Documenting Teacher Learning and Professional Development Through Collaboratively Developed, Micro-Credentialed Action Research

• In Event: Teacher Research as Professional Development

Abstract

A paradox exists between legislators’ demands for improved student learning in high-poverty schools and the fiscal constraints of offering teachers professional development. Implementation of the NGSS and CCSS-M exacerbated this situation because it recast demands on teachers’ content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and knowledge for teaching. This research probed the theoretical underpinnings of how veteran science and mathematics teachers learn and develop their professional practice by awarding collaboratively-constructed micro-credentials for action research projects that traverse the Knowledge Domains for Teaching. Data analyzed from teachers’ projects, an instrument that charted growth across these domains, and videotaped classroom observations yielded three findings. Each highlights the power and possibilities for public good when researchers and organizational stakeholders collaborate to improve student learning.

Authors

• Barbara L. Bales, University of Wisconsin

• Anja Blecking, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

• Craig Berg, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee