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Abstract: The Partnering Educators for Place-Based Learning Experiences (PEPLE) project develops the capacity of educators to contextualize classroom learning to the local community through professional learning opportunities that are co-facilitated by university staff and informal educators. The project aims to expand an existing school-university networked improvement community (NIC) to include educators and scientists from the local zoos, land trusts, Audubon, and other informal education organizations. Early data gathered through design-based implementation research (DBIR) strategies show how the co-facilitated workshops have been beneficial to the informal education, K-8 school, and university communities. In addition, the project is adding to NIC theories that collective expertise and resources provide greater benefits than the same expertise and resources implemented in isolation.
KEYWORDS: professional development, place-based education, networked improvement communities
NAPDS NINE ESSENTIALS ADDRESSED:
3. Ongoing reciprocal Professional Development for existing professionals
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for teachers to involve students in investigating and explaining complex phenomena and solving local problems (Krajcik, 2015). Educators' lack of preparation to implement the rigorous intentions of the NGSS, combined with the pervasive research findings that elementary teachers have poor attitudes, low self-efficacy, and a general lack of commitment to science and engineering education, exemplify the need for significant support that far exceeds what is typically offered to teachers (Brand & Wilkins, 2007; Levitt, 2002). Analysis within the networked improvement communities (NIC) showed fourth graders' performance on a statewide science assessment was proficient at carrying out performance tasks but students struggled to transfer the skills and knowledge to life scenarios (Sweetman, 2014). The problem of contextualizing learning is not new. John Dewey remarked in his book School and Society more than 100 years ago:
From the standpoint of the child, the great waste in the school comes from his inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside the school in any complete and free way within the school itself; while, on the other hand, he is unable to apply in daily life what he is learning at school. That is the isolation of the school-its isolation from life. (Dewey, 1907, p. 89)
There is significant evidence that providing children with opportunities to apply their learning to their environment results in an increase in student engagement, student achievement, and civic responsibility...