Evaluating the impact of a facilitated learning community approach to professional development on teacher practice and student achievement

The focus of this research was an evaluation of the impact of teacher professional
development (PD) on student achievement during implementation of a reform
curriculum. The PD consisted of five four-hour workshop sessions distributed
over the time teachers were implementing the reform curriculum in their
classrooms. The research was conducted in a mid-size, urban school district over
the span of two years. Three groups of teachers were contrasted: teachers who
continued to use the established curriculum (N = 5), teachers who implemented
the reform curriculum without participating in the PD sessions (N = 5), and
teachers who implemented the reform curriculum while participating in the PD
sessions (N = 13). Teachers who participated in the PD had approximately a one
standard deviation advantage in their students’ achievement over those who did
not. We collected evidence of particular features of the PD that explained the
differences in student achievement. The features included: distributing the
workshops throughout the implementation; engaging teachers in an active learning process situated in the curriculum; and facilitating a collaborative community of teacher professionals. This study led us to believe that not only are the individual features of the PD important, but the combination of all three together is particularly powerful.
Keywords: science education; design-based learning; professional development;
teacher practice; student achievement
https://doi.org/10.1080/02635140903166026