Impact of professional development on teachers??? perceptions and practices regarding inquiry-based science

Includes bibliographical references (pages 130-142)With California???s adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), science teachers will need to shift from more traditional content driven curricula to an inquiry-based pedagogy. For many science teachers, this is a paradigm shift as inquiry-based teaching is typically not the norm. The purpose of this mixed methods study is to examine the extent to which two innovative professional development (PD) programs impact secondary level science teachers??? perceptions and practices regarding the implementation of inquiry-based science. Survey data was collected from both Immersion PD and Workshop PD participants over the course of three years. Further, focus groups were conducted with participants from both programs in the summer of 2014 along with follow up interviews and artifact analysis in the fall of 2014. Findings from this study suggest that innovative forms of PD, particularly those involving clinical teaching, as well as those that spanning multiple years, produce changes in teachers??? thinking about and teaching of science