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Increasing Teacher Content Knowledge through STEM Faculty Involvement

"This paper explores [issues surrounding the integration of higher education faculty into teacher professional development] by investigating a program of the Math and Science Partnership of Greater Philadelphia (MSPGP) that began in 2005 and brought together twelve science and five math faculty to work on instructional improvement in partnership with secondary schools. ...part of the program entailed having faculty learn about innovations in secondary school pedagogy and participate in learning communities with teachers. ...

While this paper references the overall MSPGP effort to foster partnerships between disciplinary faculty and schools, its primary focus is on one of formats for involvement that was deemed as most successful by both participating teachers and the disciplinary faculty, that of faculty serving as resources during professional development sessions on curricula that were new to the teachers. Toward this end, I focus on five daylong professional development sessions at Hilltop School District, one of the MSPGP partner districts, in which middle and high school science teachers were beginning to use an inquiry-based curriculum (STC kits)."