CRITERIA FOR EFFECTIVE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS OF EARTH SCIENCES PROVIDED BY THE NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION STANDARDS AND OTHER NATIONAL SCIENCE STUDIES AND REPORTS, WITH UNIVERSITY EXAMPLES

Goals for effective professional development of teachers of Earth sciences, together with criteria provided by major national science studies/reports, will be presented along with university examples linking Earth science learning to those criteria to provide guidance for Earth sciences professional developers.

The goal for effective professional development is to introduce and/or deepen teacher Earth sciences content knowledge and ability to use that knowledge as educators. Usable knowledge goes beyond unrelated sets of facts like naming rocks toward understanding their connections with available chemistry, heat, pressures, their resultant appearances and clues to their past and Earth's past and future. The AAAS "Atlas of Scientific Literacy" (2007) provides useful Earth sciences concept development maps.

Effective science pedagogy has been identified in the National Academies of Sciences' "National Science Education Standards" (NSES, 1996), and "How Students Learn" (2005), and other national science studies and reports as inquiry-based, reflecting the nature of science and what research in learning science indicates are best practices to help learning. Offering content knowledge via traditional modes for teachers to interpret for their classroom use has proven ineffective. Research shows coherent understandings are built from experiences and sense making and that previous experiences often develop misconceptions that need to be considered.

The NSES provides systemic guidelines for Earth Sciences content, K-12, teaching, assessment, and system (where we fit in) standards, with analyses of less to more practices. "How Students Learn" provides three key findings for effective learning: 1) learners' previous conceptions, 2) deep explorations and sense making, 3) metacognition.

Some Earth science university examples will be cited implementing what is known about science content and learning, including 1) Earth science big concepts to build details and interconnections upon, 2) experiences first before interactive lectures, 3) themes throughout including Everything's Connected, Everything's Changing, and So what does this mean to us? 4) Student identified explorations, and 5) assessments that show understandings.