Page 1 AERA 2006 Professional Development Design for Systemic Curriculum Change Beth Kubitskey and Barry J. Fishman The Center for Highly Interactive Classrooms, Curricula, and Computing in Education The University of Michigan, 610 E. University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 kubitske@umich.edu, fishman@umich.edu In an era of high stakes assessment and standards-based educational reform, the need for high quality professional development has emerged as one of the most important areas for research in education (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993; Borko, 2004; National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, 1998, 2001a, 2001b; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989; National Research Council, 1996; National Staff Development Council, 2001; U.S. Department of Education, 2001). Expecting teachers to embrace new instructional approaches without sufficient training and information on why such changes are necessary, or warranted, often result in inadequate adoption of the mandated curriculum (Cohen & Hill, 2001). With the increased emphasis on shifting instructional strategies to a more inquiry/constructivist approach, teachers need formal professional development to both buy-in to the changes as well as implement them. Although research has focused on the defining characteristics of quality professional development opportunities, little has been done to examine the specific factors involved in teacher learning from a professional development activity and its relationship to practice and student learning (Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, & Yoon, 2001; Guskey, 2003; Kubitskey, Fishman, & Marx, 2003; Kubitskey, Fishman, & Marx, 2004; Loucks-Horsley, 1997; Richardson, 2001). The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine teacher learning from professional development and practice by answering the question: How can we design long-term curriculum aligned professional development to best impact teacher learning in the context of classroom practice? Problem Teachers are influenced both by formal professional development activities and through reflecting on their own classroom experience (however informally), influenced by their students’ responses. Classroom practice is a major influence on teacher learning related to the formal professional development activity. Formal professional development activities are intended to mediate teachers’ practice; however, the practice itself often becomes a mediating factor in how the formal professional development continues to impact teaching. The sustainability of reform initiatives relies on teachers maintaining alignment with the intent of the initiative, even as they make adaptations to suit their local context (Cohen & Hill, 2001). To design professional development that supports long term systemic change initiatives, it is important to understand the relationship between teacher learning from formal professional development and the resulting practice. Looking at teacher learning from formal professional development episodes in isolation from practice proves problematic in that it limits our understanding to teachers’ “knowing that” as opposed to “knowing how”, an important distinction made by Ryles