Designing professional development programs to support sustained science and technology education

Teachers’ professional development (PD) is crucial in implementing educational change and improving the quality of education. However, PD programs vary extensively in their short-term effectiveness. Therefore, this paper determined 1) the design criteria of effective PD programs; 2) whether four PD programs incorporated these criteria and 3) what guidelines can help translate the criteria into new PD programs that are likely to be effective. Interviews with educators were conducted and analyzed, and existing review studies and four PD programs about science and technology education were analyzed. Nine design criteria were identified, and existing PD programs incorporated four of them at most. Especially teachers’ active engagement and ability to collect evidence of student learning need to be addressed in future programs.