Approach to Professional Development
At first look, it may appear that professional development of activity leaders in out-of-school environments would be very different from working with teachers in a school-based context. Of course, there are special considerations to be made given the differing goals for out-of-school programming versus the in-school curriculum. The good news is that there is much that can be transferred and applied to the out-of-school field from experience with in-school professional development efforts. With this purpose in mind, we have assembled a set of suggested activities and outlines that can be used flexibly in constructing professional development programs for out-of-school activity leaders that are based on widely recognized best practices in formal school professional development, and are adapted for the out-of-school audience. The following describes the best practices on which we have based our approach.
Explicit Modeling of Science Activities
Discussing Science Content and Processes
Reflection of Pedagogical Practices
Explicit Modeling of Science Activities
It is generally recognized among those doing professional development of teachers, as well as out-of school program leaders, that modeling how to lead the activities is much more convincing and effective than merely telling participants what to do to prepare for implementing the activities with children. Much can be gained by having participants try out science activities for themselves. By experiencing the activities in this way, participants learn about possible pitfalls and struggles that children may encounter. More importantly, this allows for an in-depth discussion of the strategies involved in leading high-quality learning experiences with children. Concrete experience with a given set of teaching materials provides guidance for how to structure and present activities that have the greatest impact on learners.
Discussing Science Content and Processes
While some may feel it is not necessary to discuss science content or processes with out-of school activity leaders, we believe it is an important part of the modeling process. Discussions at the appropriate level of content understanding during a professional development experience can give participants who may feel less confident about their science background a better sense of what is expected with different ages of children. They can also provide guidance regarding some of the limitations of addressing science content in out-of-school settings. Discussions are particularly important for those participants who may get overly caught up in sharing everything they know about science. Based on classroom experiences with science, youth will naturally make connections between out-of-school activities and what they have learned in school. Developing a familiarity with some science content and processes will help your participants take advantage of those connections when leading activities.
Again, the focus here is on presenting out-of-school science programs that are complementary to what is learned in school, not about recreating school-like experiences in the out-of-school setting. Scientific terms should be introduced sparingly and be kept primarily at an operational level during modeling of out-of-school activities. The overall goal is to provide an informal environment where youth can become better acquainted with scientific phenomena and technologies, while practicing scientific habits of mind. These experiences can then provide the foundation for a more formal exploration of scientific phenomena and technology in the school context.
Reflection on Pedagogical Practices
Another important principle adhered to in this guide is that professional developers should introduce pedagogical practices within the context of science activities, in order to demonstrate how they are applied to the out-of-school science program. When modeling science activities with workshop participants, it is important to also discuss the rationale for specific instructional practices. This contrasts with training approaches where ideas about teaching and learning are presented as a disembodied set of practices and principles or where activities are modeled but not necessarily deconstructed and analyzed by participants.
It is widely recognized that modeling alone is not sufficient for participants to become aware of, recognize, and begin to emulate effective educational practices. Throughout any type of professional development program, there needs to be adequate time given for reflection about the rationale behind the practices and strategies that are modeled. Participants must also have the opportunity to apply these principles directly to the context where they will be used with youth. This type of reflective exercise is essential to help participants adopt these pedagogical strategies into their own practice. We provide some examples for how such reflections can be structured for participants, and encourage professional developers to allow time for processing the experiences in terms of how they relate to science and engineering content and practices as well as discussing commonly encountered implementation issues. In the Workshop Tools section, there are a variety of scripted presentations to select from based on the needs of your program leaders and the emphasis desired for your professional development program.
In general, the workshop formats suggested in this guide include three types of professional development activities. We feel these are the essential pieces that should be included in any workshop, regardless of its length:
1) Direct engagement with a set of science activities, an investigation, or a challenge through hands-on experiences and active, collaborative discussions.
2) Discussion of the learning experiences, reflection on process skills and specific content explored in the activity, and deepening participants’ understanding of content knowledge and the processes of science.
3) Structured reflection about how the experiences were modeled, the rationale for effective pedagogical practices, and discussion of related implementation issues.
