Phenomenon-Based Professional Development

Gunshenan et al talk about phenomenon-based professional development (PD). Phenomena constitute observable events that enable students to ask and investigate questions and then use evidence they gathered to explain the phenomenon. In the rural western state, wildlife plays a large role in daily life for teachers and their students--encountering animals while driving, seeing them around town, hunting them, and celebrating them as school mascots. For these reasons, the science PD team chose a familiar ungulate, the pronghorn (colloquially "antelope"), and its treacherous semi-annual migrations as a place-relevant phenomenon with a group of upper elementary teachers.