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Professional Development Program for Secondary School Teachers to Improve Knowledge and Self-Efficacy in Energy Science

Teaching STEM is essential for nurturing future generations of leaders as well as increasing awareness of career opportunities that are available in the energy fields. Despite an increased number of informal professional development programs for STEM teachers in the past few years, few efforts have been made on testing the effectiveness of professional teacher development programs in energy science. This study utilized a quantitative and qualitative approach to investigate the effectiveness of teacher professional development programs to improve their knowledge and self-efficacy in teaching energy science. More than 100 secondary teachers from various science education backgrounds participated in a one-week intensive learning experience on energy science concepts and applications in the form of lectures, group discussions, field trips, hands-on activities, collaborative project designs with students, and lesson plan development. Results indicated an increase in teacher knowledge and self-efficacy in teaching energy science after program completion. Knowledge gained was also found to be a significant positive predictor of teacher self-efficacy. This study also generated several themes related to knowledge gained, use of knowledge gained, and barriers to energy science teaching implementation. These findings highlighted the importance of mastery experiences in energy science learning as a foundation for the development of teacher confidence in the delivery of STEM pedagogy. Implications for theory and practice of STEM pedagogy are discussed.