Jessica Harris

This project will use a systems approach to link educational research with policy development to lead to the development of an articulated and coherent system of continuous professional career development that improves the quality of science teaching and makes significant contributions to reducing the current national shortage of qualified high school science teachers.

This project aims to: (1) develop, implement and study the impact of a subject matter-focused, Problem-based Learning professional development model; and to (2) design ways of incorporating Problem-Based Learning (PBL) into key subject matter and teacher preparation courses taken by pre-service teachers, and study the impact on pre-service teachers' learning. This project is designed with and for teams of K-12 science and mathematics teachers from school districts of mid-Michigan.