Teaching the Gap Project
 

  
       TOPS is currently in the early stages of implementing a new, collaborative approach to our lab design.  The general goal of this project is to enhance current TOPS labs and create new TOPS labs using teachers' direct experience within classrooms to shape the process.  We are basing our efforts on the model available in The Teaching Gap by Stigler and Hiebert.  If you are interested in participating in this project please read our open letter to the TOPS community (see below) and contact us for a copy of The Teaching Gap and more information about the program. 

Dear TOPS community,

         As you may recall, TOPS began in 1992 as a collaboration between five Oxy faculty, two staff members and a cohort of twenty eight Los Angeles-area high school Biology and Chemistry teachers.  Over the years we have added new teachers and schools to the TOPS community, expanded the program to include middle and elementary teachers,  developed a multi-disciplinary marine science program,  added the Physics program, and most recently, a cross-disciplinary BioWeb program.  Please see the recently updated TOPS web-site for more details on each program.

         Since 1992, TOPS has contributed to the science education of well over 80,000 students.  TOPS has been a remarkably successful “experiment” and during the 2004-05 academic year we held a series of conversations with many stakeholders both on and off campus that focused on developing a vision for the future of TOPS. 

         One of the outcomes of those conversations was to refocus our efforts on building collaborative, teacher-focused communities to address the challenges faced by science teachers in this standards-driven environment.   Some of our friends in the Pacific Northwest are also thinking about these issues and they have adapted the ideas in The Teaching Gap by Stigler and Hiebert [enclosed, please find your copy] as a starting point.   We plan to initiate one or more small groups of teachers starting in Summer 2006 to implement the “continuous improvement model” as it applies to the TOPS program. 

         If, after reading the book, you too are inspired to put these ideas into action, please email the TOPS office (TOPS@oxy.edu) indicating your primary area of interest [Biology, Chemistry, Physics or BioWeb].  We will formulate the “lesson study teams” depending upon the response from the TOPS community.  Two practical points about this plan: the teams will meet ~once a month and this is professional work—it will be compensated. 

        We hope you enjoy the book!

 Best wishes for 2006 from the TOPS team,

 Chris Craney       April Mazzeo       Bob de Groot       Luis de la Cruz       Andrew LaFree