1. Title of the Seminar Changing the Practice of Science Teachers through continuous Professional Development (CPD) Programs

2. Key Topics and Issues  Models of CPD Programs for Science teachers  Methodologies for Studying CPD Programs  Teacher Change towards Accomplished Teaching  CPD Programs based on Evidence about Practice (Evidence Based CPD)  Scalability of CPD Models  Models for Developing Science Leading Teachers

3. Some Theoretical Issues  The implementation of new content and pedagogical standards (Tomorrow 98, 1992; NRC,1996) in science education necessitates; intensive, life-long professional development of science teachers.  In the past, conventional methods of conducting pre-service and in-service education have not always proved to be adequate for attaining such demanding reforms.  The activities conducted with the teachers have usually been too short and occasional to foster change in teacher classroom practice.

4.  To what extent they lead to actual change in the practice of teachers and whether they have an impact on students’ learning.  The change process by teachers is especially demanding when they have to undergo genuine change in their conceptions of teaching and learning. Concerns about programs for teacher’s development:

5. Research on teacher professional development conducted in recent years indicates that effective CPD programs have some common characteristics.  Engage teachers in collaborative long-term inquiries into teaching practice and student learning.  Situate these inquiries into problem-based contexts that place content as central and integrated with pedagogical issues.  Enable teachers to see such issues as embedded in real classroom contexts through discussion of each other’s teaching and/or examination of student’s work. Such programs:

6.  Focus on the specific content of curriculum that teachers implement  A clear vision shared by all participants of what is meant by accomplished practice in the particular domain.  The development of feasible ways for teachers to collect and share evidence about their teaching and about their students’ learning.

7. The Project The goal was to outline through research a set of characteristics and protocols that teachers can use to demonstrate evidence-based accomplished practice in science teaching. The project builds on recent research in six domains of science teaching: 1. Scientific enquiry with investigation 2. Scientific discourse and argumentation 3. Monitoring and assessing learning 4 Knowledge integration in physics 4. 5. Learning skills in science 6. Inquiry in the chemistry laboratory.

8. ActivitiesActivities 1. Plenary lectures and activities 2. Contributed papers 3. Working groups 4. Social activities: Monday night – tour of Safed Tuesday – tour around the Sea of Galilee Wednesday – a trip to the Golan Hights and dinner

9. The three Strands 1. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Programs Leading to Changes in Teachers’ Practice (Group leader: Esther Bagno) 2. Research Methodologies for Studying CPD Programs (Group leader: Rachel Mamlok-Naaman) 3. Strategies for Large Scale Implementation of CPD Programs (Group leader: Zahava Scherz)