Modeling Collaboration for Learning: Selected Models of Educator Professional Development from the Science Museum of Minnesota

The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) leverages a professional educator team (“instructors”) comprised of about two dozen individuals who facilitate both formal and informal educational programming in the museum, in K–12 classrooms, and at community-based sites. The experienced instructors of SMM’s Lifelong Learning Group bring innovative programs to both students and their teachers. Recognizing that long-term experiences can have a profound impact on students and teachers, SMM works to develop multiyear relationships based on collaboration. This article focuses primarily on SMM’s well-developed model of implementing the Engineering is Elementary (EiE) curriculum in Minnesota school districts, but also uses a few examples from a new program called LinCT: Linking Educators, Youth, and Learners in Computational Thinking. After describing these two programs, we highlight lessons we have learned about effective professional development (PD) for both informal instructors and formal classroom teachers. Effective PD at SMM builds relationships grounded in strong communication, engages new models for collaborative learning rooted in actual classroom settings, and offers important considerations for informal educators’ own PD and preparation for work with classroom teachers and students. These new models for collaborative learning use knowledgeable museum instructors as master teachers who demonstrate instruction of the EiE curriculum in local classrooms or use museum-hosted summer camps as clinical teaching experiences for novice (and preservice) teachers. In both these models, informal and formal teachers learn through hands-on teaching work with students and colleagues.