The Role of Scientists in the Professional Development of Science Teachers (1996) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 9-25
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From page 9... ...
The report offered strong recommendations for improving biology curricula, laboratory activities, tests and testing, school administration, teacher preparation, licensing and certification of teachers, and leadership in science-education reform. It also recommended that improvements be made in "inservice" education-the activities of teachers as they continue to learn.
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. To provide recommendations about the design of inservice programs that include both content and pedagogy and are conducted with the collaboration of experienced science teachers, teacher educators, and scientists.
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The generalizations about professional-development programs found in this report are derived from the information gathered from the program review and from the committee members' professional experience. The committee could not quantify the results of the program review for statistical analysis, because the programs were diverse, because few programs had quantifiable evaluations, because few programs had been in operation for more than a few years, and because a program often changed as participants gained experience with it.
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From page 12... ...
Its third goal is to describe the breadth and scope of professional-development activities for science teachers; to show where more information, attention, and funds are needed; and to recommend how to target funding to innovative and sustainable programs that work. In the "Issues in Professional Development" section of this chapter, we present our understanding of the status, needs, opportunities, and problems in science education and in the professional development of science teachers.
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; copies of guidelines related to science education from two institutions of higher learning (E) ; a list of professional organizations actively involved in science education (F)
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to describe prospective teachers' formal coursework at the undergraduate level. We use the term teacher to refer to a K-12 classroom teacher, scientist to refer to someone professionally trained in science who might also be engaged in scientific research, research scientist to refer specifically to persons whose main occupation is the practice of scientific research, and science educator to include anyone involved in science education, including teachers, scientists, and school science coordinators.
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Because the committee lacked adequate expertise to address appropriately the important question of how diversity among teachers and students affects classroom teaching and learning, we refer the reader to special readings on the subject. The references are included in Appendix D, in a section on "Diversity and Equity in Science Classrooms." In the words of Dennis Tierney, professor of teacher education, San Jose State University, both pre-service and in-service teacher education can benefit from increased attention to the challenge of providing effective content instruction to a multicultural student population.
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. Science Subject-Matter Preparation Only 26 states require any science courses for persons preparing to be elementary-school teachers, and only 29 require these persons to complete coursework in both science and mathematics teaching methods (Blank and Dalkilic, 1992~.
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And few colleges or universities have mechanisms for involving master teachers officially in student teaching or assessing student teachers. There is little coordination of the education and science curricula with the real-life situations that will be faced by future elementary- or secondary-school science teachers.
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For content, the National Science Education Standards are an excellent source. Teachers tend to teach the way they were taught, and scientists who use inquiry-based teaching will communicate the value of this method to their students.
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Another approach, the "conceptual-change perspective," suggested that the goal of science education is to help students to develop a meaningful, conceptual understanding of science and its ways of describing, predicting, explaining, and controlling natural phenomena (Roth, 1989~. Proponents of the conceptualchange perspective argued that science teaching should integrate conceptual knowledge and science processes in ways that better reflect the richness and complexity of science itself.
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From page 21... ...
Professional-development activities can provide immediate and cost-effective opportunities for teachers to communicate with each other both informally and formally about subject matter and teaching and learning techniques and can help to develop professional relationships and information-sharing among teachers and scientists. Increasing Teachers' Knowledge About Science Many teachers try to stay current in science by reading scientific publications, but elementary- and secondary-school teachers are responsible for such broad fields of science that they cannot hope to be at the cutting edge of any discipline.
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In most elementary schools, the teacher is responsible for teaching all subjects, including science. Because most elementary-school teachers have had little or no preparation in the sciences, they do not consider themselves science teachers.
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New information has also affected the development of teaching materials and local or state initiatives directed at improving science education. Some teachers watch educational television and read scientific periodicals and professional journals.
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The changes called for by the major science-education reform efforts most notably the National Research Council's National Science Education Standards, AAAS's Project 2061 and its Benchmarks, and NSTA's Scope Sequence and Coordination Project require individual teachers to adopt new curricula and teaching strategies. In particular, standards-based reform requires teachers to be involved in the changes that result in new curricula and instructional materials and to implement those changes.
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From page 25... ...
Although we do not explore educational research in detail in this report, we have compiled an annotated reading list in Appendix D that provides a starting point and resource for scientists who want to become more informed about research in science education.
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