Source: Teacher Development, Volume 16, Issue 1, 2012, pages 77-88.
A national professional development (PD) framework was developed for the implementation of science standards published by the Israeli Ministry of Education, which was activated before introduction of the standards into the classroom.
This research was designed to examine the contribution of PD and instruction to the implementation of science standards and whether seniority (years of teaching experience) together with PD assisted in the implementation.
The findings reveal that seniority in teaching helped in implementation, even though veteran teachers usually find it more difficult to accept change.
PD and instruction contributed to implementation of the standards by understanding the goals of the standards, focusing the teaching, implementing difficult standards, completing missing disciplinary knowledge, and mutual fertilization between teachers.