Effective professional development- middle school engineering content

Abstract

The research outlined in this paper looks at a teacher professional development program designed designed to prepare middle schoolteachers to teach an after school engineering/technology LEGOTM robotics unit. Thirteen Massachusetts public middle-school teachersparticipated in a summer professional development programme during the first two weeks of August 2005. Many of these teachers hadnot had any formal training in teaching engineering/technology. This paper looks at aspects of the professional development course thatworked and those that did not by considering confidence surveys, researcher observations and teacher interviews.