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Professional Development in Pharmacology for High School Teachers Improves Their Students’ Scores in Biology & Chemistry
Author(s) -
SchwartzBloom Rochelle D.,
Halpin Myra J.,
Reiter Jerome P.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.5.a866-a
Subject(s) - curriculum , chemistry , professional development , mathematics education , medical education , pharmacology , psychology , medicine , biology , pedagogy
There is little evidence that professional development has a significant impact on student achievement. We developed the Pharmacology Education Partnership (PEP) to help high school teachers integrate pharmacology topics into their curriculum for teaching biology & chemistry. Based on our first PEP study ( www.thepepproject.net ), we hypothesized that students would learn basic principles of biology and chemistry better if their teachers received professional development in pharmacology. We recruited 239 high school biology and chemistry teachers to participate in a 2nd large‐scale study. The teachers attended a 6 hr workshop to learn how pharmacology can be applied to biology and chemistry. Teachers had significant knowledge gain after the workshop (as expected) and this was maintained for at least a year. At the end of the school year, both before and after the workshops, we sent teachers (85 of the 239) quizzes to give to their students (n = 5200) that assessed knowledge for basic concepts in biology and chemistry and in drug abuse. The assessment occurred prior to any use of the PEP modules in the classrooms. Students of teachers who attended the workshop scored significantly higher than students whose teachers had no training. We conclude that teachers who receive the professional development in pharmacology can have a positive impact on student achievement in biology and chemistry.