Does Sustained Science Content Based Professional Development Make a Difference to Students' Science Achievement?
In this paper, we report the results of teacher and student achievement and questionnaire data.. Teachers completed the content test and questionnaire before commencing the program and then again over two years later when they had finished their masters' degree. For the student data, teachers selected a typical class to complete the student questionnaire and content test before the teachers began the professional development program. Two years later, after teachers had completed two summers (four content courses) and two academic years (two content and two science education courses), one class of students was again selected to complete the contest test and the questionnaire. Item Response Theory (IRT)-Rasch Model-was used to analyze the data. The Rasch measure statistically allows for comparisons across cohorts and geographical locations.
The student questionnaire items request two types of information: demographics and teaching/learning activities inside and outside of the science class. Items on three subscales ("What I do," "What my teacher does," and "At least one adult in home,") parallel items on the Teacher Questionnaire. Additional subscales assess what a student's friends do in science and the student's attitude towards science. A Likert-type scale, ranging from Almost Never (1) to Very Often (5), is used for the four subscales (student classroom behaviors, teacher classroom behaviors, peer involvement in science, and adult/parental support of student's science studies). Items assessing student attitudes toward science use a different five-point Likert scale, with values ranging from Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (5). When necessary, items are reverse coded before analyses for all subscales. The five subscales on the Student Questionnaire have a moderate level of reliability, with Cronbach alpha values ranging from 0.59 ("What I do in class") to 0.77 ("At least one adult in home").
