Understanding the Results: SEC Scenarios
Connersville School District
Professional Development in Science
Maria now examined results from the Instructional Practice Surveys the teachers were asked to take. Of all the results, the Teacher Readiness I and II and Professional Development charts provided specific insight into the professional development needs of teachers.
The Teacher Readiness results helped Maria understand how prepared the eigth-grade teachers were to teach science. At first glace at the legends, it showed none of the teachers had felt that they had a high amount of professional development. Maria decided to read the graph by concentrating on the pink bar which showed the average of how prepared all the teachers felt they were. By looking at both results for part one and two, a few areas of strengths and weaknesses became obvious. The eigth-grade science teachers felt they were well prepared to teach at the eigth-grade level, well prepared to facilitate hands-on experiments, and could encourage many different groups of students to participate in class. However, the results showed areas of apprehension by the teachers including incorporating science into other subjects and a major area of need—teaching students with learning and physical disabilities science.
