An Observational and Planning Tool for Professional Development in Science Education

摘要

Since there is an increasing recognition to address the need to move practicing teachers to a higher standard of practice, mentoring or coaching has been receiving increasing attention. A variety of tools has been developed to make these relationships more effective. Work within a recent mentor project indicated current tools were not detailed enough for mentors to provide effective feedback to mentees. This paper presents a more detailed tool and describes categories of pedagogical practices related to an extended inquiry-cycle model. During the course of the project, mentors and mentees also used this tool for adapting existing curriculum to a more standards-based mode of instruction, thus having it function as a planning tool.