LEONARD A. ANNETTA and JUSTIN C. MATUS ANALYSIS OF SATISFACTION AND PERCEIVED LEARNING OF SCIENCE IN DIFFERENT DISTANCE EDUCATION DELIVERY MODES FOR RURAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS INVOLVED IN A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT ABSTRACT. The Science Co-op is a local systemic change project that connects eight re- gional clusters of elementary schools in rural Missouri and Iowa in the USA. These clusters are comprised of 38 school districts distributed over 40,000 square miles and include more than 1,400 teachers and 20,000 elementary school students. The project stresses inquiry science in the classroom and involves investigating science ideas using a constructivist approach and cross-curricular connections. Within the frameworks of the Science Co-op project a technology known as Interactive Television (ITV) allows for almost real-time interaction (a 3–5 second delay) within the state boundaries of Missouri and Iowa, re- spectively. The primary goals of the ITV sessions are to enhance the science content and science pedagogical knowledge among the population of elementary school teachers that they may have lacked in their prior education, and to reinforce and extend instructional strategies emphasized in this local systemic change project. In this study the participants’ self-reported learning and reactions to live ITV sessions and videotaped, delayed broadcast of ITV sessions were compared. Regression analysis results show teaching experience’s influence on overall satisfaction with ITV (p< 0.05) while mode attended, perceived technical difficulty, preferred mode, and perceived new skills or content learned in the session entered the regression equation at p = .000. Further t-tests suggested p> 0.05 for perceived new skills and content learned on the different modes of communication. KEY WORDS: The Science Co-op is a local systemic change project that connects eight regional clusters of elementary schools in rural Missouri and Iowa. These clusters are comprised of 38 school districts distributed over 40, 000 square miles and include more than 1,400 teachers and 20,000 elementary school students. The project stresses inquiry science in the classroom and involves investigating science ideas using an interactive-constructivist approach and cross-curricular connections. These connections emphasize children’s ideas, concrete experiences, print materials, and electronic resources and bring together teams of teachers, parents, scientists, and science educa- tors to make science meaningful for students. These curricular goals and pedagogical strategies are incorporated into the professional development activities. The goal of the Local Systemic Change programs supported through the National Science Foundation of the United States is stated as “Sup- International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education 1: 311–331, 2003. © 2004 National Science Council, Taiwan. Printed in the Netherlands.