Scientists' Teaching Orientations in the Context of Teacher Professional Development

During the past decade science educators have taken steps to identify seminal structures and approaches of science teacher professional development. This literature, which is increasingly informing how and in which contexts professional developers design and implement programs, states that scientists' divergent research interests and knowledge about K-12 science teachers often limit their involvement in these programs. Conversely, concerns persist that there is very little empirical evidence to support these programmatic recommendations made by the science education literature. This embedded case study was bounded by the contextual similarities between seven professional development workshops with the goal of examining the relationship between scientists' views of teachers as professionals and the pedagogical orientations that the scientists used within these professional development contexts. Multiple methods were employed including systematic classroom observation by nine trained observers, as well as analysis of course materials, interviews, and questionnaires. Altogether, the teacher comments and observation data paint a picture of how the instructors implemented specific pedagogical orientations. Participants appear to have realistic views about the practical roles that research scientists can play in professional development. We explore how these findings merit attention and suggest alternatives to current practice and policy. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals. Inc. Sci Ed 93:635-655, 2009