A roadmap for virtual professional learning: Bringing inquiry science practices to life through teacher professional community

Abstract

AbstractAccording to the Next Generation Science Standards, three‐dimensional teaching challenges educators to adopt an inquiry approach through science and engineering practices aligned with disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts. Few teachers today feel confident in their ability to orchestrate such lessons. Teaching inquiry science takes time and hard work. It also requires collaborative professional learning communities that support teachers in overcoming typical classroom challenges. This article describes an effective approach for facilitating professional learning that supports inquiry science teaching. Since the COVID pandemic, more teachers are familiar with videoconferencing and may even have initiated or expanded their use of asynchronous text based discussion. A hybrid combination of these platforms provides an effective, two‐fold strategy for facilitating a teacher professional learning community (PLC) that engages teachers in deepened reflection and sustained collaboration with colleagues. To illustrate how this approach can be successfully adopted, I draw from a recent example of the InquirySpace PLC that unfolded during the final year of a National Science Foundation‐funded educational research project. Key to the success of this PLC was a combination of responsiveness to teachers’ support requests, a warm and encouraging tone, orchestrating interactive engagement, and the showcasing of PLC member voices.