Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-2014
Abstract
Background
Professional development (PD) efforts have improved acceptance and pedagogical practice related to the theory of evolution in high school biology teachers. However, these teachers express need for more PD related to evolution. It therefore becomes necessary to understand teachers’ PD needs prior to structuring PD efforts.
Methods
We formulated and validated a model to explain secondary teachers’ PD needs using data from a survey of 276 secondary biology teachers who reported teaching evolution.
Results
In addition to reliable subscales, we found that obstacles to teaching evolution, school and community support for evolution instruction, confidence in evolution instruction, and prior coursework in evolution provide a model for PD needs which balances fit and parsimony.
Conclusions
Applications of this model toward the goal of targeting PD efforts are discussed.
Repository Citation
Romine et al.: Development and evaluation of a model for secondary evolution educators’ professional development needs. Evolution: Education and Outreach 2014 7:27.
DOI
10.1186/s12052-014-0027-y
Included in
Biology Commons, Medical Sciences Commons, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons, Systems Biology Commons
Comments
© 2014 Romine et al.; licensee Springer. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.