Current trends and missing links in studies on teacher professional development in science education: a review of design features and quality of research

Abstract

This review provides an overview of the the current state of research on professional development in science education. An analytical frame was used, based on what is known about PD from educational research. Clarke and Hollingsworth’s model for teacher professional growth was also used to categorise the studies according to their aims and outcomes. Exemplar studies in each category are highlighted. In total, 44 recent studies were selected, all referring to science PD. The results show an increase in the number of PD studies in science education in recent years. Most PD programmes are aimed at enhancing teacher cognitions as well as classroom practice. Most recently, there seems to have been an increase in programmes that also aim at improving student outcomes through PD. All studies applied most of the characteristics drawn from research on what makes PD effective. However, school organisational conditions were not usually taken into account. Moreover, there has been a very little research on the role of facilitators and their impact on the outcomes of a PD programme.

Keywords:

• professional development
• science teaching
• inservice
• teacher learning

Acknowledgements

This review is based on a keynote given by Jan van Driel at the ESERA conference (Lyon, September 2011). All authors equally contributed to the main ideas and conclusions. Jacobiene Meirink had a major contribution in the search together with Rosanne Zwart in the analyses and composing the method section, Klaas van Veen in composing the main text and Jan van Driel in finalising the review.