WASHINGTON, — Each day, hundreds of math and science teachers throughout the United States stand before eager students to help them meet the high standards that states and school districts have adopted. But how do teachers themselves deepen their own knowledge and skills?
In the first large-scale comparison of how different characteristics of professional development affect teachers’ learning, a team of educational researchers identified six features that make professional development effective and improve instruction in math and science. These features are based on responses from a nationally representative sample of 1,027 public school math and science teachers in kindergarten through grade 12.
The team’s findings are reported in the winter issue of the American Educational Research Journal, a peer-reviewed publication of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). The project was conducted at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in Washington, D.C., with funds from the U.S. Department of Education’s Planning and Evaluation Service. It was carried out as part of the National Evaluation of the Eisenhower Professional Development Program.
The six aspects of teachers’ professional development that emerged as extremely important in affecting teacher learning are:
- Form. Traditional classes, workshops or a “hands-on” activity like mentoring were less effective than reform types of activities, such as teacher networks or study groups.
- Duration. Longer professional development programs are more likely to make an impact. Sustained and intensive programs are better than shorter ones.
- Collective participation. Activities designed for teachers in the same school, grade or subject are better than professional development programs that do not target groups of teachers who work together.
- Content. Professional development courses that focus on how to teach but also on what to teach—the substance and subject matter—are key.
Elementary schoolteachers especially may have taken fewer courses in science or math and may be less familiar with the subject matter, the researchers note.
- Active learning. This aspect is fostered through observing and being observed teaching, planning for classroom implementation, reviewing student work, and presenting, leading and writing.
- Coherence. Teachers need to perceive professional development as part of coherent programs of teacher learning and development that support other activities at their schools, such as the adoption of new standards or textbooks.
“Professional development can support teachers’ effectiveness,” says Michael S. Garet, chief research scientist at AIR. He and Beatrice Birman, managing research scientist at AIR, directed the project, along with Andrew C. Porter, director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at University of Wisconsin-Madison and also AERA president. Other senior research scientists on the project team include Laura Desimone, now at Vanderbilt University, and Kwang suk Yoon at AIR.
The team’s project found that much professional development currently offered lacks the six features. “Professional development largely has been a voluntary activity that teachers can pick and choose from a collection of offerings,” Garet notes, “but it needs to become a more significant part of schools’ and districts’ plans of what teachers do.”
Efforts are underway in several states for teachers to increase their professional development via distance learning or online programs, he adds.
“If we are serious about using professional development as a mechanism to improve teaching, we need to invest in activities that have the characteristics that research shows foster improvements in teaching,” Garet and his colleagues state. “Unfortunately, this is not happening.”
They acknowledge that cost is a major challenge to providing this type of high-quality professional development. “Funds should be focused on providing high-quality professional development experience. This would require schools and districts either to focus resources on fewer teachers, or to invest sufficient resources so that more teachers can benefit from high-quality professional development.”
Editor’s Note: Michael S. Garet may be contacted at 202-944-5300. Andrew C. Porter may be contacted at 608-263-4200. To receive a full text of the journal article, contact AERA communications and outreach, 202-223-9485 or http://www.outreach@aera.net
The American Educational Research Association represents more than 23,000 educators who conduct research and evaluation in education. Founded in 1916 and based in Washington, D.C., AERA offers a comprehensive program of scholarly publications, training, fellowships, and meetings to disseminate research and improve the profession.
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American Educational Research Journal