The role of personal practice theories in the professional development of a beginning high school chemistry teacher

2001 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 408-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aldrin E. Sweeney ◽  
Oleh A. Bula ◽  
Jeffrey W. Cornett
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 452-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam G. L. Schafer ◽  
Ellen J. Yezierski

High school chemistry teachers struggle to use assessment results to inform instruction. In the absence of expert assistance, teachers often look to their peers for guidance and support; however, little is known about the assessment beliefs and practices of high school chemistry teachers or the discourse mechanisms used as teachers support one another. Presented in this paper are the results from analyzing a discussion between five high school chemistry teachers as they generated a set of best practices for inquiry assessments. To analyze the discussion, a novel representation called a discourse map was generated to align the analyses conducted on chemistry teacher discourse as they temporally occurred. Results show the utility of the discourse map for evidencing critical friendship and assessment practices evoked by the teachers during the discussion of best practices. Implications for the structural considerations of materials and chemistry teacher professional development are presented as well as potential future investigations of teacher discourse regarding the use of data to inform instruction.


Author(s):  
Adam G. L. Schafer ◽  
Ellen J. Yezierski

Designing high school chemistry assessments is a complex and difficult task. Although prior studies about assessment have offered teachers guidelines and standards as support to generate quality assessment items, little is known about how teachers engage these supports or enact their own beliefs into practice while developing assessments. Presented in this paper are the results from analyzing discourse among five high school chemistry teachers during an assessment item generation activity, including assessment items produced throughout the activity. Results include a detailed description of the role of knowledge bases embedded within high school chemistry teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and the processes used to enact these knowledge bases during planned formative assessment design. Implications for chemistry teacher professional development are posited in light of the findings as well as potential future investigations of high school chemistry teacher generation of assessment items.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document