An Examination of the Impact of Teachers' Domain as a Professional Development Tool on Teacher Knowledge and Student Achievement in Biology

教师领域在线专业发展课程包含WGBH在过去六年中在国家科学基金会（NSF）的支持下开发的科学材料和资源的多媒体集合。本研究以实验设计探讨线上专业发展课程对高中生物教师教学内容、教学知识及学生知识的影响。使用“丰富媒体”的影响也将受到考验。将使用分层线性建模技术分析数据。 该项目将通过测试科学教师在线专业发展的有效性，为学生成绩的差异提供知识基础。 科学教师的内容和教学知识问题在初中和高中一级造成了特殊的问题，在这两级，很大比例的教师在其专业领域之外进行教学。本研究将探讨专业发展对高中生物教师的影响，以及专业发展与学生成就之间的关系。在检查教师领域专业发展课程和教材对纽约州不同学区的教师和学生的有效性时，将有可能了解教师如何超越对基本概念和教科书演示的表面熟悉，并增加他们的教学内容知识。

Teachers' Domain online professional development courses contain multimedia collections of science materials and resources developed by WGBH with support from National Science Foundation (NSF) during the last six years. Using an experimental design, this project will examine the effects of online professional development courses on high school biology teachers' content and pedagogical knowledge, and on their students' knowledge. The impact of using 'rich media' will also be tested. Hierarchal linear modeling techniques will be used to analyze the data. This project will contribute to the knowledge base of what makes a difference in student achievement by testing the efficacy of online professional development for science teachers. The issue of science teachers' content and pedagogical knowledge poses particular problems at the middle and high school level, where a large percentage of teachers are teaching outside their area of expertise. This project will contribute substantially by examining both the effect of professional development on high school biology teachers and the connection between professional development and student achievement. In examining the effectiveness of the Teachers' Domain professional development courses and materials on teachers and students for a diverse group of New York State school districts, it will be possible to understand how teachers can go beyond surface familiarity with basic concepts and textbook presentations and increase their pedagogical content knowledge.