Logo image
Dimensions of autonomy: Primary teachers' decisions about involvement in science professional development
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Dimensions of autonomy: Primary teachers' decisions about involvement in science professional development

R. Schibeci and R.L. Hickey
Science Education, Vol.88(1), pp.119-145
2003
url
Link to Published Version *Subscription may be requiredView

Abstract

Professional development (PD) for primary science teachers is recognized as an important activity which can support improved science education for students. Analysis of interviews with practicing primary science teachers is used to identify the range of PD experiences of a sample of teachers from Western Australia. Teachers' reasons for attending or avoiding science-related PD are categorized as “decision issues” which include opportunity, compulsion, convenience, enticement, interest, recommendation, and relevance. Case studies describe the interplay of these issues, which result in teachers' attendance or avoidance of PD. A subset of the sample is used to explore teachers' views of other activities which they recognize as contributing to their science teaching, content knowledge, and pedagogy. These other activities include hobbies, partner's job, and pursuing students' interests. Legitimating teachers' own interests as a source of personally derived PD is supported as an avenue to increase the diversity of topics studied by students and to increase the level of content knowledge held by teachers.

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#4 Quality Education

Source: InCites

Metrics

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Citation topics
6 Social Sciences
6.11 Education & Educational Research
6.11.295 Science Education
Web Of Science research areas
Education & Educational Research
ESI research areas
Social Sciences, general
Logo image