A program to improve elementary teacher preparation in science at Rollins College

Conclusion The goals of this project were to design and implement a series of courses that would better prepare elementary school teachers to teach science and would promote positive attitudes toward science and science teaching. The initial offering of the first series of courses met with moderate success. Although the courses fostered an increase in cognitive knowledge, the magnitude of the improvement was not what we had anticipated. There was no significant improvement in the attitudes of the students toward science or science teaching. The science course has been revised and is currently being offered for both preservice and inservice teachers. The revisions include lengthening the class time, so that the material can be covered at a more relaxed pace, and increasing the amount of active team teaching by the instructors to further emphasize the interrelations between chemistry and biology and to eliminate the fragmentation of the course. It is hoped that these changes will also have a positive impact on the students’ attitudes toward the course and thus toward science in general.     

Teaching in elementary school: Perceptions of foreign-trained teacher candidates on their teaching practicum

The Alternative Teacher Accreditation Program for Teachers with International Experience (ATAPTIE) is a special Bachelor of Education program funded by the Ontario government in Canada to provide new immigrants with the skills and knowledge needed to re-certify and find jobs in Ontario elementary schools. This paper presents interview data that explores the opportunities and challenges ATAPTIE teacher candidates experienced in their teaching practicum. Lave and Wenger's notion of situated learning [(1991). Situated learning. New York: Cambridge University Press] was used to understand the candidates’ learning and acculturation into the teaching profession. Findings contribute to how professional immigrants from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds adapt to Canadian elementary classrooms.     

Assessment of the practicum in teacher education: advocating for the student teacher and questioning the gatekeepers

This paper reports on research that suggests a new view of assessment of the practicum in teacher education. By transcending the stereotypes of “failing” student teachers who do not achieve traditional benchmarks, this new lens highlights the complexity, diversity and inequality of experiences through listening to the voices of the student teachers and their mentors. By valuing context and focusing on progress and development rather than absolute attainment, teacher educators are challenged to reflect on their own role as mentors and educators through guiding principles of practicum learning. These guiding principles of practicum learning are the result of significant observation in the practicum classroom followed by critical analysis of data provided as narrative. A more humane, trusting and respectful attitude towards assessment is suggested.     

When is student teaching teacher education?

This paper presents a conceptual framework that relates empirical aspects of student teaching (facts about the experience) to considerations of value (what student teachers ought to learn). First, the authors explain what they mean by calling student teaching an “occasion for teacher learning.” Next based on their observational and interview data, the authors present two cases of student teaching to illustrate how the relative influence of program, setting, and participants interact to shape opportunities for teacher learning. One teaching episode that elicited considerable pride in each student teacher is presented to highlight how and what the students teachers learned. The conclusion appraises the lessons learned in student teaching in terms of the framework and suggests how teacher educators can increase the educative power of the student teaching experience.     

Reconstructing elementary teacher candidates' understanding of mathematics and science content

This paper examines the mathematics and science content knowledge of elementary teacher candidates. Data are presented which demonstrate that many elementary teacher candidates enter teacher education seriously deficient in their understanding of the subject matter they will teach to elementary students. The authors argue that these candidates are weakly prepared in content because of deficiencies in the pedagogy practiced in traditional didactic mathematics and science courses. They describe a conceptual approach to teaching mathematics and science content and contrast this with a didactic approach. Data are presented which demonstrate that these conceptual approaches significantly improved novice teachers understanding of content.     

Biology content cognitive structure: From science student to science teacher

The F-Sort of Biology Concepts was used to assess understanding of the relationships among 37 biology concepts by five groups: Preservice secondary science teachers, in-service biology teachers with 1–3 years of teaching experience, in-service biology teachers with 5 or more years of experience, scientists in any biological science field, and college seniors majoring in biology. Data collected from the F-sort were analyzed using latent partition analysis and alpha factor analysis with additional interpretation from multidimensional scaling. The subjects were asked to think aloud as they performed the F-sort and each session was audiotaped for later analysis. These analyses indicated that the biology major and experienced secondary science teachers were separated from the scientists by a dimension based on a deep-versus-surface structure understanding of the concepts. A second axis shows that scientists are separated from other groups by a fluid-versus-fixed cognitive structure dimension. That is, both experienced teachers and scientists were found to have well-constructed and ordered cognitive structures, but scientists were much more likely to see an item having a place in two or more categories, whereas experienced teachers tended to focus on only one aspect of an item, and therefore understanding that it rightfully belonged in only one category. It appears that teachers restructure their science knowledge as they become more experienced. There is an apparent transition from poorly organized to highly organized cognitive structures for biology concepts when comparing preservice, novice, and experienced teachers, respectively. The transition does not seem to be one achieving a deeper understanding of the biology concepts or to a greater degree of integration of the concepts, but rather a transition from a fairly large, loosely organized pool of biology concepts to one which is highly structured but limited to the expectations of the established curriculum. The results have implications for the well-known conjecture that teaching helps one better understand the content being taught.     

Junior high school science teacher preparation,teaching behavior,and student achievement

The findings challenge both practices and prejudices in junior high school science teacher preparation.     

Student satisfactions in four mixed courses in elementary teacher education program

Mixed or hybrid method has become an increasingly popular course delivery model in recent years, but research regarding the effect of mixed learning is limited because of its recent debut in the landscape of educational technology. This one-year exploratory study looked at 78 elementary teacher candidates' view of learning in four mixed courses that used Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS) to supplement as well as replace some portions of face-to-face instruction. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from surveys designed to measure students' satisfaction and perspectives of hybrid learning. Results suggested high level of satisfactions but also revealed several important issues and complexities involving hybrid course implementation.     

Evaluation of a model science teacher education program

This study assessed the effectiveness of one science teacher education program designed to be a model program. The study provided evidence that preservice science teacher education can have a very positive effect on the development of preservice science teachers into effective practicing teachers. Thirty program graduates completed a pilot version of the 1985 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education providing information on course objectives, teaching strategies, equipment use, time allocation, and textbook use. The responses of program graduates were compared to the responses of a select national sample of teachers. All teachers in the comparison group were from programs in the Search for Excellence in Science Education, Presidential Award winners, recognized as outstanding state science teachers, employed as department chairs, or actively involved in the development of science curriculum. Analysis of the responses indicated that both program graduates and comparison group teachers had similar course objectives and teaching strategies, used materials and equipment a similar amount of time, and allocated class time in similar ways. In another component of the study, students of 37 program graduates completed a questionnaire that assessed their attitudes toward science teachers, science classes, and the study of science. Analysis of attitudinal data from their 2871 students indicated that students of program graduates generally had positive attitudes. For instance, 89% of the students perceived their science teacher as asking questions and 80% perceived their science teacher as letting them ask questions. In general, the data are in stark contrast to the images obtained from National Assessment efforts.     

The development,trial and evaluation of a constructivist teaching and learning approach in a preservice science teacher education program

This paper reports on the use of a constructivist teaching/learning approach to improve first year pre-service primary teachers' confidence in, and attitude to, teaching science. The two-semester program was based on allowing the students to explore science concepts in detail during the first semester and then developing constructivist pedagogy in the second semester. There were many benefits reported by students including ownership of knowledge, the development of pedagogic skills and the use of group work to develop ideas. However, a number of concems were raised such as uncertainty of knowing what to do when exploring knowledge for themselves and the lack of note taking which occurred. A number of issues that need to be considered when re-implementing the program are discussed.     

A comparison of elementary teacher attitudes and skills in teaching science in Australia and the United States

A study, originally don in Australia in 1983, was replicated in an urban-suburb in the Unitd States. The Australian project vivolved matched pairs of year-fiv teachers in one of two workshops. One workshop taught the skills of teaching electricity, while the other one discussed issues in gender equity in science education (active participation of both girls and boys, comparble student-teacher interactions, and research findings concerning equity). The U.S. study provided three types of workshops (skills, equity and skills, and equity) for comparable groups of fourth and fifth grade teachers. All teachers and their students were subsequently obseved during lessons involving an electricity unit, queried both students and teachers concerning the appropriateness of different fields of science for boys and girls and their interest and aptitudes in doing various types of science. Results from both studies suggest that gender differences in student attitudes toward science may be amellorated by specific types of teacher workshop. Specializations: Gender research, science teacher education, science education national policy. Specializations: Elementary and middle school science education, classroom research. Specializations: Secondary science education, data analysis.     

SCIS-II and the elementary teacher: A program evaluation

A two-part opinionaire was used to identify teachers' perceptions of the SCIS-II elementary science program. Of particular interest were perceived barriers to effective implementation of the program. The first part of the opinionaire was administered to 685 individuals, or 96.8% of the elementary teachers in a metropolitan school district. The second part was completed by a group of teachers at each grade level in each of the 31 elementary schools, with completion rates ranging from 77%–97% for the 13 SCIS-II units. Results indicate that grades K-2 teachers rated the program more positively than grades 3–6 teachers; teachers who rated the program highly perceived fewer barriers to effectively utilizing the program; and teachers rated the program higher for developing social skills and positive attitudes than for teaching science content and processes. Data on problems with individual SCIS-II units indicated that the viability and performance of the living organisms are problematic in all life science units. Further, the small number of insightful evaluative comments received for the last one-third to one-half of some units suggests that a significant portion of teachers are quitting the units before reaching the end.     

The effect of A teacher questioning strategy training program on teaching behavior,student achievement,and retention

The use of questions in the classroom has been employed throughout the recorded history of teaching. One still hears the term “Socratic method” during discussions of questioning procedures. The use of teacher questions is presently viewed as a viable procedure for effective instruction. This study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of training teachers in the use of a questioning technique and the resultant effect upon student learning. The Post-Test Only Control Group Design was used in randomly assigning teachers and students to experimental and control groups. A group of teachers was trained in the use of a specific questioning technique. Follow-up periodic observations were made of questioning technique behavior while teaching science units to groups of students. Post-unit achievement tests were administered to the student groups to obtain evidence of a relationship between the implementation of specific types of teacher questions and student achievement and retention. Analysis of observation data indicated a higher use of managerial and rhetorical questions by the control group than the experimental group. The experimental group employed a greater number of recall and data gathering questions as well as higher order data processing and data verification type questions. The student posttest achievement scores for both units of instruction were greater for the experimental groups than for the control groups. The retention scores for both units were Beater for the experimental groups than for the control groups.     

Integrating theory and practice in the pre-service teacher education practicum

This article reports on a study into student teachers’ perceptions about their professional development during practicum. Framed within a symbolic interactionist perspective, the study examined to what extent, and how effectively, one group of student teachers was able to integrate theory and practice during a three-week practicum in the first year of their degree. The context for this mixed methods study was a Master of Teaching, graduate-level entry programme in the Faculty of Education at an urban Australian university. Although there is a strong field of literature around the practicum in pre-service teacher education, there has been a limited focus on how student teachers themselves perceive their development during this learning period. Further, despite widespread and longstanding acknowledgement of the ‘gap’ between theory and practice in teacher education, there is still more to learn about how well the practicum enables an integration of these two dimensions of teacher preparation. In presenting three major findings of the study, this paper goes some way in addressing these shortcomings in the literature. First, participants in this study largely valued both the theoretical and practical components of their programme, which stands in contrast to the commonly identified tendency of the student teacher to privilege practice over theory. Second, opportunities to integrate theory and practice were varied, with many participants reporting the detrimental impact of an apparent lack of clarity around stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities. Third, participants overwhelmingly supported the notion of linking university coursework assessment to the practicum as a means of bridging the gap between, on the one hand, the university and the school and, on the other hand, theory and practice.     

Complexity science and student teacher supervision

To what extent might the practicum be regarded as a complex phenomenon? After introducing complexity science and its potential to illuminate educational practice, five characteristics are explored within the context of teacher education. Vignettes from a kindergarten classroom extend this exploration into the practicum setting. Five implications emerge for student teacher supervision: redefining the practicum, rethinking evaluation, surrendering certainty, acknowledging complicity, and allowing for improvisation.