Keywords

Elementary Education, Science, Professional Development, Standards, Reform

Abstract

This dissertation studied the beliefs and practices of principals, workshop site coordinators, and science support personnel in two Central Florida school districts and compared those beliefs and practices to the literature on effective science in-service education. It is important to understand these beliefs and practices because they directly affect the content and pedagogical knowledge of classroom teachers, yet this aspect of instructional practices has been ignored in the science education literature. This study used a grounded theory methodology using open-ended individual interviews, participants observation, and documented analysis. Constant comparisons were built through analyzing the data. The research shows that in-service providers' and administrators' beliefs are aligned with the effective science education in-service literature. The conditions and context are ripe for changes because principals and workshop site coordinators' beliefs are aligned with the literature and changes are already beginning to take place. The intervening conditions may lead to improved teacher knowledge, teaching, and learning because standardized testing is expanding to incoporate the content area of science. Also workshop site coordinators are trying to set up a variety of opportunities to attend workshops on the same topic throughout the school year. Budgets are being restructured at the school level and district level to incorporate more science content professional development. However, it is too early to show how much improvement there will be in standardized test scores or whether teachers' have a deeper understanding of science content knowledge or effective science instruction.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2005

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Boote, David

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College

College of Education

Degree Program

Curriculum and Instruction

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0000715

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0000715

Language

English

Release Date

August 2005

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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