The Problem

How does teacher education provided by historic sites affect teachers’ professional growth?

No one knows… (yet).

Little evidence-based research exists about what content, skills, or practices teachers acquire or improve upon in programs offered by historic sites.

Find out about our most recent progress.

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Institutions spend significant funding annually to provide teacher education.

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There is little consensus about how to evaluate teacher learning at historic sites.

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Much of the existing research offers site/program-specific-evaluations rather than systematic investigations from which few meaningful recommendations can be extrapolated to inform practice at other sites.

The Approach

What We're Doing

Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello is partnering with the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences to develop an evaluation tool based on national content, skills, and professional development standards to assess teacher education programs at historic sites. Learn More

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Q-Sort: How It Works

Q-Methodology offers a rigorous, quantitative study of subjectivity that is uniquely suited to address the complex problems of teaching and learning that history museums present. Learn More

How to Participate

Sign up to follow our progress. Updates include:

  • Results as they are published
  • How to include your site in the grant-funded study
  • How to analyze your own program

the latest

  • Come See Us at AAM!

    We are headed to the American Alliance of Museums Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana next week! Come meet up with members of the project team, with two key opportunities We will be facilitating an open forum session on Wednesday, May 22 at 11am-12pm CDT, entitled Museum Educators as Teacher Educators: Research and Reflections on […]

  • From Our Alums: The Power of Place

    2016 Monticello Teacher Institute alumnus Kenny Blum, a library media specialist at Oak Grove Elementary School in Peachtree City, Georgia, wrote a post for the National Council for History Education on their blog, History Matters, about his time at the Monticello Teacher Institute. Kenny noticed anecdotally a key aspect of what the research has revealed […]

  • How the Q-sort Evaluation Shifted our Thinking about Teacher Professional Development: Four Big Take-Aways

    Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut employed the Q-sort evaluation tool in 2017 and 2018 with two summer professional development programs for teachers:  the Connecticut Teachers of the Year Program (TOY) and our Mystic Seaport for Educators Summer Fellowship Program.  In this blog post, Krystal Rose, Manager of Digital & Primary Source Education at Mystic […]

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