“Gives Me the ‘Right’ to Teach Science”: Professional Development’s Impact on Primary Grade Teachers’ Practice

• In Event: Poster Session 19
  In Poster Session: Supporting, Challenging, and Shifting Teacher Practice in STEM

Abstract

This paper details a qualitative aspect of a three-year (SY2008/09-2010/11) quasi-experimental study providing teacher professional development in science content, pedagogy, and interdisciplinary lesson development for Kindergarten, first, and second grades. As a university and urban-fringe school district collaboration, the overarching research goal of Project SMART (Integrating Science, Math, Reading, and Technology) explored the impact of interdisciplinary curriculum on students’ ability to acquire basic science inquiry (predicting, observing, and explaining) skills and literacy skills, as compared to control group peers using traditional non-integrated curricula. This qualitative analysis of the 66 teacher participants’ describes shifts in teacher practice in three strands: increased science content knowledge; peer collaboration to refine teaching; and newly gained “permission” to teach science again in their primary grade classrooms.

Authors

• Margaret Sauceda Curwen, Chapman University

• Kimberly A. White-Smith, Chapman University

• Roxanne Greitz Miller, Chapman University

• Colette Marie O'Bannion, Chapman University

• Robert Calfee, Stanford University