USING A LESSON PLAN ANALYSIS TOOL FOR EVALUATING EARTH SYSTEM EDUCATION FOR URBAN TEACHERS

The Earth Science Systems for Teachers is a professional development program for urban science teachers in a major metropolitan area of the Midwest. Urban areas of these cities are characterized by a high percentage of immigrant populations. ESST program covers current urban environmental issues using urban geologic sites and environment using earth system approach as well as ways to help the teachers connect that knowledge with their urban students’ everyday life experiences. This study presents the impact of the program in terms of how the program affects the teacher participants’ understandings of earth system knowledge and their perceptions about using the urban environment for their science teaching. The teacher’s daily journal entries and their pre-post lesson were used as main source for this study. Teachers’ pre-post lessons were analyzed by a lesson plan analysis tool developed by the authors. The lesson plan analysis tool, “Earth Systems Lesson Plans Analysis Instrument” (ESLPAI)”, is to assess teacher’s lesson plan using quantitative analysis method in the perspective of Earth system Education and place based learning. The result of this study shows that; 1) The teachers use more earth system science knowledge and approach in their earth science lesson plans after the program, 2) The teacher participants’ field experiences in urban geologic sites and urban environment change their perceptions urban environment, and 3) There were significant differences between their average pre and post lesson scores based on the analysis using ESLPAI (P<. 01) in terms of earth system science knowledge accuracy and using urban geologic site for their earth science teaching. This study also shows that the lesson plan analysis tool can be used as a valid method for evaluating a teacher professional program’s impact on teachers’ learning and using earth system science knowledge.