Abstract
This paper describes teachers’ pre and post results on the Test of Astronomy Standards (TOAST) assessment instrument and a supplemental survey (which included self-reported confidence in their ability to teach astronomy content). The pre and post assessments were administered to sixty K-12 teachers prior to and after a five-day astronomy training workshop. Results indicate that elementary and middle-school teachers lack sufficient astronomy content knowledge in the content areas they are currently responsible for teaching. However, these groups of teachers also experienced the greatest gains in content knowledge and self-reported confidence from a multi-day training. By comparison, high school teachers scored better on pre and post tests and experienced only slight gains in content and self-reported confidence. The implications of these findings suggest that multi-day professional development opportunities do help to develop better astronomy content understanding and self-confidence in K-8 teachers.
