QuarkNet Workshop Best Practices - 2020 Update

Note: This document exists in Google Docs as well.

Strategies to Model Good Teaching Practices

• Provide context for the workshop. Provide the “big picture” up front.
• Lead as a facilitator rather than a lecturer.
• Focus on habits of mind and on the process of science. “Teach science as science is done.
• Focus on active engagement over slides.
• >Use guided inquiry: Participants practice data collection, organization, interpretation as scientific process.
• Provide opportunities for participants to support their claims with evidence. (Claims - Evidence - Reasoning)

Workshop Characteristics

• Workshops include a balance of scientific content and process.
• Workshops have an agenda.
  • Prepare agenda in advance with participant prior experience in mind, if possible.
  • Build in agenda flexibility.
  • Leave time for reflection and discussion.
  • Place workshop agenda online.
• Participants are actively engaged.
• Participants work through activities as if they are students first (“student hat”), then talk about teacher strategies and implementation plans (“teacher hat”).
• Activities progress from simple to complex.

For Further Reading on Workshop Best Practices

• Criteria for Workshop Review (Young & Associates, 2014)
• Principles of Effective Professional Development for Mathematics and Science Education: A Synthesis of Standards (Loucks-Horsley, Susan; et/ al., 1996)

Bibliography

1993, The National Center for Improving Science Education, Profiling Teacher Development Programs, Washington, DC. [Note: developed for DOE teacher development programs]

1996, Loucks-Horsley, Susan, et al, Principles of Effective Professional Development for Mathematics and Science Education: A Synthesis of Standards, National Institute for Science Education, Madison, WI

2012, National Research Council, A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC