Improving Professional Development for Science Educators

Science and environmental educators in the United States have faced increasing pressure to incorporate inquiry-based, hands-on, active science practices into their curricula since the Next Generation Science Standards were released in 2013. Many of those educators, however, are concerned that there are not enough professional development opportunities to help improve practices around around teaching science and engaging with the new standards. Professional development workshops, such as those conducted by Project Learning Tree (PLT), are one way to prepare teachers to address those new standards.

PLT provides curricula and resources for educators, parents, and local science and environmental education leaders. PLT offers workshops in a variety of formats, including one-day, multiday, and even semester-long programs. The workshops are often separated by audience to reflect the grade/age levels of the PLT curriculum, such as K–8 (kindergarten through eighth grade) and secondary (high school and community college).

This study focused on New York PLT (NYPLT) professional development workshops and addressed three primary research questions related to the following areas: understanding the relationship between workshop attendance and the educators' own work, identifying the most helpful elements of the workshops for educators, and understanding the barriers to implementing PLT curricula.

To address those research questions, the authors conducted two online surveys: one with NYPLT facilitators and one with educators who had participated in a PLT workshop in New York. Overall, 26 facilitators (21% response rate) responded to the first online survey and 94 educators (5% response rate) responded to the second survey; however, only 58 (61%) of the surveys were fully completed.

Within the set of completed educator surveys, the respondents hailed from a variety of teaching settings, including both informal and formal, and included classroom educators teaching at preschool through college levels. The majority of respondents indicated that they taught at the elementary-school level. Most of the participating informal educators reported that they worked for nonprofit organizations and included a variety of audiences in their programming.

In addition to the surveys, the authors conducted semistructured interviews with the participating educators. The researchers coded the interview data and statistically analyzed those data to further explore the relationships between the amount of time that the participants spent implementing the curriculum and the type of workshops in which the educators had participated.

The researchers found that the types of workshops in which the respondents had participated in the past five years were similar to current workshop offerings. The most frequently attended workshop was a daylong workshop (between 4.5 and 6 hours in length) designed for pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade teachers. The next-most popular was the early childhood workshop (two to three hours in length), followed by workshops on the secondary modules (two to three hours in length). Respondents rarely reported participating in semester-long, pre-service programs.

The first research question investigated whether a relationship existed between the type of workshop in which an educator enrolled and the educator's frequency of use of the PLT curriculum. In response to this question, the researchers found a statistically significant relationship between participating in a secondary-module workshop and using the PLT curriculum regularly. Respondents who participated in the two- to three-hour workshop were more likely to use the PLT curriculum weekly or monthly. More than half of the educators reported incorporating PLT activities into their everyday work, either bi-annually, monthly, or more often.

The data collected to address the second research question, which inquired about what the participants found to be the most useful aspect of the workshop for teaching science and environmental education, indicated that the majority of participants found the hands-on activities that helped educators adapt activities to be the most beneficial part of the workshop. Furthermore, the participants reported that the workshop materials—such as the curriculum guides linked to standards, resource pages, links to websites, and technology—as well as the collaboration with NYPLT facilitators and educators were particularly beneficial aspects of the workshop.

Finally, the third research question asked about barriers to implementation in formal and informal education as well as how PLT might more effectively engage additional educators in using the PLT resources. Participants indicated that the primary barrier to implementing PLT curricula was the lack of time. They suggested that PLT might improve workshops by demonstrating how activities aligned with state and common core standards; in this way, the educators would feel that their time spent implementing PLT would address not only environmental education needs and interests, but also those of the state and common-core standards. The respondents suggested that PLT might assist in overcoming barriers by providing more resources (such as resource guides and materials) as well as follow-up support (such as information about upcoming PLT workshops) after the workshops.

The educators who participated in the two- to three-hour secondary module were the only ones who spent a greater amount of time using the curriculum in their work. Interestingly, only 2 out of 20 participants in the secondary module self-identified as high-school educators.

Overall, the researchers made the following recommendations based on their findings: (1) offer more and shorter workshops to address the time constraints that the educators described; (2) provide workshops that focus on a specific theme, with an accompanying curriculum guide relating solely to that theme; (3) offer a wider range of workshops specific to a variety of audiences, such as workshops that address a specific grade level or mission of an organization; and (4) establish a professional learning community through online or in-person groups that form relationships with each other and the facilitator to provide and receive mentoring and sustained professional development. As PLT facilitators lack the time or resources to mentor each participant individually, those learning communities would create space and time for the educators to reflect collectively on the efficacy of implementing the PLT curriculum in their professional lives.

The authors also described the benefits of online professional development. Although educators noted that they preferred in-person workshops to online workshops, they also said that they would participate in online workshops depending on scheduling constraints. The authors suggested that PLT, as well as similar curriculum providers, might consider offering a hybrid of the two models (in person and online) by providing supplemental materials online to support the in-person training sessions. This format would allow PLT to distribute more materials easily and cost effectively and to reach a broader audience; this format would also serve as a workshop follow-up and sustained professional development.