Teacher? Learner? Both

Teachers often have questions about how the strategies they learned at a professional development (PD) workshop will work with their students. Wouldn't it be great if teachers had the opportunity to practice implementing new strategies during PD so that they could hone their skills before returning to their classrooms? That's what 35 teachers got to experience as part of the QUEST (Quality Elementary Science Teaching) program. The unique design of the summer institute allows teachers to shift into the role of learner as they participate in the workshop, and then shift back into the role of teacher as they facilitate a summer outreach program for students. In this article, the authors describe QUEST as a model for meaningful PD. (Contains 1 figure.)