University of Iowa Model for Science Teacher Education

Teachers can learn to assess their teaching performance and to use such information for improvement. Several observations and experiments have led to the formulation of a model at the University of Iowa which continues to grow and to be modified as experiences with it dictate. The model has evolved from over two decades of efforts. However; it has matured as a result of the NSF supported Iowa-UPSTEP program (a teacher-education development effort which enjoyed ten years of support), and the NSTA Search for Excellence project which arose from a 1977-80 NSF research effort called Project Synthesis (Harms & Yager, 1981)