Professional development that improves STEM outcomes

Abstract

How should teachers spend their STEM-focused professional learning time? To answer this question, Heather Hill, Kathleen Lynch, Kathryn Gonzalez, and Cynthia Pollard analyzed a recent wave of rigorous new studies of STEM instructional improvement programs. They found that programs work best when focused on building knowledge teachers can use during instruction. This includes knowledge of the curriculum materials they will use, knowledge of content, and knowledge of how students learn that content. They argue that such learning opportunities improve teachers’ professional knowledge and skill, potentially by supporting teachers in making more informed in-the-moment instructional decisions.

Remote and Blended Teacher Education: A Rapid Review

“…Relative to other modes discussed here, coaching and mentoring are relatively welldefined (and have a strong evidence base finding substantial impacts on teacher learning and pupil outcomes (e.g., see Kraft, Blazar and Hogan, 2018) [31], although practice and quality varies considerably (Hill et al, 2020) [5]. The National Framework for Mentoring and Coaching (CUREE, 2005) [32] describes and explains the principles, concepts and skills for mentoring and coaching and compares the overlaps between these (also see Cordingley, and Buckler 2012, and Fletcher and Mullen, 2012) [33,34].…”

“…All reviews of professional development consulted are included in the dedicated section of the review references. Of particular note in terms of both quality and recency are the Darling-Hammond (2017) [21] review, assessing studies employing experimental or quasi-experimental designs for teacher development; the Rogers, Brown and Poblete (2020) [22] systematic review focusing on professional learning in early years of education; and the meta-analysis from Hill et al (2020) [5] which briefly summarizes effective professional learning in relation to STEM-focused programmes. What should be stressed in relation to pupil orientation, in particular, is that both providers and participants take the time and effort to be clear and specific about what the participants' pupils' learning will look like if the CPD is successful and to design and select activities on that basis.…”

“…However, at the boundaries of this are: firstly, lectures, which can often include minimal dialogue and are therefore more akin to video content on platforms and self-study programs (see mode 5); second, conferences, which typically combine numerous elements of which only some resemble a seminar or discussion group. When it comes to conference keynotes and presentations, where the information flow is one directional, these may be thought of as being more similar to static content and our content platform mode (5); when it comes to unstructured discussion between conference delegates, this can have the qualities of more informal professional learning communities (a cross cutting characteristic discussed below); for conference question and answer or discussion-focused sessions/periods, we feel these have a great deal in common with seminars and workshops, sharing the characteristic of facilitated discussion that we have identified for this mode.…”

“…Should providing access to a resource base even qualify in its own right as a form of teacher education? We are left wondering whether resources bases are better thought of as being content or curricula for teacher education rather than types of it, though we observe that many view curriculum materials as 'an important source of teacher professional learning in and of themselves' (Hill et al, 2020, p. 52) [5]. This question aside, there are numerous examples of resources bases that-to varying degreesencourage teacher collaboration and professional learning through creation, discussion and use of resources ranging from lesson plans and curriculum schemes of work to worksheets, ideas, stimulus material and assessment tools for use in the classroom.…”

“…In both cases our focus is on efforts to improve teacher effectiveness. We know it is possible to improve teacher effectiveness (Kraft and Papay, 2014;Hill et al, 2020) [4,5], and that there are also wider benefits of doing so including greater collective teacher efficacy (Tschannen-Moran and Hoy, 2001) [6], wellbeing, retention and recruitment, in particular for early-career teachers (Fletcher-Wood and Zuccollo, 2020; Cordingley et al, 2019) [3,7]. The literatures on effective initial teacher education and CPD have not to date been well connected to those on blended and online teacher education; a contribution of this review is to make this connection, bringing together theory, evidence and description of practice for remote and blended teacher education (see Section 1.2, below for further details).…”