Work in progress — Lessons learned during teacher professional development pilot program — Impact on curriculum teacher´s guide development & future professional development institute

A Professional Development (PD) pilot program was conducted with twelve High School Technology Education teachers during the summer of 2009. The three week PD Institute threaded the use of the INSPIRES (INcreasing Student Participation, Interest and Recruitment in Engineering & Science) curriculum throughout the program which included deepened teacher content knowledge, pedagogical practices, practice instruction with Upward Bound students, and reflection & evaluation of the videotaped instruction. Each of the teachers have re-enacted the curriculum with their classes in the following academic year. We are now developing a new INSPIRES curriculum module and based on our experiences with the PD pilot program, are planning improvements to the next PD Institute. Student learning assessments and changes in teacher practice will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the PD Institute.