A forest for every classroom : place-based professional development through the seasons

Abstract

Educators from western Montana participated in a year-long series of place-based professional development workshops that aimed to give them the skills to more fully incorporate their local place into their teaching. Pre and post surveys and interviews were used to assess the effect of the program on the teachers' place based knowledge and teaching practices. Teachers were found to have greater knowledge of their local environment, to teach more lessons outside of the classroom, to more often use local themes to organize their teaching, to more often engage students in service learning, and to more often involve community members in their teaching as a result of their participation in the program. The relationships teachers built with each other and with the workshop organizers and presenters from their community were found to be the most valuable part of the program while the program assignments were found to be the most challenging piece.