RESEARCH EXPERIENCE FOR TEACHERS (RET): USING PALEONTOLOGY FIELDWORK IN THE PANAMA CANAL TO SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

Research suggests that professional learning is social, iterative, and embedded in practice. It involves the acquisition of knowledge or the use of existing knowledge in response to the recognition of its relevance to new situations. In some cases, knowledge reorganization takes place when individuals relate and or connect past experiences to present ideas. It also occurs during interactions with others around them. Professional knowledge is typically acquired and constructed within various contexts, which are typically defined as formal, informal, and non-formal depending on the activities that are occurring within them.

This poster highlights components of the California Teacher Project, which provided science teachers with the opportunity to develop understandings in scientific concepts and practices through coherent experiences in various learning contexts. This project is part of the broader impact outreach of the Panama Canal Project – Partnership for International Research and Education PCP-PIRE. It was designed to engage scientists and science educators in paleontological and geological research. This professional development experience involved the collection of fossils in the Canal, which the teachers brought back to the classroom for planning and implementing learning activities. Teachers attended formal presentations led by scientists and graduate students from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). They also participated in guided tours of the facilities at STRI, tropical rainforests at Barro Colorado Island, and field sites within the Panama Canal. Informal learning opportunities were provided through social interactions with the PCP-PIRE team of researchers, other scientists and interns associated with STRI, and teachers and students from a local private school. At the end of the field trip, teachers articulated knowledge that they acquired during formal presentations, which was either reinforced or reconstructed during informal interactions. The experience also enriched their thinking about scientific inquiry, which will contribute to improvement in their pedagogy. After the trip, teachers are expected to form a community of practice in order to continue the sharing of ideas for integrating various elements of their experience into their lessons.