Accomplishing the Visions for Professional Development of Teachers Advocated in the National Science Education Standards

Abstract

The National Science Education Standards include suggested visions for changing staff development programs for preparing new teachers and working with inservice teachers. Analyzing the visions for the most successful programs precedes the identification of programs that best match the NSES visions. The National Science Teachers Association is publishing a new monograph that identifies 16 model programs that approach the visions while also providing actual evidence of the successes experienced. This manuscript is an attempt to provide a setting and a rationale for the national search and for informing science teacher educators in the features of the best programs nominated after a 4-year search. Instead of only describing science teacher education programs for new and inservice teachers, actual evidence establishing their validity is offered. Perhaps the examples will be more useful if the framework and procedures used in their selections are shared with Association for Science Teacher Education members.