For a project I’m working on, I wanted to revisit what I know about cooperative learning. When I Googled the topic, among the many resources I found was one from a professional development series Concept to Classroom, produced by Thirteen Ed Online (WNET, the New York PBS affiliate). The “courses” in the series are free and self-paced. They each consist of four sections — explanation, demonstration, exploration, and implementation.
The explanation section is in the form of FAQs about the research and rationale related to the topic. The demonstration section has videos of real teachers using the concept in their own classrooms, as well as lesson plans that incorporate the topic. The exploration section guides you through thinking about what the topic would look like in your own classroom, and the implementation section assists you in developing and using a lesson. Even if you decide not to take the whole course, the list of resources (including online articles and websites) is worth a look.
Some topics that would be of interest to science teachers include inquiry-based learning, cooperative and collaborative learning, constructivism, interdisciplinary learning, and assessment. These pedagogical concepts would supplement the content-oriented Science Objects professional development resources from NSTA (which are also online and free).
Although Thirteen Ed Online does not award credit, there is a “Get Credit” toolkit with a syllabus to share with your administrators about the content of the course and a rubric to determine how your participation could be evaluated for district-sponsored PD hours. (Actually, I’d look at the materials to get an overview of the course.)
I’d like to hear about your experiences with other online PD courses that are free and relevant to science teachers!