BSCS and the Center for Science Teaching and Learning at Northern Arizona University are proposing a five-year research study that determines the potential for improving the quality of teaching and learning by improving high school teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The proposal team will design and deliver a professional development program for science teachers that is based on the use of educative curriculum materials, is designed around the elements of transformative professional development, and purposefully and explicitly integrates efforts to improve secondary science teachers' content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and skill, and helps them to apply this knowledge to the context of their own classroom. The outcome of this program will be research-based information about the influence of the professional development program on teachers' PCK and the related impact of PCK on student learning.
