Chapter 8: Collaborative Partnerships Between Preservice and Inservice Teachers as a Driver for Professional Development

A research-practice partnership to implement inquiry-based teaching strategies in elementary school science instruction was developed in 2014 between the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and a local school district through the help of a university outreach grant. The project had its genesis in the need for professional development and implementation time related to inquiry-based science teaching practices by inservice teachers at the elementary school. The district’s adopted curricular series was 20 years old, and updated teaching methods stressing inquiry had not been formally addressed with the teaching staff. The purpose of the outreach grant was twofold: to provide a school context for undergraduate preservice teacher coursework that would lead to the use of more authentic, inquiry-based teaching methods, but also to promote the engagement and professional development of nine inservice teachers as partners with the preservice teachers. To that end, a preservice methods course (“Teaching Science in the Elementary/Middle School”) was fully housed at the elementary school (five-year-old kindergarten through Grade 6). The school was one of six elementary schools in the district and located in a suburban area. It served about 500 students in 21 homerooms (3 per grade level). The student population was mostly White (91.7%) with 12.7% of students being from low-income families.