Changing teacher behavior through staff development: Implementing the teaching and content standards in science

School Science and Mathematics, Oct 1997 by Gibbons, Siobhan, Kimmel, Howard, O'Shea, Mark

For the last five years, the Center for Precollege Programs of the New Jersey Institute of Technology has operated the Urban Elementary Outreach Program, a staff development program intended to bring improved math and science education to the elementary schools of Newark, New Jersey. Teachers in urban settings have been hampered in their efforts to provide enriching, student-centered and constructivist science and math teaching (Huinker, 1996). The Outreach Program has attempted to provide teachers with sustained support through training and direct classroom assistance in an effort to develop a sense of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1982) in relation to desired teaching and student behaviors that are part of a standards-based learning experience. Traditional training approaches for teachers are supplemented by weekly classroom visits by graduate assistants, who both model standards-based science teaching and assist the teacher in assuming effective instructional methods. The combination of workshops, orientations, newsletters, and weekly classroom visits make up a staff development program of two years in duration for teacher participants. Through this intensive program, we intend to change teaching behaviors in the many complex ways identified in the National Science Education Standards.

Now that most states have promulgated content standards in important subject matter, school districts have begun the work of aligning their curricula. Curriculum frameworks have been prepared, lesson and unit plans have been revised, and new assessments are at hand to assure that students at all grade levels achieve the standards. Missing are the new teaching behaviors that will assure achievement of content standards. At the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), we have spent five years developing the Urban Education Outreach Program, a new model of staff development intended to change elementary and middle school science teaching behaviors toward the methods and techniques of science teaching recommended in the National Science Education Standards (Standards; National Research Council [NRC], 1996). Similar efforts have been undertaken in mathematics (Reys, Reys, Barnes, Beem, & Papick, 1997). Our activities have stressed change in teaching and student learning behaviors as a first priority and curriculum modification as a secondary consideration. A premise of our work is that improvement of learning will occur as teachers learn and apply Standards-based teaching strategies and methods.

The Urban Education Outreach Project (Outreach) began with 8 to 10 teachers in each of its first 2 years and has expanded to serve almost 30 teachers each year. All participants work in or near the economically depressed central ward of Newark, New Jersey.

We accept the mission of the Standards, that all children have a right to improved science education. Our role is to find ways for reaching and enlightening disadvantaged youth, so that they, too, may enjoy the fruits of improved science learning experiences. Following a review of relevant professional development in science teaching and some promising recent efforts, we report on our progress in developing an effective model of staff development for urban elementary and middle school science teachers.

Current Status of Professional Development

The professional literature suggests that common practice in staff development, such as single topic workshops or infrequently scheduled curriculum planning days, will need to be embellished if teachers are to receive the education and training recommended in the Standards (Haney, Cerzniak & Lumpe, 1996; Reys et al., 1997).

Often, teacher training institutes and after-school workshops are seen as ends in themselves: The planning and delivery of teacher workshops is assumed to be sufficient to produce changes in classroom behavior (Lesh, 1996). Further, most professional development programs are conducted away from classrooms and children where new teaching skills can be tried (Anderson & Mitchener, 1994). They typically lack an implementation component to assure that new behaviors are seen in the classroom.

Evaluation practices accompanying staff development efforts also need to be reconsidered. The Standards for Staff Development of the National Staff Development Council (1994) include comments about the evaluation of staff development exercises, noting that "evaluations are designed to assess a variety of program outcomes, including

1. Participants' reactions to the program.

2. Participants' learning.

3. Participants' use of new knowledge and skills.

4. Impact on student outcomes."

In most instances, evaluations of staff development programs are limited to the first two outcomes (O'Brien, 1992). A survey is often used to measure teacher satisfaction with workshops having no follow-up assessment of new teaching behavior. The design, implementation, and evaluation of successful staff development programs, of necessity, must accompany curriculum renewal efforts, because new teacher behaviors are needed for students to meet the Standards. According to Joyce and Showers (1988), "It has been well established that curriculum implementation is demanding of staff development-essentially, without strong staff development programs that are appropriately designed a very low level of implementation occurs" (p. 44).