In the Shoes of a Student: Professional Development in a Classroom Context

Abstract

While professional development for teachers exists in many forms, no particular one emerges as the best way to facilitate change in classroom practices. Evidence from the Elementary Science and Technology project suggests that teachers implementing a new curriculum require a variety of professional development experiences. Also emerging is the importance of developing and sustaining school-university partnerships and professional communities of practice.

This paper describes the results from a programme of research in which two faculty instructors taught Grade 6 students a science or technology unit, while six teachers worked alongside the students to complete the same unit. The results of the study are being used to address two research questions: (a) to what extent does in-service given in a classroom context help teachers to acquire a pedagogy for elementary technology or elementary science and (b) to what extent does in-service given in a classroom context help teachers to acquire subject knowledge in elementary technology or elementary science?