Putting Archaeology Teacher Workshops to the Test

Summary

Students are assessed constantly throughout the school year. As teachers we ask ourselves how do I know that the students understand the concepts and skills? Archaeology educators should be conducting the same kind of rigorous evaluation of the professional development courses we offer teachers. Challenging our profession to know where teachers are coming from, what their needs are, where we want them to go, and how we know that they learned. What prior knowledge do teachers bring to a workshop? Have they been exposed to inquiry-based learning? How do they feel about teaching archaeology? How will they use the educational materials in their classroom after attending? These questions and more are necessary to understand the purpose and outcomes of archaeology-centered professional development. Project Archaeology conducted a study of ten teachers who participated in a five-day course on a developing curriculum guide, Project Archaeology: Investigating a Roman Villa. The results of the research will inform future studies on how archaeology educators can conduct similar assessments of teacher pedagogical content knowledge to determine the efficacy of professional development for educators.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Assessment in Archaeology Education: Project Archaeology Research

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17291