Making Visible the Science in Science Teaching: Using TIMSS-R Conceptual and Video Tools to Support Teachers' Inquiries of Science Teaching, Content, and Student Learning

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The researchers would study a pllan for professional development of elemtary level teachers in science. This study would use the TIMSS-R Science Video public use tapes to create and compare two professional development programs for elementary teachers. The programs focus on developing science content by engaging in long-term collaborative inquires. It would provide a training session for 4th and 5th grade teachers during the summer months in which they would see and discuss lessons videotaped from 8th grade teachers in TIMSS for discussion and learning. The central question in the research study is to discover how teachers "draw from different comunities of knowledge to represent science in their classrooms"? The investigators will examine the role of science community (what is the science?), the education community (what counts as evidence?), and the classroom community (what actually happens) in effective professional development activities for teachers. In particular, the investigators intend to compare two perspectives: a "teacher-guided" that engage teachers in collaborative inquiries of practice around a common set of artifacts and a "framework-guided" approach that assumes that working with common artifacts of practice is insufficient and that teachers need explicit guidance and tools to see the links among the communities.