Sleepy Hollow High School science teacher, Leana Peltier, along with Pace University professor, Christine Clayton, Ph.D, presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the New England Educational Research Organization. Their presentation, A Teacher-Led Professional Learning Community: Elementary and Secondary Teachers Inquiring Together about Science Teaching, explores the perceptions of K-12 teachers who participated in a teacher-led, vertically aligned professional learning community focused on integrating inquiry and Next Generation Science Standards.
Peltier and Clayton’s study also examines how the experience shaped self-reported practice and identities of these teachers in thinking about themselves as science teachers and inquirers. Their work considers implications for not only science teachers but for a school district when a vertically-aligned and discipline-based PLC is utilized for professional learning.
With generous grants and funding from The Foundation for the Public Schools of the Tarrytowns and Pace University, Ms. Peltier has been able to implement her work in the Tarrytowns School District for the last two years. In addition to presenting at NEERO, Ms. Peltier shared her paper, Bridging K-12 Science in a School District: An Exploratory Study Using a Vertically Aligned Professional Learning Community at the 2019 Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE) Conference in Savannah, Georgia.
