Source: Review of Educational Research, 81(3): 376-407, (September 2011).
This paper uses knowledge integration framework to analyze studies on professional development in technology-enhanced science involving more than 2,350 teachers and 138,0000 students.
The question of how professional development enhances teachers’ support for students’ inquiry science learning is the focus of the work.
A literature search using the keywords technology, professional development, and science identified 360 studies from the past 25 years, 43 of which included multiple data sources and reported results for teachers and/or students.
Findings suggest that professional development programs that engaged teachers in a comprehensive, constructivist-oriented learning process and were sustained beyond 1 year significantly improved students’ inquiry learning experiences in K–12 science classrooms.
In professional development programs of 1 year or less, researchers encountered common technical and instructional obstacles related to classroom implementation that hindered success.