Abstract
This article contributes to the knowledge base on professional development (PD) by reporting on teachers' perspectives of their PD experiences when learning alongside children. Teachers participated in a six-step program of research entitled In-service in context: Learning science and technology in elementary classrooms (ISIC). ISIC represents an alternative form of professional development in which teachers work alongside students in a classroom as they experience a new pedagogy for teaching and learning in elementary science and elementary technology. The study set out to address the following research questions: (a) To what extent does in-service given in a classroom context help teachers construct a pedagogy for elementary technology or elementary science? and (b) To what extent does in-service given in a classroom context help teachers acquire subject knowledge in elementary technology or elementary science? Ultimately, this article reveals teachers' perceptions of their learning as professionals at an event commonly labeled professional development.
Copyright © AJER, the Faculty of Education, and the University
of Alberta, 2006.
Last revised: August 9, 2006.
Designed by G.H. Buck