Teachers As Researchers to Inform Practices

This article provides a way to make teachers’ professional development (PD) more personal and meaningful by structuring and conducting their own. Teachers in an elementary school district d... See More

This article provides a way to make teachers’ professional development (PD) more personal and meaningful by structuring and conducting their own. Teachers in an elementary school district discovered that they were able to develop a culture of science learning across their school’s entire population and improve their low science scores on state tests by conducting active research. Their first research project was called the Buddy Science Project, where they assigned older fifth grade students to “buddy up” with kindergarten students in order to help facilitate learning. It became a collaborative effort across grades for students and their teachers. The teachers made time to discuss successes and mishaps in a relaxed setting. During these meetings they bounced ideas and concerns off each other. These collaborative meetings were vital to the overall process and success of their venture. Not only did the teachers learn more about how to inform their teaching practices, but also the s

An Interesting Idea for Cross Grade Collaboration

This article presented three teachers experience in a cross grade year long research project with their students. I liked the idea of the students becoming the teachers to the younger stude... See More

This article presented three teachers experience in a cross grade year long research project with their students. I liked the idea of the students becoming the teachers to the younger students. I wonder how the teachers still managed to get all of their content covered as well. I think this could work in many different subject areas. Teachers who are interested could start small with one lesson or unit to evaluate how to best proceed with this type of instruction.