Evidence-Based Professional Development of Science Teachers in Two Countries



interaction between the teachers on the CPD programme so that they were able to
overcome the hurdles of implementing these new practices (Cuban, 1998) on their
return to their schools

Realizing the complexity of skills involved in collecting and using evidence, the CPD
programmes involve activities designed to directly develop teachers' skills in
collecting, sharing and reflecting on evidence. These activities also provide an
opportunity for the CPD provider to offer guidance, tools and support in this
endeavour. The development of these evidence related skills is intertwined with the
development of expertise in a particular domain of science learning and so, while
there was commonality in approach within the six science domains, there was also, by
necessity, variation in these activities. Some of the programmes offered new
approaches to the teachers, such as Knowledge Integration in Physics for the Israeli
teachers, while others built on existing practice, such as the Classroom Assessment
programme, which helped UK teachers concentrate on aspects of science teaching that
was already part of their existing repertoire and look at how they might improve it.

The major goal of the CPD models produced in this project has been to promote
expert teaching. Both the UK and Israeli teachers preferred to use the term
accomplished rather than expert teaching. Their argument arose from the idea that
experience as well as knowledge and understanding of practice was a necessary part
of teacher development. They felt that the term „expert’ suggested that someone had
researched and studied teaching, while they considered their improvements in practice
resulted more from their gradual development through experience in the classroom.
They believed that as they honed their classroom practice they grew towards
accomplishment rather than becoming expert within a domain.

Accomplished teaching of science can be defined in terms of the knowledge which
teachers use in their teaching (Guskey and Huberman 1995; Hewson and Hewson
1988; Magnusson, Krajcik and Borko. 1999; Shulman 1987). This knowledge has
been categorised as general pedagogical knowledge, subject-matter knowledge, and
pedagogical content knowledge (Borko and Putnam, 1996). The descriptions of
accomplished teaching in each domain were firmly grounded in both extensive
reviews of the literature and in expert teachers’ classroom practices. Our work is
concerned with the qualities that distinguish an accomplished teacher from a simply
competent one and how the CPD programmes can help teachers progress towards
accomplished practice in each of the domains. This involves the teacher in developing
both their subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Subject
matter knowledge includes teacher’s knowledge of facts, concepts and procedures
within a particular domain, such as scientific enquiry.

Pedagogical content knowledge is concerned with the teaching and learning of a
particular domain: knowing how students learn within that domain, knowing their
common misconceptions and the particular difficulties and challenges of that domain,
and being able to apply this knowledge to teaching and learning within that particular
domain (Shulman, 1987). Another aspect of accomplished teaching termed
"
scholarship of teaching" is proposed by Hutchings and Shulman (1999). They
suggest that besides excellent teaching, teachers should be able to articulate their
teaching actions and thinking in a way that others can learn from it and should be
available for community discourse and study. They also claim that this public feature



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