Increasing the Availability of Materials for the Professional Development of Science and Mathematics Teachers

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9619139 Weiss As part of its teacher enhancement program, NSF has supported the development of materials to improve the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of K-12 science, mathematics, and technology education teachers. The Foundation has also supported the development of materials designed to support the implementation of high quality instructional materials. This project is designed to identify those materials, evaluate them, and make them more available to the community of staff developers. The specific activities will involve the following: * Searching for existing teacher enhancement materials, including, but not limited to, those developed with NSF support; * Describing and critiquing these materials; * Creating a data base of available materials, searchable by such characteristics as target grade level range, disciplinary content, and medium (e.g., videotapes); * Developing and field-testing dissemination mechanisms such as CD-ROMs or Web sites for the quality materials; * Describing the gaps in the landscape to assist funders and PIs in targeting future development efforts to areas of greatest need. The project is being directed by Dr. Iris Weiss, President of Horizon Research, Inc.; collaborators include Dr. Anne Butler Kahle of Miami University of Ohio; Dr. Audrey Champagne of State University of New York at Albany; and Dr. Susan Friel of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, each supervising a cadre of master teachers, graduate students, and university faculty in reviewing teacher enhancement materials. Partner organizations include the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geological Institute, the Council of State Science Supervisors, the National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.