Persistent Teaching Practices After Geospatial Technology Professional Development

This case study described teachers with varying technology skills who were implementing the use of geospatial technology (GST) within project based instruction (PBI) at varying grade levels and contexts 1 to 2 years following professional development. The sample consisted of 10 fifthto ninth grade teachers. Data sources included artifacts, observations, interviews, and a GST performance assessment and were analyzed using a constant comparative approach. Teachers' teaching actions, beliefs, context, and technology skills were categorized. Results indicated that all of the teachers had high beliefs, but their context and level of technology skills strongly influenced their teaching actions. Two types of teachers persisting in practices from professional development were identified: innovators and adapters. Persistence of practice and implementation of the integration of GST within PBI must continue after professional development ends, or the sustainability of the positive results experienced during the professional development will not persist. A common goal of professional development (PD) is to improve teachers' skills, understanding, and pedagogical practices in order to impact student learning (Wallace, 2009; Yoon, Duncan, Lee, Scarloss, Shapley, 2007) However, no simple input output model exists; there are many mediating factors between what teachers experience during PD and how it is translated into student learning experiences in the classroom (Desimone, 2009; Guskey, 2002; Whitworth Chiu, 2015) Often, evaluation efforts of technology education PD document implementation of pedagogical practices during the life of the program, but little is known about whether these practices persist once the programmatic supports end (Baker et al. 2015; Lawless Pellegrino, 2007) Recently, a proposed geospatial technology (GST) and learning research agenda suggested the identification of the technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge required for teachers to implement and use GST as a priority for the field moving forward (Baker et al. 2015) The current study begins to address this priority. The purpose of this research was to determine what pedagogy persisted following a PD institute with project based instruction integrating GST and what factors promoted or hindered sustained implementation of these practices.  Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 16(3) 209 Project Based Instruction Project based instruction (PBI) is a teaching method designed to promote students' development of 21st century competencies (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity; Partnership for 21st Century Learning, 2015) through a collaborative, structured inquiry of an engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge (Krajcik, Blumenfeld, Marx, Soloway, 1994; Larmer, Ross, Mergendoller, 2009) PBI also requires engagement in the practices of science, which translates into a deeper learning experience (National Research Council [NRC] 2012) Many GSTintegrated PD programs have promoted the use of PBI integrated with GST (e.g. Bodzin, Anastsio, Kulo, 2014; Kolvoord, Charles, Purcell, 2014) Professional Development for Geospatial Technologies GST is a powerful tool to support spatial thinking, scientific research, and real world problem solving (NRC, 2006; Sinton Lund, 2007) Teachers who utilize GST within student centered practices in their classrooms provide opportunities for students to engage in data collection, analysis, and argumentation based on evidence (MaKinster Trautmann, 2014) PD is a critical component in the overall success of teachers' development of practices that will lead to effective implementation of science and technology in an authentic environment. Developing science content understanding, the intellectual capabilities of their students, and specialized pedagogical knowledge requires specialized PD focusing on the core ideas in the discipline and modeling of how teachers should present the material to their students (NRC, 2007) Koehler and Mishra (2005) stressed the need for authentic, project based PD activities to help teachers develop this knowledge of how to teach content with technology effectively. To teach effectively with GST, teachers must build their knowledge, skills, and practices before they can implement lessons with students and realize instructional changes that ultimately lead to student learning gains (Desimone, 2009; Guskey, 2000) In addition, PD must help teachers integrate knowledge of GST into their existing schema (Coulter, 2014; Kolvoord et al. 2014) As technology has been infused into most schools, and with greater accessibility of GST tools such as ArcGIS online and Google Earth, teachers can now focus on more sophisticated, student centered technologies. In order to provide teachers with effective PD around GST and PBI, facilitators should immerse teachers in a real life problem which involves the examination of spatial data (Borko, 2004; Loucks Horsley, Love, Stiles, Mundry, Hewson, 2003) As teachers grapple with spatial data to resolve a problem, they are able to experience many of the same issues and struggles students encounter. By becoming a learner of the content via immersion in inquiry, teachers broaden their own understanding and knowledge of the content they are addressing with their students (McAuliffe Lockwood, 2014; Moore, Haviland, Whitmer, Brady, 2014) Experiences should focus on teaching with GST and on learning more advanced tools as they become necessary for the exploration at hand (Barnett et al. 2014; McClurg Buss, 2007) Providing lessons and datasets that can be used immediately in classrooms supports implementation, but it is important to allow for some adaptation of the teaching materials to meet teachers' needs (Kolvoord et al. 2014; Moore et al. 2014; Stylinkski Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 16(3) 210 Doty, 2014) It is also imperative that teachers understand the theory behind the lesson design, so when changes are made, critical components are maintained (Singer, Marx, Krajcik, 2000) Implementation of Geospatial Technologies in the Classroom When teachers begin implementing GST integrated PBI lessons they face barriers, such as finding time to implement projects, pressures of high stakes testing, technology access, and computer glitches (Baker Kerski, 2014; Barnett et al. 2014) Kerski (2003) said that teachers who expressed an interest in teaching with GST did not actually use it until 1 to 3 years after they received the software. Teachers require adequate support, not only in the form of technology infrastructure, administrative permission, and time to allow students to engage in authentic inquiries, but also from a community of practice and educational mentors (Blank, Crews, Knuth, 2014; Rubino Hare et al. 2013; McClurg Buss, 2007) Long term PD allowing time for practice, reflection, and discussion with others increases teacher implementation (Baker Kerski, 2014; Desimone, 2009; Loucks Horsley et al. 2003) When teachers see the engagement and learning gains from their students, they receive positive reinforcement and gain confidence to implement further (Guskey, 2002; Yarnall, Vahey, Swan, 2014) Teachers who are comfortable with student centered approaches such as PBI and those who are willing to learn alongside their students seem to be drawn to GST as a teaching tool and have had success in implementing (Baker Kerski, 2014; Baylor Ritchie, 2002; Coulter, 2014) Charles and Kolvoord (2003) described four stages through which teachers progress as they begin to teach with GST: entry, adopt, adapt, and innovate. Kolvoord et al. (2014) presented illustrative cases for the stages. During the entry stage, teachers are able to use GST within PD. The next stage sees teachers adopt and teach lessons that use GST to teach content as written, without modification. Teachers who modify lessons to meet instructional objectives and student needs are in the adapt stage. When teachers begin developing their own original activities, they have reached the innovate stage. The ultimate goal of GST PD should be to move teachers along this continuum. The Power of Data Projects The Power of Data projects sought to increase science, technology, and 21st century skills through immersive PD experiences with PBI, by requiring teachers to propose solutions to authentic problems through spatial data collection and analysis utilizing GST (RubinoHare et al. 2013) Following the PD, teachers were expected to implement similar GSTintegrated PBI units in their classrooms. The PD team included geology faculty members, science teacher professional developers, GST experts, and science education researchers. PD institutes focused on teaching Earth science with GST. The premise for the institutes was that modeling and practicing research based pedagogical methods through an immersion program focusing on real life problems would improve participant science instruction (Loucks Horsley et al. 2003; Parker, Carlson, Na'im, 2007) The expectation was that instructional modeling would elicit a deeper level of understanding of how to integrate GST into content in a PBI context. Teacher teams who demonstrated the ability to implement PBI and integrate technology in their classrooms were recruited to increase the likelihood of success during implementation (as in Blank et al. 2014; Coulter, 2014; Kerski, 2003) During the PD Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 16(3) 211 institutes, spatial analysis with the goal of answering a question and presentation of projects using spatial data as evidence to communicate claims was emphasized (as recommended by Bodzin, Anastasio, Kulo, 2014; Coulter, 2014; Zalles Pallant, 2014) Teachers experienced an Earth science unit utilizing commercially available GST lessons (as in Johnson Schmidts, 2005; Palme