Professional Development

Professional development:

Research on educator professional development in the 4-H Youth Development Program has shown a need for improvement. Currently, most professional development opportunities involve episodic workshops that are considered largely ineffective with regard improving educators’ practice. In contrast, professional development models that are iterative, collaborative, occur over extended periods of time, and are educator-centered have shown to be more effective. Recent work on professional development in 4-H involving Communities of Practice (CoPs) have shown promise. 

 

 

• More effective professional development can help 4-H volunteers address need for youth scientific literacy
• Findings show lesson study can be an effective model for professional development of 4-H volunteers
• Curriculum and professional development for OST science education: lessons learned from California 4-H
• Prevalent Approaches to Professional Development in State 4-H Programs
• Training 4-H Teen Facilitators in Inquiry-Based Science Methods: The Evaluation of a "Step-Up" Incremental Training Model. J Extension (Also published as report to Science, Technology, and Environmental Literacy Work Group
• Multiple-Methods Needs Assessment of California 4-H Science Education 
• Constructivist Considerations to Improve Youth Science Literacy in Urban Areas
• The Development and Evaluation of Experiential Learning Workshops for 4-H Volunteers (Experiential) Learning by Doing
• Learnings and Recommendations to Advance 4-H Science Readiness
• Improving County-Based Science Programs: Bringing Out the Science Teacher in Your Volunteer Leaders