Concept Maps for Assessing Teacher Learning and Faculty Professional Development
Abstract
"In order to improve the impact of professional development programs for pre and in-service teachers, university STEM faculty need to be able to deliver pedagogically sound instruction for teachers. However this is rarely an identified area for research and change. In this presentation we share how we used pre and post concepts mapping activities to assess the knowledge development of the teachers. We discuss the quantitative scoring system detailed by West et. al. (2000) to analyze the maps and the strengths and limitations of this method. Finally we discuss how we used the maps to provide feedback to the faculty on the knowledge change of the teachers in the summer session."