Providing undergraduate science partners for elementary teachers: benefits and challenges.

ABSTRACT: Undergraduate college "science partners" provided content knowledge and a supportive atmosphere for K-5 teachers in a university-school professional development partnership program in science instruction. The Elementary Science Education Partners program, a Local Systemic Change initiative supported by the National Science Foundation, was composed of four major elements: 1) a cadre of mentor teachers trained to provide district-wide teacher professional development; 2) a recruitment and training effort to place college students in classrooms as science partners in semester-long partnerships with teachers; 3) a teacher empowerment effort termed "participatory reform"; and 4) an inquiry-based curriculum with a kit distribution and refurbishment center. The main goals of the program were to p

SUBMITTER: Goebel CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2736027 | biostudies-literature | 2009

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature