Abstract

Developing and maintaining a high-quality science teaching corps has become increasingly urgent with standards that require students to move beyond mastering facts to reasoning and arguing from evidence. Effective professional development (PD) for science teachers enhances teacher outcomes and, in turn, enhances primary and secondary student outcomes. What constitutes effective PD? Although proposed features of effective PD have emerged, they have little empirical support. Even when impact studies of PD interventions are conducted, factors unrelated to PD design characteristics can influence effect size estimates. Can we statistically isolate PD design characteristics from factors unrelated to PD design that nevertheless influence effect size estimates? We conducted a meta-regression with robust variance estimation (RVE) of 162 science PD intervention studies. We investigated how effect size estimates for teacher outcomes vary by research design, study context, PD intervention characteristics, and outcomes of interest. Intensity and duration of PD, research design decisions, and researchers’ choice of outcomes of interest significantly influence effect size estimates.

摘要

建立和维持高质量的科学教学团队已变得越来越迫切，其标准要求学生从掌握事实转变为从证据推理和争论。理科教师的有效专业发展（PD）可以提高教师的成绩，进而可以提高中小学生的成绩。什么是有效的PD？尽管已经出现了有效PD的建议功能，但它们缺乏经验支持。即使进行了PD干预的影响研究，与PD设计特征无关的因素也会影响效果大小估算。我们是否可以从统计学上将PD设计特征与与PD设计无关的因素隔离开来，但这些因素仍会影响效果大小估算？我们对162项科学PD干预研究进行了带有稳健方差估计（RVE）的元回归。我们调查了教师结局的效果量估计值如何因研究设计，研究背景，PD干预特征和感兴趣的结局而变化。PD的强度和持续时间，研究设计决策以及研究人员对感兴趣结果的选择会显着影响效应量估计。