A Study of Teacher Leaders' Experiences at a Museum-Based Professional Learning Program in Secondary Science Education

• In Event: 77.050 - Museums and Teacher Professional Development: Illuminating the "Invisible Infrastructure" of Science Institutions in Teacher Learning

Abstract

Objectives
This study investigates the experiences of California secondary science teacher leaders within a professional learning program at a science museum and the challenges of implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) with their classroom colleagues.

Theoretical Framework
Teacher leadership has held promise as a means to support school improvement, student performance, and teacher learning (Taylor, Yates, Meyer, & Kinsella, 2011; Poekert, 2012). Teacher leaders are asked to take up leadership roles and are highly valued because of their content and pedagogical expertise (Katzenmeyer & Moller, 2001; Taylor, Goeke, Klein, Onore, & Geist, 2011). The heavy demands of NGSS implementation call for teacher leaders to gain access to high-quality professional learning that builds deep, shared understanding of three-dimensional learning and improves their capacity to lead (Stiles, Mundry, & DiRanna, 2017).

Data Sources
Between March 2016 and March 2017, three cohorts of California teacher leaders (n=71) participated in a science professional learning program at a large, urban science museum on the west coast. Each cohort participated in an initial five-day institute, followed by six online workshops over an eight-month period, and participants had access to a community listserv. The data set included a short, structured pre-interview (n=68), a workshop exit survey (n=68), a mixed-methods post-survey (n=59), and a longer, semi-structured post-interview (n=23). The semi-structured interview protocol included questions about teachers’ professional backgrounds, workplace contexts, experiences implementing NGSS, and reflections on the museum’s program. Analysis of qualitative data relied on a grounded theory approach (Creswell, 1998), while quantitative analysis relied on descriptive statistics.

Findings
A majority of teacher leaders reported that their administrators value science “quite a lot or very much” (60%) and teacher leadership (63%), but do not adequately understand NGSS (22%). Although a majority of the teacher leaders’ schools/districts had been actively implementing NGSS for two to four years, teacher leaders rated their schools’ implementation process as making “very little” to “some” progress in addressing NGSS.

Given these contexts, the museum-based program approached NGSS-based professional learning through scientific inquiry (National Research Council, 2000): engaging teacher leaders as learners, using complex phenomena-based activities and sequencing investigations, and employing discourse protocols based on teacher leaders’ noticings, wonderings, and interests.

Preliminary survey results suggested that teacher leaders valued the opportunity to be immersed as learners and increased their ability to “make (science activities) truly NGSS.” Teacher leaders reported in interviews and surveys that they gained new pedagogical content knowledge related to phenomena, sequencing instruction, and modeling. A number of participants cited the extensive time and cognitive commitment required to shift practice to NGSS, stating they “still (had) a lot to learn.”

Significance
In an era of NGSS implementation, secondary science teacher leaders require opportunities to experience NGSS-based activities as learners through scientific inquiry. Teacher leadership is dependent on developing one’s capacity to generate new knowledge for oneself (Taylor, et al., 2011a), to have first-hand experience of three-dimensional learning, and to understand why one is changing one’s practice. Science-rich informal learning institutions are well positioned to engage teachers in inquiry-based, experiential learning.

Authors

• Jessica Parker

• Laura M. Stokes, Inverness Research