Growth of Empowerment in Career Science Teachers: Implications for Professional Development

The purpose of this research is to identify those pivotal experiences of career science teachers that have promoted their advancement along the teacher professional continuum. The research uses behavior over time (BOT) graphing to capture the empowering professional growth opportunities teachers recall experiencing over the entire course of their careers and looks for patterns in those teacher experiences. The study proposes that the professional development offered to teachers should recognize and address their needs and increase their sense of empowerment. This research is specifically focused on the NSF Teacher Professional Continuum program goals of encouraging research on effective professional development models and on advancing the knowledge base on enhancement and retention of STEM teachers. 1. Objectives or purposes Much of the recent education research has focused on new teachers and why large numbers of teachers are leaving the profession (Ingersoll and Smith, 2003). Few studies have concentrated on experienced teachers in an attempt to identify factors that may have contributed to their retention