A group of middle school teachers had participated in a summer workshop sponsored by the city zoo. The zoo ran this program through grant money and the grantors wanted to find out if and how the teachers brought what they had learned back to their classrooms. muscella.com designed an online assessment protocol for the teachers.

The focus group leader, Leigh, worked with the online facilitator, Geo, to make sure that the conversation stays focused. Leigh also wanted to capture the interesting and unexpected ideas that pop up when a small group talks about ideas so she did not want Geo to focus the conversation too tightly. Ten teachers participated in the conversation forum, which teachers could access at times convenient for them.

The following is an excerpt from the conversation. Notice how the first question that Leigh posed led to a whole new track in the conversation. Notice that from only a few teachers posting their comments, Leigh learns how the teachers took what they had learned in the workshop and applied it to their own lives and planned units for the curriculum in the fall. Leigh learned what in the workshop spurred teachers on to make changes.