Examining the impact of professional development of science teachers' knowledge and self-efficacy: a causal-comparative inquiry

The United States of America and other countries have focused on reforming education to help increase students’ science literacy. Teachers directly impact student learning; therefore, they are the key to this change. Teacher professional development is instrumental in influencing student learning. Few research studies have been conducted with an intensive, explicit professional development model, focusing on in-service science teachers.
The primary purpose of the study was to test the hypotheses that teachers who receive intensive, explicit professional development have higher teacher self-efficacy and earth-science content knowledge than do teachers who do not receive the intervention. The causal-comparative study took place in the Victoria Crossroad and Coastal Bend region of South Texas. There were 60 participants in the characteristic-present group and 42 in the comparison group. External validity was limited to study participants due to the non-probability nature of the sampling. Because of the non-experimental nature of the study, no causal inferences were drawn. The results of the study did not support the hypotheses. Self-efficacy was further divided into two subscales: Personal Science Teaching Efficacy beliefs (PSTE) and Science Teaching Outcome Expectancies (STOE). For all subjects, the PSTE score was higher than were the STOE scores; the difference was statistically significant, and the mean difference effect size was large.
The success of professional development programs depends on identification and understanding teacher’s knowledge and perceptions, before the creation of the program. Therefore, schools, districts, third-party providers, and states need to focus on their teachers’ needs and consider them in designing and implementing professional development programs. To raise teacher’s self-efficacy, professional development facilitators need to allocate time for teachers to practice inquiry and other scientific skills. Professional development facilitators also need to be skilled in mentoring adults.