If technology teachers do not understand

deeply the technology concepts they are

trying to teach, one cannot expect their

students to learn.

October 2000 THE TECHNOLOGY TEACHER 31

Advancing TechnologyEducation:The Role of ProfessionalDevelopment

Release of the technological literacystandards will require the communityto engage in professional development.Why? Because the release of techno-logical literacy standards is only thefirst step in the journey of educationalreform. If the standards are to be real-ized in curriculum, instruction, andassessment, then the communitiesdirectly involved in these activities willhave to assume responsibility for seeingthat changes are implemented. Themost direct route in this portion of thejourney is professional development.

THE ROLE OF PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENTThompson and Zeuli (1997:1) succinctly state the essential role ofprofessional development:

It is now widely accepted that,

in order to realize recentlyproposed reforms in what istaught and how it is taught [asdescribed in the standards docu-ment], teachers will have tounlearn much of what theybelieve, know, and know how todo (Ball, 1988) while also form-ing new beliefs, developing newknowledge, and mastering newskills. The proposed reformsconstitute, if you will, a newcurriculum for teacher learning.If they do not specify preciselywhat teachers should know andbe able to do, they do outline itrather clearly and exemplifyaspects of it with a nearlyliterary vividness.

Standards cannot directly changebehavior or beliefs, but they can pointthe way by defining desirable goals,stimulating movement toward thegoals, and reducing conflicts amongthe policies under which educators ateach level labor. They can begin tocreate images of what different com-ponents of the educational systemwould look like were they to bealigned with the desired outcomes forstudents. Although some have arguedthat policies (including standards)might be viewed as an effort to teachthose who must carry them out ratherthan solely as an effort to induce or

Susan Loucks-Horsley,internationally known for hereducational contributions, diedAugust 9, 2000 in ColoradoSprings of injuries sustained in anaccidental fall. At the time of herdeath, Susan was AssociateExecutive Director at the BiologicalSciences Curriculum Study (BSCS)in Colorado Springs, CO, and aSenior Research Associate atWestEd in Tucson, AZ.

Beginning in 1998 Susan servedon the Technology EducationAdvisory Board (TEAC). Shecontributed to ITEA throughprofessional development and heradvice on implementing theStandards for TechnologicalLiteracy. She will be greatlymissed by her colleagues.

by Rodger W. BybeeSusan Loucks-Horsley

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constrain them to behave differently(Cohen & Barnes, 1993), teachingstudents and adults requires far morethan attending to policy statements.Professional development is a criticalcompanion to, but not the same as,the implementation of the standards.

Professional development will pro-vide the opportunities for technologyteachers and other educators to learnwhat they need to know and be ableto do as they assist students in achiev-ing the technological literacy stan-dards. Effective professional develop-ment, we believe, must pay attentionto four needs. First, teachers need tolearn about and develop skills relatedto technology; they need opportuni-ties to deepen their content knowl-edge. Second, teachers need opportu-nities to learn about how to teachtechnologyto combine their contentknowledge with what they knowabout learning and how to teach theirparticular content. Third, teachersneed tools to help them continue theirown learning, and the motivation todo so. In a field that is changing asrapidly as technology, teachers need toexpect their knowledge and skills tobecome outdated quickly and theymust know where and how to contin-ue to learn. Finally, fragmentationplagues current learning opportunitiesfor teachers: courses, workshops, andinstitutes are rarely coordinated orsustained over time so that teachersget both depth and breadth in whatthey need to know and be able to do.Long-term professional developmentprograms, not just events, are requiredto support the kinds of changesrequired for the technological literacystandards to touch all students.

Our experiences with writing andsupporting the implementation of theNational Science Education Standards(NRC, 1996) and our work in profes-sional development (Loucks-Horsley,Hewson, Love, & Stiles, 1998) sug-gest these four areas to guide the plansfor professional development:

Learning about Technology, Learningto Teach Technology, Self Assessmentand Continuous Improvement ofTechnology Teachers, andComprehensive, SustainedProfessional Development Programs.

LEARNING ABOUTTECHNOLOGYBecause the technological literacystandards call for students to acquiredeep understanding of important,fundamental, technology concepts andprocesses, teachers need to know tech-nology as deeplyin fact, more so.The standards call for teachers toassess their students understanding ofthe designed world and help their stu-dents enhance those understandingsthrough new and multiple, often con-crete, experiences. Without their ownunderstanding of the technologyinvolved, teachers cannot do thisstaying one chapter ahead of thekids may have been a survival skill indays past, but it will no longer suffice.One thinks of an analogy to science,namely the frequently-cited examplesfrom the Harvard-SmithsonianPrivate Universe video series inwhich MIT and Harvard graduatesare unable to explain why there areseasons and how a seed becomes atree. These scenes suggest that ifteachers do not understand the scienceinvolved in everyday occurrences,their students will learn no more thanthe graduates interviewed in thevideos. Similarly, if technology teach-ers do not understand deeply the tech-nology concepts they are trying toteach, one cannot expect their stu-dents to learn.

Research in several disciplines onhow students learn best, and subse-quently how they should be taught, isbecoming richer as several lines ofstudy converge. One line of study,the cognitive research and that of con-ceptual change, emphasizes the learn-ers active construction of new knowl-edge based on current knowledge,

rather than through straight andsomewhat simple acquisition. Thisresearch underscores the tenacity ofextant knowledge, which is difficult toreplace by simply suggesting newideas, and the importance of challeng-ing current ideas and providing multi-ple opportunities to interact with phe-nomena (materials, events, representa-tions) that replace or enhance thosewith new ideas based on scientific andtechnological principles (Guzzatti etal., 1993). This literature is joined byextensive studies of students miscon-ceptions about science and technolo-gyparticular concepts for which stu-dents at certain ages have their ownpersonal and predictable explanations.To be sure, those explanations areoften not scientifically or technologi-cally correct (Driver et al., 1994).Finally, there are many studies ofapproaches to teaching and use of cur-riculum materials based on models forlearning that draw on these lines ofresearch (Anderson, 1998; Shymansky,Kyle, & Alport, 1983).

These lines of research supportlearning technology through activitiesthat in many ways mirror that ofdesigners and engineers seeking tosolve problems or to produce newknowledge or products. One exampleof a professional development oppor-tunity that does this is when highschool teachers spend several weeksduring the summer with laboratoryengineers, working on their teams andparticipating in their ongoing researchand development. As teachers work aspartners to the engineers, they developnew design abilities, come to under-stand the process of technologicalproblem solving, appreciate the deadends and uncertainties of engineering,use new technologies, and examinethe engineering and design literature.Teachers deepen their understandingof technology, build their design abili-ties and understandings, and do sothrough their participation in actualdesign problems.

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To build their knowledge and skillsin technology, elementary schoolteachers might attend a two-weeksummer institute and work with engi-neers and technology educators todevelop and conduct investigationsusing a design-oriented approach.Typically limited in their technologybackground and lacking confidence intheir abilities to teach technology,teacher participants would strengthentheir understanding of technologycontent and how they could help theirstudents learn it. One very importantaim of this experience is for elemen-tary school teachers to learn the differ-ence between science and technologyso they can illustrate these differencesto their students through classroomactivities.

LEARNING TO TEACHTECHNOLOGYKnowing about technology is onlyone part of being able to teach it. Asdeep as their knowledge of technologyoften is, many individuals cannotteach expertly. This is because theydo not have pedagogical contentknowledge, which is a special knowl-edge and set of abilities possessed byexpert teachers. Shulman (1987)describes teachers with pedagogicalcontent knowledge as knowing howstudents develop their understandingof a particular concept (e.g., systems),what they are able to understand,what they are apt to stumble over atcertain stages of development, andthrough what examples, representa-tions, and experiences they will learnbest. In order to build their pedagogi-cal content knowledge, teachers needto know technology. They also needto understand how students learntechnology, what kinds of experiencesfacilitate their learning, and whatlearning environments foster theexploration and openness to new ideasthat must accompany learning. Afoundation for pedagogical contentknowledge can be built through study

of the literature on learning andteaching, but it is only through prac-ticing and reflecting on teaching prac-tice that teaching expertise can bedeveloped (Shulman, 1987).

Professional development is criticalfor helping teachers develop pedagogi-cal content knowledge. A number ofdifferent strategies for professionaldevelopment are currently being usedand tested (Loucks-Horsley et al.,1998). Most promising are strategiesthat allow teachers to examine studentlearning and their own teaching prac-tice, sometimes with the help of cur-riculum materials that they use withtheir students. One example is thestrategy being used by many large-dis-trict, elementary school science reforminitiatives, in which a set of curricu-lum materials is chosen and carefullyimplemented. Teachers attend a seriesof workshops spaced throughout theschool year where they experience thescience units as learners, reflect on thesuccesses and problems encounteredin the units they have already taught,receive in-class assistance throughdemonstrations and coaching, andhave easy access to materials through asupport system that delivers andreplenishes them without extra workby the teachers. After mastering themechanics of teaching the units,which usually takes the first year, pro-fessional development sessions guideteachers to collect and examine stu-dent work, determine what studentsunderstand, and learn how they asteachers can assist in students concep-tual development. Curriculum-basedprofessional development can be par-ticularly effective when teachers donot have the understanding of contentthey need in order to create their owncurriculum (Ball, 1996; Russell,1998).

SELF-ASSESSMENT ANDCONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENTEffective professional developmenthelps teachers learn, and it also gives

them tools for further, often less for-malized, learning. One strategy thatdoes both is action research, in whichteachers determine what questionsthey are most interested in askingabout their students learning andtheir own teaching, and pursue thosequestions by collecting and analyzingdata and sharing their results. Forexample, teachers might conductaction research on how their studentsare learning a particular concept intechnology and what they are strug-gling with; or how students mathe-matics or science knowledge helps orhinders their technology learning; orany special problems or advantagesstudents with limited English have intechnology learning. While learningabout technology and technologyteaching, these teachers develop skillsin observing, data analysis, and creat-ing explanations for their observa-tions. These tools can be used forself-assessment and improvement overtime and for a variety of otherpurposes.

Another professional developmentstrategy that provides teachers withtools for continuous improvement iscoaching. There are numerous formsof coaching that can help teachershelp each other learn, and each formhas particular skills and proceduresthat optimize its effectiveness (Loucks-Horsley et al., 1998). For example,middle grade teachers are particularlyconcerned about encouraging girlsand members of groups typicallyunderrepresented in technologycareers. Coaching programs can helpteachers achieve this goal by focusingclassroom observations on theamounts and kinds of attention thatthey give different students. This iseye-opening for many teachers whobelieve they provide their studentswith equal opportunities to learn, butin reality limit the amount of timedifferent students have to participate(e.g., do they call on them a lot or alittle?) and the level of demand they

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put on students thinking (e.g., dotheir questions ask students to recallfacts or to analyze the risks and limita-tions of their proposed solutions?).

COMPREHENSIVE, SUSTAINEDPROFESSIONAL DEVELOP-MENT PROGRAMSIncreasingly, more professional devel-opers are recognizing that teachersneed opportunities to study the con-tent and pedagogy they need to knowover long periods of time, with coher-ence of content and context, and in away that allows for regular applicationand reflection (Loucks-Horsley et al.,1998). Yet there are still manymenu-driven offerings: cataloguesfrom which teachers can select two- tosix-hour workshops, and courses thathave no connection to each other norto the teachers curriculum and theirstudents. As consumers of profession-al development, technology teachersneed to learn to demand more com-prehensive, long-term opportunities tolearn. Professional developmentproviders (including teacher leaders,district administrators, higher educa-tion faculty, trainers and consultantsexternal to school districts) in dis-tricts, universities, and other locationsneed to abandon their overwhelmingemphasis on short-term workshopsand institutes and design betteropportunities to help teachers trulytransform their practice.

Long-term professional develop-ment programs and initiatives areappearing at every level of the system.For example, in science educationsome districts offer teachers 100 hoursof professional development thatincorporates implementation of newinstructional materials; universitiesoffer masters programs that focus onintegrated science and curriculumdevelopment; and professional net-works offer teachers the opportunityto share teaching strategies and dilem-mas and learn new programs designedto engage more students in learning a

subject. These examples could wellapply to technology education.

CONCLUSIONStandards for technology educationand professional development are crit-ical companions. Professional devel-opment is needed for the technologi-cal literacy standards to move outsidethe very documents that contain themand eventually into the practice ofevery teacher and the learning of everystudent. Fortunately, professionaldevelopment can provide the neces-sary learning opportunities for teach-ers and other educators and lead themto support the ambitious learninggoals we hold for all students learningtechnology.

REFERENCESAnderson, R. (1998). The research on teaching

as inquiry. Paper prepared for the Center forScience, Mathematics, and EngineeringEducation, NationaL Research Council,Washington, D.C.

Ball, D. (1988). Unlearning to teach mathemat-ics. For the Learning of Mathematics, 8(1),40-48.

Ball, D. (1996). Teacher learning and the math-ematics reforms: What we think we knowand what we need to learn. Phi DeltaKappan, 77(7), 500-508.

Cohen, D., & Barnes, C. A. (1993). Pedagogyand policy, and conclusion: A new pedagogyfor policy? In D.K. Cohen, M.W.McLaughlin, & J.E. Talbert (Eds.), Teachingfor understanding: Challenges for policy andpractice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Driver, R., Squires, A., Duckworth, P., & Wood-Robinson, V. (1994). Making sense ofsecondary science: Research into childrens ideas.New York: Routledge.

Guzzatti, B., Snyder, T., Glass, G., & Gamas, W.(1993). Promoting conceptual change inscience: A comparative meta-analysis ofinstructional interventions from readingeducation and science education. ReadingResearch Quarterly, 28(2), 117-159.

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.(1987). A private universe video.S. Burlington, VT: Annenberg CPB.

Loucks-Horsley, S., Hewson, P. W., Love, N., &Stiles, K. E. (1998). Designing professionaldevelopment for teachers of science and mathe-matics. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

National Research Council (NRC). (1996). Thenational science education standards.Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Russell, S. J. (1997). The role of curriculum inteacher development. In S. N. Friel & G. W. Bright (Eds.), Reflecting on our work:NSF teacher enhancement in k-6 mathematics.Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Shulman, L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teach-ing: Foundations of the new reform.Harvard Educational Review, 57, 1-22.

Shymansky, J. A., Kyle, W. C., & Alport, J. M.(1983). The effects of new science curriculaon student performance. Journal of Researchon Science Teaching, 20(5), 387-404.

Thompson, C. L., & Zeuli, J. S. (In press).The frame and the tapestry: Standards-basedreform and professional development. In G.Sykes (Ed.), The heart of the matter: Teachingas the learning profession. San Francisco:Jossey-Bass.

Rodger W. Bybee is the Executive Directorof the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study(BSCS) in Colorado Springs, CO.

Susan Loucks-Horsley is the AssociateExecutive Director of BSCS.

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