The Need for In-Depth Professional Development of Activity Leaders
There is general agreement among science educators that it takes a great deal of skill, content knowledge, and experience for educational activities dealing with inquiry, design, and environmental awareness to be implemented in a high-quality manner. Within the school context, it is recognized that many elementary and middle school teachers are still struggling with developing adequate skills for conducting inquiry investigations and implementing science curricula effectively. It follows that instructors and leaders of out-of-school programs do not necessarily have the requisite science background and teaching skills to carry out high-quality science activities either. Additionally, many community-based programs do not have access to volunteer scientists or other resources that can help to infuse their programs with real-world connections to science. Therefore, there are currently real limitations in terms of the capacity of personnel, as well as the overall readiness of agencies, to implement programs that offer opportunities for children to take part in first-rate experiences in science.
To partly address this need, there are a variety of science, engineering, and environmental programming curricula, kits from suppliers, and related materials created specifically for the out-of school setting. Given the limitations mentioned above, it is questionable that an in-depth inquiry or design experience can be implemented by the average out-of-school activity leader without fairly extensive preparation. Published teaching materials do provide some guidance for activity leaders, but the materials alone are not sufficient to bring about implementation of high-quality programming. There is a crucial need for ongoing professional development that both models best practices and familiarizes participants with high-quality activity guides. With this in mind, we have provided on this Web site some models for professional development of out-of school program leaders.
The type of professional development suggested on these pages is meant for those community-based organizations (CBOs) and activity leaders who are operating on the basis that out-of-school science activities should complement what happens in school.
