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Paper: Interdisciplinary Teams for Teacher Professional Development
Volume: 531, ASP2020: Embracing the Future: Astronomy Teaching and Public Engagement
Page: 420
Authors: Fies, C.; Packham, C.
Abstract: Secondary school teachers often lack the necessary content background in astronomy to teach such a course confidently. Our theory of change posits that an increased confidence level will increase student retention in astronomy and related STEM fields. Beyond the science content knowledge though, teachers need opportunities to embed the content in pedagogically sound practices, and with appropriate technology tools. We report on our interdisciplinary approach to designing, developing, fielding, and iteratively improving the San Antonio Teacher Training Astronomy Academy (SATTAA), an annually offered Teacher Professional Development program. In particular, we present how our separate areas of expertise, in content and in STEM pedagogy, led to a synergistic process of teacher professional development that has now resulted in three cohorts of alumni. In this paper, we share our interdisciplinary processes and lessons learned; program metrics are described elsewhere in detail.
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