In 2009, Geography: Teaching with the Stars was developed. The program is an online professional development opportunity for geography and science teachers in middle and high school.
This project is a set of media-based professional development materials, aligned with national and state standards, that will demonstrate to teachers how geographic perspectives, concepts, and skills together with relevant instructional and assessment strategies can be used to improve students’ ability to understand and deal with the geographical aspect of important issues that affect their daily lives.
Teachers are also given opportunities to practice developing and implementing instructional materials, with the support of fellow teachers and a facilitator, using the project model for lesson plan development.
Exemplary classroom lessons serve a critical role in the professional development activities in this project. These lessons are made available to project participants to use in their own classrooms. These lessons are designed to support relevant national and state geography standards.
Specifically, this project will:
- Assist teachers in providing effective geographic instruction to their students;
- Help students acquire the knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors related to geography needed to understand and deal with the geographical aspects of important global issues;
- Provide visual reinforcement to learning.
At the core of this project is a series of in-class video demonstration programs featuring actual teachers and students in real classrooms, focusing on curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The programs also contain segments in which the teachers reflect on their teaching.
Each video is self-contained and may be used independently. Each program is designed for viewing in instructionally robust segments. This has two important implications. The programs can be easily scheduled for flexible use in a variety of settings. They can be effectively delivered as digital video on storage devices installed in local area networks at schools or via the Internet as streaming video, as part of on-line professional development. The videos are close-captioned for the hearing impaired.
Video programming is particularly well suited for professional development:
- Video creates a common context in which teachers with varying backgrounds and experiences can examine issues in a positive setting.
- Video provides a vehicle for modeling skills and a base of knowledge upon which teachers can build. For example, viewers can first watch teachers in classrooms similar to theirs in realistic situations brainstorming possibilities, making instructional decisions, and using strategies that have proven effective in classrooms. Then viewers can practice using these strategies themselves.
- Video offers a springboard for discussion and interaction that promotes learning, change, and growth. As a familiar and comfortable medium, video provides a non-threatening vehicle for discussion among people.
Two enhancements are also developed for each in-class video program, linked to specific segments of the lesson demonstrated. The first is a “Content Enhancement” that focuses on the geographical content dealt within the lesson. The second is the “Pedagogy Enhancement” where a pedagogical expert comments on the various pedagogical strategies used in the lesson.
Available Programs include:
- Globalization
- Watersheds
- Agriculture and Water
- Tidewaters
These programs were funded by a consortium, including the United States Department of Education, several foundations including the NGS Education Foundation, the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, and the Dodge Jones Foundation. The production work was carried out by the Agency for Instructional Technology in Bloomington, Indiana.