Evaluating professional development that prepares teachers to integrate academic skills into technical curricula

Abstract

The purpose of this evaluation study was to determine whether career and technical education teachers were using the integration strategies that were presented to them in a professional development course. The integration strategies are strategies that teachers can use to integrate reading, writing and mathematics into their technical curricula. The ultimate goal of the professional development course is to help teachers improve academic achievement in career and technical education students; however, the first step in reaching this goal is to explore how teachers feel about integrating these basic academic skills into their technical subject matter and to determine whether they are using the strategies that were taught in the professional development course. A survey instrument was developed adapting Hall and Hord’s levels‐of‐use concept to show teachers’ behaviors associated with use of integration strategies in their practice. This survey was administered via the web to 100 course participants with a response of 44%. The results indicated that while teachers believed the integration strategies would increase student achievement, they were not routinely using them in their practice. The evaluators discuss potential reasons for this finding and make recommendations for improving the professional development program.