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Given the time and resources invested in teacher professional development, it is important to find ways to extend positive outcomes over the long term. Judith Haymore Sandholtz, Cathy Ringstaff, and Jessica Triant investigated whether modest follow-up supports influenced the sustainability of outcomes for elementary school teachers who had previously participated in science education professional development programs. Results indicate that follow-up supports reversed declines (in the years after the professional development ended) in teachers’ sense of preparedness to teach science, use of selected instructional strategies, and implementation of inquiry-based student activities in science.

Given the time and resources invested in professional development, it makes sense to find ways to extend positive outcomes over the long term. However, there is little research investigating what e...

Professional development holds significant potential in promoting science education, but that potential is undermined if instructional changes are not sustained. For professional development, sustainability refers to the continuation of outcomes over an extended period of time after the program ends and is an issue across international contexts. This longitudinal research, part of a larger research project funded by NSF, investigated sustainability of early elementary science instruction after teacher participation in a 3-year professional development program and the factors that influenced teachers’ decisions about instructional time and strategies. The research used a case-study approach to obtain an in-depth understanding of why instructional shifts occurred over a period of 7-years. The primary data sources were teacher surveys, self-efficacy assessments, and interviews. The findings highlight how school level factors changed over time and affected teachers’ science instruction in both positive and negative ways. The research illustrates the connection between contextual constraints and science instruction and holds implications for sustaining meaningful instructional changes after professional development ends.

Providing science instruction is an ongoing priority and challenge in elementary grades, especially in high-need rural schools. Nonetheless, few studies have investigated the factors that facilitate or limit teachers’ science instruction in these settings, particularly since the introduction of the Next Generation Science Standards. In this study we investigated affordances and constraints to elementary science instruction in high-need rural schools. Data sources included semi-structured interviews and survey responses from 49 teachers from 30 different rural schools. Through a primarily qualitative analysis, we identified four teacher reported categories of affordances and four categories of constraints to teaching science. One category of affordances, access to a variety of outdoor science resources, and one category of constraints, high levels of isolation, were closely tied to the nature of rural schools. The other affordances and constraints are broadly recognized factors influencing science instruction. Implications for supporting rural teachers’ science instruction are discussed.

This exploratory study examines the relationship between preservice teachers’ performance on a teaching performance assessment for licensure in elementary mathematics and a measure of knowledge that, in studies of practicing teachers, was found to predict effective mathematics teaching. A sample of 89 preservice teachers completed the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) and the classroom video analysis (CVA) instrument. Correlation analyses found overall weak associations between measures for the whole group. For groups of high, medium, and low performers on PACT, average scores on the CVA measure and its subscales varied in the predicted direction. However, individuals within the PACT performing groups had a relatively broad range of scores on the CVA, and several preservice teachers who performed poorly on PACT had average or better than average performance on the CVA. Similarly, several of the PACT high performers scored below the whole group CVA average. In addition to suggesting areas for future research, the findings raise questions about assessing preservice teachers’ readiness to teach mathematics and the use of a single measure to make licensing decisions.

This study investigates the impact of a professional development program that included two distinct components: strategies for infusing student-talk into grade-level lessons in science and mathemat...

This study investigated the extent to which a state-funded teacher professional development program designed to improve K–2 science education led to changes that persisted beyond the funding period. The study used a longitudinal, mixed-methods approach and examined persistence of changes in teachers’ content knowledge, self-efficacy, instructional time, and instructional practices in science. It also examined the extent to which school contexts and resources provided ongoing support for teachers to implement what they learned in the professional development. Data sources, collected over a 5-year period, included a teacher survey, a self-efficacy assessment, content knowledge tests, interviews, and classroom observations. Findings indicated a beginning pattern of decline during the 2 years after the program ended, but outcomes remained higher than before the professional development. Contextual factors varied widely across schools and influenced, in particular, the amount of time teachers devoted t...

This study investigated how contextual factors influenced the sustainability of outcomes from a 3-year, state-funded professional development program that provided science assistance for K-2 teachers in small, rural school districts. The research used a case-study approach with a purposive sample of five elementary schools that varied in instructional time in science several years after the funding period. The primary data sources were teacher surveys and interviews conducted 2 and 3 years after the end of the professional development program. The findings highlight variations across schools and the influence of principal support, resources, collegial support, personal commitment, and external factors. The research holds practical implications for enhancing long-term sustainability of professional development outcomes in science education.

Improvements in teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge are critical in improving science education but may be insufficient to support and sustain instructional changes. This chapter describes how contextual factors influenced teachers’ use of research-based instructional strategies learned in professional development. The research draws on survey, observational, and interview data collected from 135 teachers who participated in four different intensive professional development programs that were situated in small, rural school districts with high-need student populations and that extended over 3 years. Each program had a slightly different STEM focus, but all four programs aimed to improve teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in science and to foster their use of research-based instructional strategies in science. Across programs, teachers’ science content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and self-efficacy increased over the course of the professional development. Overall, teachers more frequently used research-based practices for teaching science. But contextual factors varied substantially across schools and districts and both fostered and hindered teachers’ science instruction. The most influential contextual factors included time for planning and collaboration, time for science instruction, administrator support, access to resources, and regional constraints. Identifying the contextual factors that influence teachers’ use of pedagogical content knowledge gained through professional development is the first step for formulating strategies for supporting and sustaining teacher change.

The impact of a prerequisite course was examined using both quantitative (exam data analyzed with a “familiarity” scale) and qualitative (surveys and semistructured interviews) data. These data affirmed a recent program change and highlighted the importance of collecting and analyzing student feedback in development of curricula., Despite the ubiquity of prerequisites in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curricula, there has been minimal effort to assess their value in a data-driven manner. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, we examined the impact of prerequisites in the context of a microbiology lecture and lab course pairing. Through interviews and an online survey, students highlighted a number of positive attributes of prerequisites, including their role in knowledge acquisition, along with negative impacts, such as perhaps needlessly increasing time to degree and adding to the cost of education. We also identified a number of reasons why individuals do or do not enroll in prerequisite courses, many of which were not related to student learning. In our particular curriculum, students did not believe the microbiology lecture course impacted success in the lab, which agrees with our analysis of lab course performance using a previously established “familiarity” scale. These conclusions highlight the importance of soliciting and analyzing student feedback, and triangulating these data with quantitative performance metrics to assess the state of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curricula.

This longitudinal study examined the extent to which teachers’ participation in a 3-year professional development program enhanced their self-efficacy and prompted changes in science instruction in the early elementary grades. The study used a mixed-methods design, and included 39 teachers who taught in kindergarten, first grade, or second grade classrooms in rural school districts. Data sources, administered pre-program and at the end of each year, included a self-efficacy assessment and teacher survey. Interviews and classroom observations provided corroborating data about teachers’ beliefs and science instruction. Results showed significant increases in teachers’ overall self-efficacy in teaching science, personal efficacy, and outcome expectancy efficacy during the 3 years. Gains in self-efficacy were correlated with changes in reported instructional practices, particularly student participation activities. However, changes in self-efficacy tended not to be correlated with changes in instructional time. Contextual factors beyond teachers’ direct control, such as curricular and testing requirements in mathematics and language arts influenced time allotted to science instruction.

This study examined the extent to which significant changes after one year of a longitudinal, state-funded teacher professional development program were sustained during the second year. Participants taught in elementary schools located in small, rural school districts in the state of California in the United States. The research examined changes in early elementary teachers’ science content knowledge; self-efficacy in teaching science; instructional practices in science; and contextual factors. Data sources included a teacher survey, self-efficacy assessment, content knowledge tests, interviews and classroom observations. Teachers experienced a significant increase in their knowledge of earth science in the second year. Their overall self-efficacy scores also increased significantly in the second year. Changes in instructional practices in science were largely sustained during the second year but were influenced by contextual factors such as resources, curricular demands, administrators’ support and supp...

The implementation of teaching performance assessments has prompted a range of concerns. Some educators question whether these assessments provide information beyond what university supervisors gain through their formative evaluations and classroom observations of candidates. This research examines the relationship between supervisors’ predictions and candidates’ performance on a summative assessment based on a capstone teaching event, the Performance Assessment for California Teachers. The study, based on records for 337 teacher candidates over a 2-year period, specifically addresses the following questions: To what extent do university supervisors predict candidates’ total scores? On which questions and categories of the assessment do supervisors most accurately predict their candidates’ scores? Do supervisors predict scores more accurately for high- and low-performing candidates? The findings indicate that university supervisors’ perspectives did not always correspond with outcomes on the performance assessment, particularly for high and low performers.

This study investigated the extent to which teacher professional development led to changes in science instruction in K-2 classrooms in rural school districts. The research specifically examined changes in (a) teachers’ content knowledge in science; (b) teachers’ self-efficacy related to teaching science; (c) classroom instructional time allotted to science; and (d) instructional strategies used in science. The study also investigated contextual factors contributing to or hindering changes in science instruction. Data sources included a teacher survey, a self-efficacy assessment, content knowledge tests, interviews, and classroom observations. After one year in the program, teachers showed increased content knowledge and self-efficacy in teaching science; they spent more instructional time on science and began using different instructional strategies. Key contextual factors included curricular demands, resources, administrative support, and support from other teachers.

This paper stems from a classroom discussion in which one author, a sixth-grade student in that classroom, contended that boys only read books about boys and proposed that the teacher change the situation by assigning books with both male and female main characters. The boys who responded emphatically denied the girl's claim, and the teacher later ended the discussion with a caution against stereotypes. In this paper, the authors describe their reactions to the incident and their decision to explore the students' claims by conducting a study based on the students' year-end reading records. Incorporating first-person reflections, they present the findings of their study, suggest alternate approaches for the teacher, and discuss implications for teacher education programs.

This case study examines how differing views on the teacher's role in school reform affected the work of a school–university partnership. The school district and the university had a history of partnerships and shared common general goals. Yet, as the partnership progressed, conflicting perspectives about teaching and the purpose of professional development became evident and created dilemmas that influenced the nature of the work. We provide background information about each partner, describe the two views, and examine how the differing perspectives influenced the goals and activities of the partnership. This study highlights the complex issues embedded in school–university collaboration.

In this case study, we use a consensus model as a framework for examining the professional development component of a standards-based reform effort initiated by a school district in the United States. We describe the district's actions, analyze the extent of adherence to the model, and identify reasons for what occurred. Although administrators intended to adopt key design principles of effective professional development, specific implementation strategies undermined and contradicted these principles. Their response to increasing bureaucratic controls at the state and national levels translated into increased regulation and control at the district and school levels, which paradoxically restricted the very attributes they sought to enhance.

In response to the establishment of standards by states and professional organizations, many local school districts have adopted a standards-based curriculum. The expressed purpose of standards is to improve student academic performance by providing teachers with a common sequence of targets at which to aim instruction. In this study, we examine unintended consequences of a school district's standards-based reform effort. Though the district intended to enhance student achievement and equalize educational opportunities for students, it instead caused the evolution of what can be called standards gaps, which resulted in differentiated curriculum and instruction along lines of students’ academic ability.

Despite many efforts at the national, state, and local levels to promote the use of computers in K-12 classrooms, over the past 20 years, the impact of the computer on teaching and learning has been minimal. In this article, we examine how one school district has advanced the use of computers in the classroom by focusing first on curriculum rather than on technology. While national and state technology standards for teachers, as well as educational technology textbooks, tend to start with computer hardware and how to troubleshoot it, teachers in the district described here spend very little time on hardware or troubleshooting. Instead, as a result of district choices with regard to technology, support, and training, teachers are able to bypass the hardware and troubleshooting and move quickly to more productive and inventive uses of technology in the classroom. Our research offers a paradox for furthering the use of computers in classrooms —if we take away expectations for technical skills and allow teachers to focus on developing curriculum, evaluating learning materials, and thinking about how to provide better learning opportunities for their students, teachers are likely to use technology more effectively and creatively in their teaching.

Despite many efforts at the national, state, and local levels to promote the use of computers in K-12 classrooms, over the past 20 years, the impact of the computer on teaching and learning has been minimal. In this article, we examine how one school district has advanced the use of computers in the classroom by focusing first on curriculum rather than on technology. While national and state technology standards for teachers, as well as educational technology textbooks, tend to start with computer hardware and how to troubleshoot it, teachers in the district described here spend very little time on hardware or troubleshooting. Instead, as a result of district choices with regard to technology, support, and training, teachers are able to bypass the hardware and troubleshooting and move quickly to more productive and inventive uses of technology in the classroom. Our research offers a paradox for furthering the use of computers in classrooms —if we take away expectations for technical skills and allow teachers to focus on developing curriculum, evaluating learning materials, and thinking about how to provide better learning opportunities for their students, teachers are likely to use technology more effectively and creatively in their teaching.

This study examines a “critical case” of one school district’s efforts to develop and implement a standards-based curriculum. The study was conducted from two competing perspectives that have dominated organizational analysis in education: the rational and the institutional. The findings demonstrate that the district took an expressly rationalistic approach by using standards and a corresponding criterion-referenced test to focus teachers’ instruction on common sets of outcomes. However, the findings suggest that, lacking a clear instructional philosophy, the district also took an institutional approach, in part. Its approach to development and implementation of the standards-based curriculum resulted in district standards that fell below state standards, a narrowing of curriculum and instructional strategies, and professional development and instructional supervision that lacked an instructional focus.

School/university partnerships often expand teachers’ professional development options beyond the traditional inservice model. This research explored the range of professional development opportunities for teachers in four secondary schools affiliated with the same school/university partnership. All teachers at the partner schools were administered surveys, and 24 teachers—six from each site—were selected for in-depth interviews, structured tasks, and informal observation. Using adult workplace learning as a framework, the author examines the types of opportunities teachers find most valuable, identifies conditions needed for meaningful professional development activities, and discusses implications for practice.

Reports profiling America's teachers are drawing increased attention to concerns about teachers’ subject-matter preparation and out-of-field assignments. In this article, we focus on two 1st-year high school teachers who graduated from the same teacher preparation program in the same year. One is credentialed in the subject area, and the other is not. Using comparative case methodology, we investigate and contrast how the teachers taught a unit on Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row. We analyze their teaching using Shulman's (1987) model of pedagogical reasoning, which divides the overall instructional process into components. We initially describe their teaching without clarifying which teacher is credentialed and which is not. After revealing the out-of-field teacher, we examine other factors that contribute to the differences in these two teachers. In a subsequent section, we argue that out-of-field teaching is a more complex issue than it appears and identify factors contributing to the complexity. We propose conceptualizing out-of-field teaching, as well as teaching assignments generally, as a matter of goodness of fit to take into account the relationship among teacher characteristics, contextual characteristics, and teaching placements.

© 2014, Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. The study compared candidates in a 4-year undergraduate program for secondary mathematics and science teaching, based on the UTeach model, with candidates in a 1-year postbaccalaureate program at the same institution. Candidates in the undergraduate program participated in a partnership of university mathematics, science, and education departments and intensive field-based experiences in high-needs schools. We conjectured that this approach would better prepare prospective teachers to develop beginning teacher competencies. Analysis of the Performance Assessment for California Teachers Teaching Event identified few differences between candidates in both groups. Surveys revealed significant differences between candidates’ perceptions of their preparation for teaching. These findings suggest that different program models can offer differential support to prospective teachers but how the program features are enacted influences the impact that these programs have on teacher preparation.

This research investigates the experiences of both student teachers and their cooperating teachers in contrasting teacher preparation programs. The comparative study includes a traditional and a professional development school program associated with the same university and the same public school district. In comparing the programs, we analyzed three main dimensions for both preservice and cooperating teachers: Problems, benefits, and evaluation of program components. Both cooperating teachers and student teachers encountered similar problems inherent in their roles. The differences emerged in the way programs were designed to provide support and guidance. Program features also contributed to professional development school student teachers' increased confidence in the teaching role and significantly lower concerns in the areas of self, impact on students, and dealing with student problems. Although both programs received overall high ratings, suggestions for improvement of the traditional progra...

This research compares the strengths and weaknesses of 10 different service learning projects at six high schools in one urban school district. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data, the study examines critical design elements in developing service learning programs that produce positive attitudinal outcomes for students. Results indicate that students had more positive attitudes toward their academic achievement, self-esteem, teachers, and peers when they participated in programs that rated highly on the four design criteria: duration, location, amount of personal contact with beneficiaries, and focus of the project.

I am a border woman. I grew up between two cultures, the Mexican (with a heavy Indian influence) and the Anglo (as a member of a colonized people in our own territory).... Living on borders and in margins, keeping intact one's shifting and multiple identity and integrity, is like trying to swim in a new element, an 'alien' element (Anzaldua, 1987, preface). In Borderlands, Gloria Anzaldua describes her experiences in straddling two cultures and points out that borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them (p. 3). Similar to the setting Anzaldua portrays, schools and universities exist as two distinct cultures with borders differentiating the practitioners from the professors. The emergence of school-university partnerships has created a borderland where those who work in both settings may find themselves trying to swim in a new element. Many school-university partnerships are based on the premise of equal partners working together in a mutually beneficial relationship (Sirotnik & Goodlad, 1988). Professional development schools (PDSs), for example, create a new institutional coalition of universities, schools of education, and public schools, a coalition based on the notion of true reciprocity (Holmes Group, 1990). Emerging as one of the most common collaborative arrangements for preparing prospective teachers (Yinger & Hendricks, 1990), PDSs have three main goals: to support student learning, to support the professional education of novice and veteran teachers, and to encourage inquiry and research related to educational practice (Levine, 1988, 1992). Extending beyond other school reform efforts, PDSs offer promising possibilities in creating new frames for teacher learning, building new ways of knowing, and providing new opportunities for mutual restructuring of schools and universities (Darling-Hammond, 1994). However, the process of creating professional development schools is a complex enterprise, particularly because it involves combining institutions with distinctive and possibly conflicting missions, organizational structures, and cultures. These distinctions lead to a variety of challenges such as defining roles and responsibilities (Miller & Silvernail, 1994), resolving conflicting fundamental interests (Snyder, 1994), establishing interinstitutional authority and fiscal responsibility (Neufeld, 1992), and providing longterm rewards (Lieberman, 1992; Sandholtz & Merseth, 1992). Some find the university, more than the schools, to be tradition-bound with a culture based on individual entrepreneurship, deep seeded conservatism, and an avoidance of risk and change (Miller, 1993, p. 5). Others encounter a large gulf between teachers' and professors' views on teaching and learning that results in people frequently working at cross-purposes (Winitzky, Stoddart, & O'Keefe, 1992). Institutional differences arise in nearly every aspect of these collaborative ventures. A strategy for bridging these differences is the creation of viable liaison positions in which people, both knowledgeable about and comfortable with the cultures of the collaborating institutions, move freely between them, interpret the language, understand the reward systems, and translate the ideas of those in one culture to those in another (Clark, 1988, p. 61). These boundary spanners, if legitimate in both institutions, establish critical links between schools and universities. Recruiting such individuals is challenging, given the established reward system for university faculty and the structured schedule of public school teachers. Lieberman (1992) points out that these boundary-spanning positions involve the traditional categories of teaching, research, and service, though not in the traditional sense and thus generally not recognized in the university's promotion process. For teachers, released time or joint appointments can be difficult to arrange, and additional work outside of school hours becomes burdensome. …

The addition of computers to classrooms influences not only instruction but also classroom management, producing both unexpected problems and benefits. This article summarizes the experiences of thirty-two elementary and secondary teachers as they adapted to teaching in high-access-to-technology classrooms. Using a three-stage model, this article presents the teachers' classroom management concerns, their strategies for solving problems, and their abilities to utilize the technology to their advantage. Teachers moved from frustration to success in coping with changes brought about by the introduction of technology to their classrooms. This article highlights three main issues relevant to practice and research. First, classroom management is not a skill that is mastered once and for all. Second, this article provides further support to the belief that educational change takes time. Finally, it illustrates that teacher change is not unidirectional. Teachers progress through stages of concern in an idiosyncratic manner. If I had my druthers, I don't think I would ever look at a computer again. One of my students got into the Corvus network and lost lots of information because he doesn't know what he is doing. It's a typical situation, and it's caused a major problem because now the computers are down. There are so many variables like this that we deal with on a day to day basis that I didn't anticipate being part of this program. I'm anxious for the weekend so I don't have to do anything with computers (AT, November 16, 1988).1

Collaborative teacher education programs add to the already heavy demands on practicing teachers, who may question the payoffs for the extra time and effort required. Inducements-contribution theory is used to examine teachers' experiences in such a program, identify the demands and rewards for the teachers, and analyze the balance between the two. The paper provides a framework for analyzing individuals' decisions to participate in collaborative programs and offers suggestions for program designers.