Professional Development and the Department of Education

The U.S. Department of Education's website has resources for current teachers to work on their professional development. Some resources include teacher to teacher initiatives, this is where teachers give ideas and strategies to each other. There are teacher organizations where teachers can learn how to become a better teacher or improve their teaching strategies. As I was looking through the Education Resource Organizations Directory there were none near Iowa and that is disappointing. If teachers are serious about working on professional development it would be worth traveling to the location of the organization.

Professional Development in Schools

I have been gaining experience in the classroom for the past three years. During my time in the schools there was always a day of the week that the school was dismissed early. Most of the time it has been Wednesdays but I have been in one school where the early dismissal day was Monday. When the school is dismissed early the teachers are encouraged to participate in after school professional development opportunities. I attended some of the professional development opportunities. One was for the current teachers to get their ELL endorsement. It was a three year long program and classes were only held on Wednesday afternoons. It was lengthy but free for the current teachers. Another professional development opportunity was for teachers to earn their reading endorsement to provide better reading instruction to students. Sometimes the after school meetings were for the teams of teachers to develop units or plan upcoming lessons. During the meetings the reading or math specialists are visiting the teams to answer questions or share ideas. I thought it was a very worthy way to spend time after school for teachers to better themselves and their teaching.

Final Presentation - Inspiring Our Future Scientists

Here is a short presentation summing up my blog topic.

Enjoy!!

http://portal.sliderocket.com/AIXRP/Inspiring-Our-Future-Scientists

Final Blog--Glogster

Click here to view my final presentation in the form of a Glog.

Students with Disabilities Benefit from Inquiry-based Science

I wasn’t satisfied with the articles and research I had found on the effects of science-inquiry on students with disabilities, so I furthered my search. Luckily, I came across a very interesting study. The study investigated the effects of science inquiry on students with mild disabilities using differentiated hands-on activities versus direct teacher instruction in inclusive 8th-grade science classes. The full study can be found at the following link:

http://sed.sagepub.com/content/40/3/130.full.pdf+html

To sum up the study’s findings, they found that the students with disabilities that were provided with hands-on, inquiry driven investigations significantly improved their learning of the content material than students in the traditional classroom. Not only did these students retain more information, but the study found that these students performed considerably better later on in the year on standardized tests.

Negative Attitudes to Science-Inquiry from College Students

When furthering my research on the long-term effects of inquiry-based science instruction, I came across an interesting study. The study was done, not on elementary students, but on first year college students. To read the full study and analysis of data go to the following link:

http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/v3n2/articles/PDFs/Article_Brickman.pdf

The study found after analyzing student’s pretest and post tests, personal interviews, etc. that students in their freshman year of college did not positively respond to the inquiry-based lab experiences. I was surprised since in every other research paper and study I have read thus far, there has been a significant increase in positive attitudes towards a more inquiry-based science curriculum. The researchers concluded that some of the students were not cognitively equipped to meet the challenges of an inquiry-based curriculum, as it was more challenging and time consuming.
I feel that since science inquiry is a relatively new teaching method that earlier generations are suffering from a lack of experience to critical thinking and problem-solving. They have grown accustomed to traditional direct-instruction teaching methods, and are unable to adapt to a more independent learning role and assume more responsibility for their learning.

Effects of Science-Inquiry on Students with Disabilities

While continuing my research, I decided to think about the effects of science on the achievement of students with disabilities. I wanted to know if science inquiry benefited students with disabilities in their overall understanding of science concepts. The following article found at http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/subject/special_ed.phtml stresses that science is for everyone! If we don’t challenge our students, especially our special education students, then we are inhibiting them from making great progress and connections to problem-solving in everyday life. Of course, modifications and accommodations need to be made to help students with disabilities, but they need to be included in the activities. The following website is a great resource for new teachers and provides them with strategies to use with eight different types of disabilities (each strategy is case specific):

http://www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/sitemap.html