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SStrategies for Attracting Teachers to and
Involving Them in
Professional-Development Programs
Previous chapters focused on how scientists can most effectively work with
teachers and how universities and professional societies can encourage scientists'
participation in professional-development programs. This chapter focuses on
strategies that have successfully attracted and involved teachers. The examples
are drawn from some of the current programs noted in Appendix A. Without
substantial teacher involvement, even the most carefully designed program will
have little success, simply because teacher involvement to help ensure that the
program will have an impact on the educational system at which it was directed.
HOW TO ATTRACT TEACHERS
Teachers who are already actively involved in professional organizations or
have actively sought professional-development opportunities generally receive a
wealth of information on workshops, conferences, and summer institutes. Many
of them consistently attend those programs and are among the most enthusiastic
participants. It is more difficult to attract the much larger potential audience of
teachers who are less active professionally and who are on few, if any, profes-
sional organizations' mailing lists. The following are some suggestions for ways
to identify and recruit the potential audience:
.
Use a number of channels to reach potential participants. For instance,
mail materials directly to teachers, science supervisors, and principals; distribute
materials at teachers' meetings and conventions; work with teachers' unions;
make presentations at professional meetings and inservice events; and advertise
55
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56
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE TEACHERS
in teacher professional publications, newsletters, and electronic bulletin boards.
Direct mail to targeted teachers is probably the most effective of all enlistment
strategies. However, only a 5% response rate can be expected, even from a well-
targeted mailing. Lack of communication between administrators and teachers is
common, and one cannot depend on science supervisors or principals to relay
information to teachers.
Use information available in county offices or other intermediate state-
government units. In California, for example, 58 county offices can provide
various types of educational support services to school districts. Most have
extensive countywide address-label mailing lists that can be used for mailing
flyers, brochures, and even conference programs to teachers. A few have com-
prehensive lists of all secondary-school science or mathematics teachers in the
county divided according to subject matter taught. Nonprofit organizations can
usually gain access to those mailing lists free or inexpensively. Many county
offices also publish a catalog or booklet of future professional-development ac-
tivities, including regional conferences and workshops sponsored by other orga
. .
n~zahons.
.
.
Identify mentor or lead teachers for assistance. Each school district
usually has teachers who have served in leadership positions for specific subjects,
such as school science-department heads, mentor teachers, science-resource
teachers, and teachers who have been active on district science-curriculum com-
mittees. Any of those teachers might have the expertise to recommend strategies
to publicize professional-development programs and attract teachers to them.
Some would be ideal candidates for participating on planning or advisory com-
mittees that are developing programs. Names can usually be obtained from
school principals or district administrators responsible for curriculum, instruc-
tion, or staff development. Examples of programs in which teachers are used as
lead teachers are the Evolution and the Nature of Science Institute at Indiana
University and San Jose State University; Teachers Teaching Teachers: National
Leadership Program for Teachers at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship
Foundation; City Science at the University of California, San Francisco and San
Francisco Unified School District; the UCI Summer Science Institute at the Uni-
versity of California, Irvine (UCI); and the Cornell Institute for Biology Teach
ers.
· Organize special orientations at meetings of continuing programs. The
Science Research Expeditions program offered by the University of California
Extension Program uses its orientation meetings each fall to publicize and pro-
mote interest in its summer research activities. Past participants present brief
slide talks about their summer work. Brochures and applications for the follow-
ing year's programs are distributed at the meetings.
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ATTRACTING TEACHERS TO PROFESSIONAL-DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS 57
HOW TO INVOLVE TEACHERS IN PLANNING AND
DEVELOPING PROGRAMS
If several teachers have agreed to serve on a planning or advisory program
committee, there are several effective ways to use their skills and expertise:
· Treat the teachers as colleagues, not as subordinates. Make them feel
comfortable and valued as members of the committee. Listen carefully to their
comments and suggestions. They should be fully involved in all planning activi-
ties not just the "teaching" component.
.
Solicit teachers' opinions about their needs, interests, and problems.
Partnership with teachers in developing programs will ensure that the programs
provide the help they need and want.
· Use the teachers' experience and knowledge to learn how they and their
colleagues will react to the program being planned. These teachers might have
made presentations to their colleagues and acquired a feel for what will be seen
by teachers as workable. The teachers can provide realistic feedback on proposed
activities. Input from teachers can, for example, help to develop programs that
are intellectually challenging and rigorous, yet appropriate to the backgrounds of
the participants.
· Have teachers conduct some of the program activities. Effective teachers
can serve as models to demonstrate how particular teaching strategies should
look in the classroom, as facilitators for discussions about classroom implemen-
tation strategies, as communicators of science content when they are competent
to do so, and as teachers of laboratory investigations.
PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
offering
.
To attract the largest number of teachers, program planners should consider
Continuing-education or college credit. Teachers who are earning credits
for salary placement are more willing to participate in programs that offer credit.
Program organizers should work with local and state administrators or university
administrators to ensure that their programs meet credential and course require-
ments.
· Financial support. Extended summer institutes (2 weeks or more) usu-
ally offer some type of stipend or honorarium. Ideally, the level of financial
support matches teachers' per diem and is another attractive factor to entice
potential participants.
· Room and boardfor participants. Some programs draw participants within
commuting distance of the program site, traditionally a local college or univer-
sity. When teachers live beyond commuting distance, however, room, board, and
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58
travel should be provided.
available.
· A budget to purchase equipment and supplies for use in the classroom
with students. Money for or access to materials and supplies is essential for
implementing new activities. School budgets that typically allow only $1-5 per
student per year for science, however, are frequently not sufficient to purchase
the quantities of materials necessary to implement even the least-expensive hands-
on laboratory investigations that teachers might be exposed to during profes-
sional-development programs. A small expenditure will enable teachers who
become informed and excited about new techniques to implement them in their
classrooms. For sophisticated laboratory activities that require special purchases,
like those involved in recombinant-DNA technology, teachers should be pro-
vided information about grant-writing opportunities or fund-raising strategies at
the local level.
Access to equipment needed for laboratory activities. Providing equip-
ment or teaching kits can help teachers to implement hands-on activities learned
during other professional-development programs. Some programs that we exam-
ined allowed teachers to share truckloads of scientific equipment, such as electro-
phoresis equipment, video equipment, and microscopes. Equipment-sharing con-
sortia, in which complete sets of laboratory equipment are rotated among several
schools, have proved especially effective in supporting laboratory activities in
molecular genetics. Equipment-sharing is part of the programs at the University
of Illinois, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the Fred Hutchinson Can-
cer Research Center, Cornell University, and San Francisco State University.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE TEACHERS
During the summer, economical rates often are
.
ENLISTING THE SUPPORT OF ADMINISTRATORS
Support from administrators such as district superintendents, principals,
assistant principals, and even counselors is essential for the success of new
programs. Many teachers reported that support from school principals is the most
important factor in improving science in the schools.
The support of administrators must be cultivated from the outset. It must be
made clear to administrators how the programs will make their schools more
successful. Once a program is started, organizers should ask administrators to
visit the program in action and to talk with the teachers and scientists involved. It
is even better to ask administrators to participate. In general, administrators are
concerned about their school's progress and image in the eyes of parents and
other community members. Therefore, any strategy that includes generating
favorable publicity will have a better chance of success. Including special events
for parents as part of program activities and inviting the news media to cover
them and other aspects of the program will help in achieving success.
The statement (see box on p. 60) adopted by the Board of Directors of the
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ATTRACTING TEACHERS TO PROFESSIONAL-DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS 59
National Association of Biology Teachers provides relevant guidelines for ad-
ministrators' support of life-science teachers.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Professional development should be viewed as a continuous process that
includes appropriate staff, administrative, and community support. With that
support, teachers will accept more responsibility for their own professional growth
and actively participate in appropriate professional activities.
K-12 Teachers
Teachers should view professional development as a continuous process and
become active members of their professional organizations; establish contacts
with local scientists; attend appropriate meetings, workshops, and conferences;
read and analyze professional journals and newsletters; recruit and act as mentors
for new teachers; collaborate with their colleagues; and recognize the important
relationship of professionalism to high-quality teaching and learning for their
students. Scientists should play an important role in this process by providing
opportunities for collegial relationships and by inviting teachers to attend special
events and opportunities to learn more about the work of professional scientists.
School and School-District Administrators
School and school-district administrators should attach high priority to sci-
ence education and budget appropriate funds, recognize that all students benefit
from quality science education and provide a variety of opportunities for students
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60
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE TEACHERS
to become successful in science, take leadership for developing orientation pro-
grams for parents and encouraging them to advocate science education, support
professional development of teachers of science, and commit appropriate admin-
istrative personnel to support professional development of teachers and to sup-
port such followup activities as networking, peer coaching, and seminars to con-
tinue professional development. Administrators can also strive to improve
dissemination of information to teachers about opportunities for professional
development and indicate where the science programs fit with professional de-
velopment.
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ATTRACTING TEACHERS TO PROFESSIONAL-DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS 61
Professional Science-Education Organizations
Professional science-education organizations should involve more scientists
in organizational activities, such as holding workshops at annual meetings, writ-
ing articles for journals, and hosting scientists at their conventions. Those or-
ganizations should encourage and welcome academic- and industrial-scientist
membership in societies by publicizing meetings in science journals and includ-
ing practicing scientists on appropriate committees. They should appoint K-12
education committees that include scientists to plan effective science-based edu-
cational activities for teachers and recognize and reward scientists for outstand-
ing accomplishments in science education.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
science education
