Validation and Refinement of a Model for Teacher Professional Development that Leverages a Major Applied Research Laboratory

加州大学戴维斯分校教育学院(UC Davis)有一个为期三年的探索性项目，重点是围绕应用科学评估教师专业发展(TPD)计划的影响。具体地说，通过这笔赠款，研究人员试图检查目前由加州大学戴维斯分校爱德华·特勒教育中心提供的现有教师专业发展计划的可衡量影响。爱德华·特勒教育中心是加州大学戴维斯分校教育学院和位于利弗莫尔的劳伦斯·利弗莫尔国家实验室(LLNL)能源部国家实验室(LLNL)的合作伙伴，作为一种在科学和技术创新领域提供教师专业发展的工具而存在。爱德华·特勒教育中心的使命与将尖端STEM内容带到K-12课堂的总体大挑战是一致的。通过与LLNL科学界的杠杆关系和教育学院的教育专业知识，ETEC提供教师培训和课程，以改进教师的学科内容技能，提供最佳教学实践的模拟，并支持将当前的研究实践纳入课堂。该中心利用一个教员队列，在课程开发和交付方面将一名区域大师教师和相关的LLNL科学家配对。这项拟议的验证研究涉及B领域：为K-12学生和教师开发教学领域下的资源和工具，并审查了被定义为教师研究学院的ETEC专业发展模式。加州大学戴维斯分校教育学院设计并实施了基于结果的评估方法，用于定量和定性地确定ETEC TPD计划参与者的教学实践中可测量和可区分的差异。该项目的结果为进一步完善这一TPD计划提供了有用的衡量标准。拟议的评估考虑了(A)所报告的教学实践的变化；(B)教师对科学的专业态度；(C)学生成绩的趋势。如果得到验证，这项努力可能会产生一个示范项目，与全国范围内的工业和联邦实验室共享。

The University of California, Davis School of Education (UC Davis) has a three-year exploratory project focusing on the assessed impact of a teacher professional development (TPD) program around the applied sciences. Specifically through this grant the researchers seek to examine the measurable impact of an established teacher professional development program currently offered through the UC Davis Edward Teller Education Center. The Edward Teller Education Center is an established collaborative of the UC Davis School of Education and the Department of Energy National Laboratory at Livermore, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and exists as a vehicle for providing teacher professional development around the area of science and technology innovations. The mission of the Edward Teller Education Center is consistent with the overarching Grand Challenge of bringing cutting-edge STEM Content in K-12 classrooms. Through the leveraged relationships with the scientific community at LLNL and the education expertise in the School of Education, ETEC delivers teacher training and curricula to improve upon the subject matter content skills of teachers, provide modeling of best practices in teaching, and support the integration of current research practices within the context of the classroom. The Center draws upon an instructor cohort that pairs a regional master teacher and relevant LLNL scientists in curriculum development and delivery. This proposed validation study addresses Area B: Developing Resources and Tools under the area of Instruction for K-12 Students and Teachers, and examines the ETEC professional development model defined as the Teacher Research Academy. The UC Davis School of Education designs and implements outcomes-based assessment approaches that are used to quantitatively and qualitatively ascertain measurable and distinguishable differences in the teaching practices of the participants in the ETEC TPD program. The resulting outcomes of this project provide useful metrics for the further refinement of this TPD program. The proposed assessment considers (a) reported changes in teaching practice; (b) teacher's professional attitudes towards science; and (c) trends in student outcomes. If validated, the effort could result in a model program to be shared with industrial and federal laboratories nationwide.