Impact of Curricular Professional Development on Changing Student Attitude Toward Science

• In Event: Science Instructional Interventions: Influences on Science Content and Scientific Thinking

Abstract

The recent need for increasing the number of people entering STEM education and careers has spawned a great deal of research interest in terms of how to create effective educational experiences at the K12 level. This paper reported on the effects of a curricular professional development program based on a five-component framework in changing student attitude towards science. It is focuses on providing empirical evidence in real world classroom contexts of the impact of PD and curricular and instructional programming on student perception of change in classroom pedagogy and technology use, and their interest in further science education and careers. The findings provide implications for what works and shed light on future studies on what works when and how.

Authors

• Lei Liu, Educational Testing Service

• Zhitong Yang, Educational Testing Service

• Susan A. Yoon, University of Pennsylvania