Chapter 3: Destabilizing the Status QUO in Stem Professional Development with Modeling Instruction

Modeling instruction (MI) is an approach used in a large number of high school science courses. Thousands of teachers have learned MI at professional development workshops and have rated the experience highly. However, an analysis of this training vis-à-vis characteristics of effective professional development has not been reported. To fill this gap, a three-week physics MI workshop spanning 12 years of operation has been studied to investigate how MI activities exemplify effective PD. Focus is on the participants’ views and attitudes toward their experiences, the alignment of such with the program goals, and how the workshop format leads them to implement MI in their classes. Direct observation of workshop activities, along with quantitative and qualitative surveys completed by participants at the start of, during, and after the workshop, then after a school year, were examined across the 12 years. Findings support the prevailing view that effective PD addresses issues of content learning, coherence, participation, active learning, and networking, given sufficient duration to include these elements. They also indicate that activities such as having teachers role play as students in lessons led by high school teachers trained in MI are successful in educating teachers and influencing their practices.