An investigation into the attitudes of secondary school science teachers toward professional development in a northern Delaware school district

Teachers' feelings toward staff development have a powerful influence toward the efficacy and productivity of these inservice days. The success of inservice days for secondary science teachers depends, in large part, on how the teachers perceive these days and how much of a success they allow them to be.; Inservices thrust upon teachers without their input and without regard to their needs and preferences are generally viewed as ineffective, nonproductive, and something to be resented. The school district in northern Delaware featured in this study does not solicit the input of its staff in planning professional development opportunities and inservice offerings.; Math and English teachers are on the front lines of change and increased efforts to find and use more effective methods of professional development. With an eye to improving science test scores via increased efficiency in the science classroom, it makes sense to get an initial, district-wide impression of the state of science professional development before effort is further expended in this area.; The purpose of this study is to gauge how the attitudes and perceptions of staff development by secondary science teachers in a school district in northern Delaware are influenced by the inservice offerings of that district. It is also an attempt to pinpoint the secondary science teachers' attitudes toward professional development in that school district.; The results of this study typify a district that does not plan professional development with the goal of increasing student performance via best practices, but rather one that uses convenient, arbitrary objectives as an end to their planning. Teacher attitudes are what may be expected from working in a system where professional respect is absent with regard to treating them like professionals who know what they want and need to help their students achieve academically.; This district, like thousands of others in the country, can expect to get the same results from professional development if they keep doing the same thing. However, another implication from this study is that the district can break out of their cycle of ineffective professional development. Several approaches for improvement have been identified in this study.