Thank you for viewing our video. As you watch it, please think about what kind of teachers might benefit from this sort of course, how this course might be incorporated into new teacher induction or other professional development initiatives, and how you and your organization might make use of this sort of course in your own environment.  Please pay special attention to the anticipated workload (30-40 hours) and think about whether that is reasonable for the teacher participants.  Finally, we would be interested in your general thoughts on making asynchronous online spaces interactive for participants.

Hi presenters,

Thanks for sharing your work! It would be great to hear more about ways participants are rethinking their understanding/use of modeling; also their changing ideas of argumentation in young students and the ways they learn to support students’ development of this  argumentation practices.

You also note that you were expecting some challenges in moving to PD in an online environment, and therefore chose to start with a hybrid (or blended) model--what kinds of challenges did you anticipate and how has your choice of a blended approach helped to address those challenges? What are you learning about the affordances of working online and how to use them to best advantage?

Hi John

I'll respond to your question about anticipated workload. We, in Focus on Energy, are finding  that 30-40 hours (a weeklong face-to-face workshop + teaching the curriculum + PLC follow-up)is what it takes for teachers to be ready to teach about energy in elementary school, including the shifts to NGSS pedagogy. Is it reasonable? is a different question:science coordinators and teachers tell us it's not reasonable, given everything teachers are being asked to do in addition to their every day teaching! We're grappling with the same dilemma:knowing we can meet the NGSS challenge given time and resources (in the case of learning about energy it can be done!) but also knowing that what it takes may not be feasible on a large scale. We are seeing if we can narrow the ideal vs realistic gap with a combination of face-to-face and online resources. 

Sally 

John

Let me say up front, after just reading the sidebar abstract, I’m thinking, …awesome, this effort is addressing a real need, to give elementary teachers support and practical experience in acquiring the skills and knowledge to better implement the new vision for three-dimensional learning, and with your project---specifically focusing on the science and engineering practices, i.e., using and developing models and using evidence to support their arguments.

 

Indeed the K12 Framework for Science Education posits that this approach is a different way to teach and facilitate a deeper understanding of the core ideas of science. As students ask their own driving questions, and then design and conduct investigations to understand locally relevant/authentic science phenomena, ultimately using that data as evidence to support their arguments, explanations and models—this should be a regular and frequent occurrence in the science classroom—at ALL K12 grade levels! Elementary educators need support. Kudos for this effort at the outset and “right on” regarding the focus of the project.

 

I am VERY interested in blended models for teacher professional learning and feel your project may offer some keen insights here.

 

The 2010/2017 US Dept of Ed National Education Technology Plans talk about the power of blended learning for teachers, allowing teachers to extend and enhance their onsite efforts, providing the affordances of immediacy, convenience, and access to other colleagues, experts, and resources they might not have otherwise (this is critically important in rural areas where isolation is often acute).

 

This said there is also a large body of research about high attrition and drop-out rates in online learning courses, with recommended strategies like on-boarding, scaffolding, etc. Additionally, the Council of State Science Supervisors have generated and released an insightful document focused on Science Professional Learning Standards (SPLS), that incorporate a rubric to help administrators/leaders understand the structures/ supports/systems that need to be in place to effectively scaffold professional learning to transform teacher practice—and there are references in these standards as to the value of blended models for professional learning.
See: http://www.csss-science.org/downloads/SPLS.pdf

 

From a delivery standpoint many now espouse that teacher professional learning should be:

--on-going across the school calendar year (not a one-shot, one-and-done effort)

--closely aligned with and in support of the local curriculum educators are charged to teach (job-embedded)

--of sufficient duration & frequency (dosage) to enable transfer & comfort in the new skills/knowledge

--informed by student learning data (quantitative/qualitative)

--iterative over time as teachers apply new skills/strategies cycling back impact/tweaking/effectiveness

--part of a local professional learning community

--allow some teacher autonomy based on their learning needs, station in their career and varied backgrounds (not a one-size-fits all)

 

I have read research about various blended models showing some techniques that show promise, and others that warn of pitfalls to avoid. One example: This district had a regular time off scheduled every week for teachers for the online PD effort and even put aside funds for substitute pay too, but encountered unforeseen and deleterious consequences when it was realized after implementation that:

--the teachers in the PD effort recognized the burden creating weekly lesson plans for the substitute

--it was challenging to secure the number of substitutes needed for the district-wide effort

--the teachers not in the program began to resent those teachers that were getting off each Friday

--the parents of students whose teachers regularly off began to complain to the principal

--the teachers in the PD effort were not allowed to leave the school grounds, but had a challenge finding a quite/secluded location within the school to meet and execute the weekly online effort

 

OK, I need to get off the soap box here, and ask the question...given all this…I’d love to hear a reaction from your team to this stuff, and I’m sure other readers will gather tremendous insight from your current efforts and as the project unfolds too! Thank you in advance for sharing such an important effort.

This is a great model of blended learning - thank you for sharing your approach in this video and your description. 

I am particularly curious about the online professional community. How to you get the teachers to engage in the online forum? We have found while these online communities offer excellent support it takes heavy facilitation and encouragement for teachers to engage. Thank you for sharing some of your insights around the building of online communities for teachers.