One effective piece of our professional development model that helps teachers to change their pedagogy from text book driven to a hands-on, concept based method, is the use of coaches in the classroom.  Providing an opportunity for a teacher to see a lesson modeled in their own classroom, with their own students, affirms the best practice strategy being presented.   After the lesson is modeled, the teacher and coach sit down to reflect on what worked and what might need refining.  This process of modeling and reflecting has proven successful with our teachers.