study groups and online support. This continuum builds the capacity of districts to sustain their implementation of the curriculum over the long-term, as districts cope with a turnover of teachers.In its first range of products the PDC has adopted a strategy designed to support countrywide implementation of the curriculum. The PDC has a cadre of carefully trained presenters who are users or designers of the curriculum, to provide on-site delivery of the workshops to teachers.
Evaluations of PD experiences are conducted using short pre- and post-tests, participant response, and reaction surveys. Users of the PD services have conducted their own studies that compare the performance of students taught by teachers served by the PDC with a control group, but most studies have not separated local PD from PDC-delivered courses or the impact of the adoption of inquiry curriculum materials without PD. Requests for further PD from groups exposed to the PDC or the increased adoption of curriculum materials can also be considered a measure of effectiveness. The PDC is establishing an evaluation instrument to track the teachers that attend its workshops. This will include long-term evaluation questionnaires by the teacher of the workshops on their use of the curriculum materials and how they consider the workshop has impacted their teaching. It is hoped that further research by partners will also examine the impact of PDC courses on student performance.
III. References
Center for Research in Math and Science Education. Professional Development Collaborative. Retrieved on December 15, 2005.
