Lessons Learned: How Collaboration Helped Middle Grade Science Teachers Learn Project-Based Instruction

We draw conclusions regarding how 5 teachers learned to enact an instructional program based on constructivist theory in their classrooms, project-based science. We describe how the teacher-researcher collaborative activities unfolded, based on a model of teacher change that focused on cycles of collaboration, enactment, and reflection and how these activities contributed to a change in teachers' understanding and practice. Collaboration developed slowly and was successful when both teachers and researchers benefited with respect to their different needs and concerns. Successful collaboration required that participants see themselves as a community with a shared investment in the endeavor. Enactment proved crucial to developing teachers' understanding of project-based science instruction and advancing collaborative conversations. Teachers' foci changed from concerns with fidelity of enactments, to strategies for dealing with challenges of implementing project-based science, to beginning exploration of underlying theoretical premises and congruent practice. We conclude by describing an approach to dissemination that includes an interactive hypermedia system that can foster collaboration and assist teachers in learning about project-based instruction.