Suzanne Wilson: "Entering the Guild: The Effects of Teacher Professional Development on New Science Teachers and Their Students"

Suzanne Wilson, Ph.D.

Professor and Chair of the Department of Teacher Education and

Director of the College of Education’s Center for the Scholarship of Teaching,

Michigan State University

Entering the Guild: The Effects of Teacher Professional Community and
Professional Development on New Science Teachers and Their Students is an NSFfunded,
five-year study of an induction program and its participants at the
Exploratorium. The study’s purpose is to understand the impact of both
participation in science-rich professional development and affiliation with a larger
professional science educator network on (1) novice teachers’ science knowledge and
classroom practices, and (2) the learning and engagement of these teachers’
students. The study used multiple data collection instruments to document PD
learning opportunities, teachers’ pathways through the program, their instruction,
teacher learning, and student learning and engagement: surveys/questionnaires,
interviews, observation protocols for professional development sessions and
classroom visits, teacher and student assessments, records of teachers'
participation in listserv discussions, workshop/institute attendance records and
feedback forms, and coach/mentor meeting logs. In all, we followed three cohorts (a
total of 81 teachers) across the two years of program participation. Wilson reports
on the emergent findings of the study, and discusses the considerable
methodological, conceptual, and organizational challenges associated with
disentangling the effects of an induction program in the busy and crowded
professional lives of beginning teachers.

Dessert will be provided.