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Curriculum-Aligned Professional Development for Geospatial Education

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Teaching Science and Investigating Environmental Issues with Geospatial Technology

Abstract

Professional development (PD) designed to accompany curriculum materials prepares teachers for specific classroom practices, guides them during practice, and creates opportunities for reflection. We present the theoretical underpinnings for our model of curriculum-linked PD and describe a hybrid (face-to-face and online) professional development program for curriculum materials that make use of the My World™ Geographic Information System software. Research-derived design principles for curriculum-aligned PD include the following: (1) identify goals for the professional development, (2) adopt a learning theory and use it, and (3) evaluate whether learning goals were met and then revise PD practices according to this feedback. We do not intend our design to be the model for online PD, but rather an example of an approach successfully applying our design principles.

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Acknowledgments

 The work described in this chapter was funded by the National Science Foundation under grants ESI-0455582, REC-9876150, ESI-0227557, and 0352478, and by the National Geographic Education Foundation. The opinions reported in this work are those of the authors and not the funding agencies or their institutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eastern Michigan University, 206 Porter Building Ypsilanti, MI, 48197, Michigan, USA

    Beth Kubitskey

  2. The University of Michigan, 610 East University, Room 4121, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Barry Fishman

  3. Vanderbilt University, PMB 230 GPC 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA

    Heather Johnson

  4. Northwestern University, 2120 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA

    Kirsten Mawyer

  5. National Geographic Society, 1145 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20036, USA

    Daniel Edelson

Authors
  1. Beth Kubitskey
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  2. Barry Fishman
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  3. Heather Johnson
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  4. Kirsten Mawyer
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  5. Daniel Edelson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Beth Kubitskey .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hobart & William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York, USA

    James MaKinster

  2. Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, USA

    Nancy Trautmann

  3. Lynch School of Education, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA

    Michael Barnett

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Kubitskey, B., Fishman, B., Johnson, H., Mawyer, K., Edelson, D. (2014). Curriculum-Aligned Professional Development for Geospatial Education. In: MaKinster, J., Trautmann, N., Barnett, M. (eds) Teaching Science and Investigating Environmental Issues with Geospatial Technology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3931-6_10

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