In our case of our NSF funded effort, we spent two years with 60 Lead
Teachers providing them extensive training and practice time before we
began to scale up to the rest of our 2600 teachers over the next four
years (1996-1997 being the final year). Included in the Lead Teacher
training was science content and pedagogy as well as a "training of
trainers" to prepare them for work with adult learners. Even then not
everyone who started with us felt competent to become a teacher
trainer, and several opted out before we got too far into the effort.
The remainder, about 40 at this point, have become a tight knit group
and, I believe, are among the most knowledgable individuals in the
country on inquiry-based science instruction and assessment. Many are
now providing training for other school districts.
Because the Lead Teachers remained in their classroom positions,
providing training during the summer institute, during three school
days each year, and after school sessions, they were able to remain in
touch with the realities of the classroom. (Something which those of
us who have been out for a while sometimes fool ourselves into thinking
we are able to do.) As the Lead Teachers trained other teachers, they
could cite specific examples in their own experiences and thus had
strong credibility with the audience. The only down side to this
effort was that it had to take place over a four year period to reach
the numbers of teachers we have in our system. I'm not sure there is a
good way to scale up quickly.
The principals were willing to have the Lead Teachers out of the
building more often in return for being first to learn about science
resources and training opportunities and having a competent trainer on
their staff. I continue to meet with the Lead Teachers four half-days
per year. Two years ago, we began to add a science liaison from each
of our 126 elementary schools and to provide them additional training
to sustain the effort back at their schools. They are now beginning to
reach the level of competency of the Lead Teachers, however with such a
large number there is constant turnover and need to retrain. Still,
the model seems to be working quite well.
Bill McDonald
Coordinator, Elementary Science
Montgomery County Public Schools
Rockville, Maryland
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