Professional Development for Promoting 21st Century Skills and Common Core State Standards in Foreign Language and Social Studies Classrooms

To help satisfy the pressing need for technology-related professional development for in-service teachers, the Global Academic Essentials Teacher Institute (GAETI) was implemented to provide in-service foreign language and social studies teachers with content, pedagogy, and technology explorations centered on the teaching of the Common Core State Standards and 21st Century Skills. Sixteen teachers attended the institute, which consisted of 20 days during the summer plus one follow-up day in September and one in March. The strongest aspects of GAETI were the demonstration activities that integrated subject-area content, successful pedagogies, and ways to effectively integrate the latest and most effective classroom technologies. Participants not only reflected positively on their experiences with GAETI but also showed a significant level of improvement in all dimensions of technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK). Improvement from pre to post-test was most pronounced in the four dimensions of TPACK most closely associated with technology.