Poster #7 - Preparing Science Teacher Leaders: Impact of a Formal Graduate Degree Program

• In Event: 35.081 - MTCC Poster Session Eight
  In Poster Session: 35.081-1 - Section 8 Poster Session 2

Abstract

In this qualitative research framed by social constructivism, we examined how teachers experienced a graduate degree program and the ways the experiences impacted their development and shaped the translation of their learning into their roles as science teacher leaders. Being students, taught through inquiry methods, proved to be powerful in transforming their practice. By modeling inquiry practices in the program, the faculty immersed the teachers in the socio-cultural norms for teaching inquiry science. The teacher leaders efforts to transform their teaching practices, focus on student learning, and develop an inquiry stance preceded their efforts to lead science reform within their schools. Over time, however, their classrooms became the platform for demonstration of effective practices in the transformation of science teaching.

Authors

• Rose Pringle, University of Florida

• Karen Kilgore, University of Florida

• Lynda Hayes, P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School