GeorgeMasonUniversity

College of Education and Human Development

GraduateSchool of Education

Science Education Staff Development

EDCI 893

Fall/Spring 2009/2010: First Saturday of the month 10:00-3:00 PM, A412 Robinson Hall.

Donna R. SterlingOffice Hours:

A355 Robinson Hall1 hour after class or

703 993-2022By appointment

703 993-2013

Course Description

EDCI 893 is a 3-credit course for doctoral students in science education. The course explores staff development in science education with emphasis on planning and conducting professional development on key topics in science teaching and learning. Students study a common core or research literature and conduct research of individual interest. Students will integrate knowledge from their education courses with their school experiences to understand and conduct teacher professional development.

Goals The science education doctoral students will:

  • Practice leadership skills;
  • Work collaboratively with peers to teach and discuss science and science teaching;
  • Plan and conduct staff developmentfor science teaching including needs assessments, developing goals and activities, creating support materials, and assessing effectiveness;
  • Develop an understanding of safety rules and regulations, and safety issues in the science classroom;
  • Build a repertoire of effective assessment strategies for science;
  • Know national and international research findings for teaching and learning science;
  • Evaluate science education reform and teacher staff development at the national, state, and local levels.

Online Syllabus and Resources

Materials for your reference library

  • National Research Council (1996). National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: NationalAcademy Press.
  • Author (2001). NSDC Standards for Staff Development. Oxford, Ohio: National Staff Development Council. Online:
  • Darling-Hammond, L., Chung Wei, R., Andree, A., Richardson, N., &Orphanos, S. (2009, February). Professional Learningin the Learning Profession:A status report on teacher development in the United States and abroad. School Redesign Network at StanfordUniversity. Online:
  • Hirsch, S. (2006, Spring). Assessment inventory measures professional development quality. JSD 27(2), 63-64. Online:
  • Education Leadership professional development journal issue, summer 2009.
  • Staff Development or Professional Development resources from ASCD
  • Staff Development or Professional Development resources from NSDC
  • NSDC policy newsletters,
  • Assessment resources to be selected by the assessment team.
  • Safety resources to be selected by the safety team.

Virginia Standards Online Resources

  • Commonwealth of Virginia (2003) Science Standards of Learning for VirginiaPublic Schools. Richmond, Virginia: Author. Online:
  • Commonwealth of Virginia (2003) Science Standards of Learning Curriculum Framework.Richmond, Virginia: Author. Online:
  • Commonwealth of Virginia (current) Standards of Learning Currently in Effect for Virginia Public Schools. Richmond, Virginia: Author. Online:

Relationship to Program Goals and Professional Organizations

EDCI 893 Science Education Staff Development is part of the four-year sequence of courses for doctoral students in science education leadership. The course builds on students’ knowledge from their previous courses and their own teaching to inform their practice as teachers and leaders. The course focuses on teacher professional development issues that affect science education at the local, state, and national levels as outlined by National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), and Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE). EDUC 893 introduces students to ideas and methods that they will need to become effective leaders and to complete their doctoral studies.

2009-10 Themes

Planning and Conducting Staff Development

Safety Issues in Teaching Science

Assessment of Teaching and Learning

Being a Leader - Attend professional conferences + write about science education

Nature of Course Delivery

Class sessions are hands-on and interactive with all participants actively participating in cooperative and collaborative group activities. Advanced preparation for each session through reading, writing, and reflecting contributes to the success of the session and shows respect for your classmates. The sessions are an opportunity to share knowledge and to learn from others.

Postponement of Class

When inclement weather or other unforeseen events cause the class to be cancelled or the university to close, the class session will tentatively be postponed one week. Please check to confirm the date, time, and place of the makeup session.

CEHD Syllabus Statements of Expectations

The College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) expects that all students abide by the following:

Dispositions. Students are expected to exhibit professional behavior and dispositions. See for a listing of these dispositions.

Honor Code. Students must follow the guidelines of the University Honor Code. See the full honor code.

Responsible Computing. Students must agree to abide by the university policy for Responsible Use of Computing. See and click on Responsible Use of Computing at the bottom of the screen.

Disabilities. Students with disabilities who seek accommodations in a course must be registered with the GMU Disability Resource Center (DRC) and inform the instructor, in writing, at the beginning of the semester. See or call 703-993-2474 for DRC.

Grading

Since this is a graduate level course, professional quality work is expected on all assignments and in class. Attendance at all classes for the entire class is a course expectation. All assignments must be completed to receive a passing grade in this course. Assessment will be based half on fulfilling the specified criteria for the project and half on the quality of work. All assignments are due at the beginning of class on the day they are due. Assignments that are late will automatically receive a ten percent grade reduction (one full letter grade lower). In the event a class is missed the student will develop with the approval of the instructor an additional assignment that relates to the work being missed.

Assignments

Staff Development

30% Plan, conduct, and evaluate a 3-session (12-hour) workshop

30% Staff development annotated bibliography, grant section, and rubric

10% Participate in and evaluate staff development workshops

Research and Leadership

20% Attend conferences such as VAST, NSTA, NARST, ASTE, and AERA

10% Article for publishing

ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTIONS

Collaboration on assignments is a course requirement. All written assignments are to be word-processed. On the cover page include your name/team members’ names, date, course title, and project title. Staple all pages in one assignment together, unless they are in a notebook.

Workshops

Leaders in science education are knowledgeable of the latest research in staff development, assessment, and safety. You and a small group of doctoral students will plan and conduct one of three workshops in class. Each workshop is three-sessions (12-hour) presented to your colleagues.

Staff Development3 sessions (12 hours)

Assessment3 sessions (12 hours)

Safety3 sessions (12 hours)

For the topics that you are not planning, you will participate in workshop sessions planned by your colleagues. You will actively participate in all in-class activities and out-of-class assignments that they plan.

To prepare for the topic you will teach, you will undergo extensive planning with your instructor and your team. During the planning process you will:

(1) meet with the instructor to conduct initial brainstorming and planning,

(2) conduct a needs assessment of your class colleagues before the workshop,

(3) find and create support materials to use in teaching and learning about the topic,

(4) plan and conduct the workshop, and

(5) assess the workshop after each session and at the end of the workshop.

At the conclusion of the workshops you conduct, your team will turn in a notebook containing one set of plans that includes:

(1) needs assessment and its results;

(2) workshop (instructors) plans (a variation of lesson plans);

(3) support materials including all handouts and PowerPoint presentations used by you or the participants,

(4) a complete list of allresources used (web-based and print); and

(5) final assessment instrument and analysis of results.

Staff Development Research and Theories

For this project, you will read and analyze staff development researchand theoretical literature in order to identify key literature and researchers. You will demonstrate your understanding of staff development research and supporting theories by (1) developing an annotated bibliography that is posted on Blackboard, (2) writing a well-crafted paragraph (~2/3 of a page including at least 25 citations) to include in a grant proposal for staff development on science teaching and learning, and (3) constructing a rubric for evaluation of staff development.

As a class you will identify major subcategories relevant to staff development literature such as standards-based, research, evaluation, follow-up, online vs face-to-face, etc. and make sure that key literature is identified in each category. You will read websites for reports such as Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), National Staff Development Council (NSDC), etc. Share seminal pieces of literature with your colleagues as you find them, so they can read them too. You will individually create an annotated bibliography that is posted online on our class Blackboard website. More important than including many online postings is identifying the seminal pieces of literature in each category. For each citation in your annotated bibliography include a complete reference in APA format and a summary paragraph of key points. On the class Blackboard website, postyourannotated bibliography.

You will individuallywrite a long paragraph summarizing your philosophy and rationale (supported by research citations) on important features of staff development that you could include in a grant proposal. See the class schedule for draft and final due dates. Proposal writing is synthesis writing,a very different kind of writing than typical doctoral papers.Using APA format with complete citations and bibliography, write a well-crafted paragraph with at least 25 citations to include in a grant proposal for staff development outlining the research behind the training you propose. This paragraph will often have a title in the proposal such as Model for professional development and start, “This program is based on (1)…” This list is probably close to the same headings for a traditional paper.

Develop a rubricfor staff development trainingthat includes research-proven components of effective staff development. This assignment will mostly be done in class.

Articles for Publication

Revise and submit your second article for publication in a national peer reviewed journal. Let me know if you want me to co-author this with you. In addition to submitting this article for publication, you will revise and resubmit your first article as needed to insure that two articles are published during your GMU doctoral program.

Conferences

You will attendtwo conferences that you make presentations at (or attend four conferences) as part of the requirements for this course. Conferences will be selected that have direct applicability to science education and that include conferences at the national and state levels. Since many national organizations rotate their conferences through the Washington, DC area, youcan include these when they are in the area. During the first year in the program, you were only expected to attend conferences. At this point you are expected to make presentations. The goal is to be making presentations at national conferences.

Since faculty and students in our programs attend conferences, you will meet once as a group (usually at a meal time) while at the conference to discuss how this conference can enhance your professional developmentand (dissertation) research. This will be a time for networking and sharing ideas. When less than a majority of class members are at a conference, you (with any one else who attended the conference) will be expected to make a 15-minute presentation at the next class session to report on the conference.

Information on the conferences can be obtained online at:

  • VAST – Virginia Association of Science Teachers
  • NSTA – National Science Teachers Association
  • NARST – National Association for Research in Science Teaching
  • ASTE – Association for Science Teacher Education
  • AERA – American Education Research Association

To defray the costs of attending the conferences, you can apply to GMU, your employer, or other sources for funding. The schools and school divisions in our area have a strong history of support for graduate student travel to conferences. Also consider sharing rooms and transportation. We will discuss arranging support in class.

After each conference, you will write a one-page critique of the conference.

Staff Development in the News

Over lunch each class sessionyou or one of your colleagues will lead a discussion on some aspect of staff development.

TentativeEDCI 893 Schedule

2009-2010

DateEventTopicsAssignments _

Sept 5classStaff Development and Planning

Oct3classSafety

Nov 5-6VSELAVA Science Educ Leadership Association

Conference, DullesAirport area

Nov 6-7VASTVA Association of Science Teachers

Conference, DullesAirport area

Nov7classSafety

Dec5classSafetyArticle – assess group

Jan2-9onlineStaff Development – post Annotated bibliography

Draft Staff Dev paper

Jan 14-16ASTEAssociation of Science Teacher Education

Conference, Sacramento, CA

Feb 6classAssessment

Mar6classAssessment

Mar 20-24NARSTNat’l Association for Res in Sci Teaching

Conference, Philadelphia, PA

Apr3classAssessmentArticle – safety group

Apr 30-May 4AERAAmerican Education Research Association

Conference, Denver, CO

May 1classStaff Development Final Staff Dev paper

Rubric

Donna R. Sterling, Center for Restructuring Education in Science and Technology, GeorgeMasonUniversity 1