Professional Development System Design for Grades 6-12 Technology, Engineering, and Design Educators

The Transforming Teaching through Implementing Inquiry (T2I2) research and development project, recently funded by the National Science Foundation, has developed a pilot version of its interactive, object-oriented, and networked cyber infrastructure for providing professional development for in-service grades 6-12 technology, engineering and design educators. The T2I2 system development has been guided using research-validated professional development practices along with state-of-the-art course/content management and collaboration software to increase engineering-design oriented instructional skills of teachers. T2I2 has completed the initial development phase of the full scale research and development project resulting in a professional development cyber infrastructure for technology, engineering and design educators - a dynamic, interactive and collaborative online system for improving the quality of teaching in engineering and design education classrooms. Through the use of techniques and protocols, such as Ajax, DHTM, CSS, XML and PHP, the T2I2 project team has constructed a system that provides: 1) the content knowledge needed to implement inquiry-based instruction, 2) data analysis tools to evaluate learning needs and monitor inquiry-based learning, and 3) running averages and variability so teachers can compare these measures against norms in order to manage, monitor and adjust the learning environment, and conduct personal self-assessment techniques. The system has also been designed to archive and permit access to teacher user data profiles such as metric indicated teacher behavior, competency-based quiz outcomes, access frequency, time on task, and attempts of a unit. This information is analyzed and reported to document competency attainment of the 16 in-service teachers and potential complications with the teachers achieving concepts conveyed. These system development processes, system features, and user results associated with teacher progression are reported and incorporated to provide for a data-informed architecture and professional development content examination.