TEACHING AMERICAN HISTORY EVALUATION
SUMMER 2009 SITE VISITS
Provider Protocol
A. Background and Role |
How long have you been involved in this TAH project? Why did you decide to get involved? What roles do you play in the project? (In addition to training, probe for lectures, contributions to website, leadership of field trips, review of lesson plans, observation or mentoring of teachers, etc.)
Does your intervention or activities fit into a district-wide strategy for improving teacher content knowledge and instruction? If so, how? Is it part of a systematic approach to improving teaching and learning of American history in the districts served? Describe.
3. What do you know about the needs of the history teachers in the school districts from which the participating teachers are recruited? How did you become informed about the teachers’ needs?
4. Are you involved in TAH activities for any other grantees? If so, please describe.
5. What is your professional background? Have you or your colleagues had previous experience in the delivery of professional development services to public school history teachers? Do you have any teaching experience yourself? (If so, please elaborate.)
6. Are you aware of the statewide history standards and assessments in this state? Do you integrate this knowledge into your delivery of professional development services? If so, please describe.
7. Do you have history educators in your organization who are able to help history content experts translate history content into viable classroom instructional practices?
B. Training Content |
8. What is the history content of the training session(s) or other professional development you or your organization have provided through the TAH project (e.g., what topics, eras or themes in American history has your training covered)? Is the history content integrated with guidance on classroom instruction or are the two subjects kept separate? Please describe.
9. What is the total length of time (i.e., years, contact hours) you have spent working with this TAH project?
10. Do you work with any other training providers for TAH grants? If so, what is the nature of this collaboration?
11. Has your organization has been involved in multiple TAH grants? If so, how has involvement in the grants affected the way you interact with teachers? Overall, how has it affected your work in your own organization?
12. What has been the process for making decisions about the history content, activities and training methodologies used in this TAH project over the past year? Did you conduct a needs assessment of teacher background knowledge in history content and/or knowledge of strategies for teaching history to determine gaps or areas on which to focus the training? Were teachers involved in the planning of the project content and activities and if so, how? How did you take into consideration the needs of the targeted student population and grade levels taught? What kinds of meetings were held to plan the activities? Who participated?
13. What training approaches have you and your colleagues utilized and why? Can you pinpoint any theories or models of professional development that have guided your approach?
14. Do you and your colleagues train teachers in any specific history teaching methodologies or strategies? (Probe for whether and how they train teachers in fostering historical thinking, using authentic/source documents, project-based instruction, document-based reflection, maps, and artifacts. Probe for how teachers are trained to promote understanding of cause and effect relationships in history.)
15. What kinds of materials do you and your colleagues typically provide to teachers? Do your professional development activities include how to access and use resources outside the classroom? Do you normally use or recommend the use of online history resources? Please describe.
C. Observed Training |
16. (If applicable) How typical was the training we observed, compared to other project-related activities in which you have been involved? How did the level of teacher engagement compare to other sessions?
17. What aspects of your training worked best? What aspects were more challenging?
Will you conduct follow-up activities with the participating teachers—activities that work with the teachers in implementing what they have learned in this or other trainings? If so, please describe.
Will you and your colleagues be attempting to determine whether and how changes occur in the classrooms of participating teachers as an outcome of this and other trainings? How will you do this?
D. Reflection and Wrap Up |
20. What have you observed to be the most important outcomes of participation in the TAH project for teachers? (Please ask interviewees to focus on observed outcomes.)
21. Is there anything else about your training experiences that would help us better understand this program?
Thank you for your participation!
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | TEACHING AMERICAN HISTORY EVALUATION |
| Author | mgillespie |
| Last Modified By | Katrina.Ingalls |
| File Modified | 2009-05-14 |
| File Created | 2009-05-14 |