Successful K-12 Teacher and Faculty Participation in a STEMProfessional Development Program

摘要

The Information Technology in Science (ITS) Center for Teaching and Learning has developedan effective model for the professional development of teachers, the Learning Research Cycle(LRC), that has direct impact on K-12 teachers and their students. This paper describes thegeneral LRC and a description of how it is applied in the ITS Center for professionaldevelopment of 7th through 12th grade science teachers.Data collected from participants in two cohorts of the ITS Center’s summer program and fromuniversity faculty involved as resource personnel were analyzed to answer the followingquestions:? How and to what extent have teachers implemented what they have learned in theirsummer program experience in their classrooms?? Are there benefits to university faculty for participating in the LRC?Data sources include participant enrollment numbers, participant demographics originally fromtheir application records, multiple surveys of participants, records of participant researchproducts, multiple surveys of faculty members, and personal communication. Results showedthat classroom teachers effectively implemented quality classroom experiences usinginformation technology after participation in the program. University faculty reported having abetter understanding of the needs of classroom teachers and of the process of learning in generalafter participation in the program. Given the success of this model, the implications forimplementing the LRC for engineering K-12 outreach are discussed.