GK-12 FELLOWS AS CATALYSTS FOR REFORM OF SCIENCE EDUCATION

Inquiry can be a powerful tool for professional development of science teachers. Dialogic inquiry about teaching and learning between scientists and science teachers can lead to important professional growth for both. NSF's GK-12 Program places science graduate students in K-12 classrooms across the country. At Western Washington University's “Catalysts for Reform” Project, GK-12 Fellows work with middle school science teachers to implement recently adopted inquiry science materials. Because the project goals include significant professional development of both Fellows and Partner Teachers, we strategically designed our partnership activities so as to maximize dialogic inquiry between teacher and fellow (Nelson, 2005). The GK-12 Summer Institute for Fellows and Partner Teachers includes an immersion science learning experience followed by discussion and writing exercises to forge common visions of the role of inquiry instruction. Later, Fellows and Partner Teachers go through the adopted curriculum training together and are urged to question and discuss the pedagogy, especially in the context of surfacing and addressing student misconceptions. Fellows take on a variety of roles in the middle school classrooms (content expert, co-teacher, materials preparer), but always with the goal of enhancing student learning. Teachers report that their GK-12 partnership has allowed them to teach the new inquiry curriculum with fidelity, listen to their students and thus learn more about preconceptions, and better assess student understanding via questioning.