Professional development for science teachers operates with an implicit theory that is largely untested. The theory asserts that professional development brings about changes in teachers' science content and pedagogical content knowledge, which then leads to changes in classroom practice, ultimately improving student achievement. Testing this theory requires a coherent set of tools, which currently does not exist. Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI) and Project 2061 of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) jointly propose to develop these tools in specific science content areas. The project will create and disseminate instruments that assess teacher opportunities to learn, and that measure changes in teacher science content knowledge, teacher pedagogical content knowledge, classroom practice, as well as changes in student achievement. The teacher instruments will mainly be for middle school, but might have implications for younger grades.
The Principal Investigator of Assessing Teacher Learning About Science Teaching is Patrick Smith.
This site was created to enhance communication and collaboration
between partners within the Teacher Learning
project as well as to inform the public of the efforts of the Math
and Science Partnership Program. While selected documents in the
library and resources sections have been made available
to the public, only logged in members of the
Assessing Teacher Learning About Science Teaching project can post comments,
participate or read posts in the Working Groups, or see the interactive
Calendar.
