A Comprehensive Professional Development Program to Prepare Effective Teacher Leaders in Science
To develop a cadre of Teacher Leaders, NCOSP engaged over 150 teachers in a comprehensive, three year professional development program to enhance their knowledge of effective instruction, assessment, and collaboration. The intent of the program was to prepare Teacher Leaders effective in their own instructional practices, and also effective at engaging their peers in ways that would enhance instruction throughout the building and transform their science education program. The professional development experiences included a combination of content-focused summer academies and workshops, leadership training, classroom visits, and electronic networking over the first three years. In the fourth year, Teacher Leaders drew upon the knowledge, skills, tools, and resources from their prior NCOSP experiences to support 3-5 teachers in a professional learning community. This study describes changes in participating teachers' content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and leadership skills measured over the course of four years. Changes in classroom practice based on observations and changes in student outcomes based on the state science assessment provide a measure of their instructional effectiveness. Evidence of initial success in supporting professional learning communities in science links the importance of that set of knowledge and skills to Teacher Leaders' effectiveness at engaging their peers in instructional improvement.
