The committee will identify the learning needs for teachers throughout their careers. The committee will identify how these needs might differ depending on school level (elementary, middle and high school), and across the span of one’s career. To the extent possible the committee will characterize the current state of the learning opportunities and support for learning that exist for teachers and identify the characteristics of effective learning opportunities. The committee will also consider how school and district contexts shape teachers’ learning opportunities and limit or promote teachers’ efforts to implement new classroom practices. They will consider the roles of school and district administrators and the professional development opportunities they may need in order to provide effective support for teachers. If possible, the committee will develop guidance for schools and districts for how best to support teachers’ learning and how to implement successful programs for professional development. This will include considerations of the trade-offs and benefits of different approaches to professional development (e.g. costs, time, staffing needs, etc).

With regard to the evidence base, the committee will assess and describe the strengths and weaknesses of the available research evidence related to each component of a teacher learning continuum. It will identify major gaps, and develop a research agenda for future work on professional development continuums in science. The committee will review and analyze research challenges such as appropriate measures of student outcomes and teacher learning and the difficulty of establishing causal links between professional development, teachers’ instructional practices and students’ outcomes. The committee will outline the research needed to more clearly define learning continuums for science teachers at each stage of their careers.

Specific questions the committee may consider include:

• How do teachers’ learning and professional needs differ by the stage of their careers and school level (elementary, middle, or high school)?
• What is known about the characteristics of effective approaches to supporting science teachers’ learning? What are the implications for schools and districts?
• What is known about the kind of training teacher educators and providers of professional development need in order to support teachers’ learning?
• What is known about how local, district, and state context shape the learning opportunities available for teachers and influence the outcomes of teachers’ learning activities? What are the implications for schools, states, and districts?
• What is known about how to design and implement professional development and what guidance can be given to states, districts and schools about implementation of effective professional development? What are the trade-offs, limitations, and benefits of different approaches to induction and professional development?
• What are the major gaps and weaknesses in the currently available research on teacher development?
• What measures are used to evaluate the outcomes of teacher development activities, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of these measures? How are assessments used to diagnose teachers’ learning needs and assess their progress?