Science Preparation of Future Teachers:
What Can Be Done and What Is Being Done?
Karen L. Johnston [1]
Professor Emerita, Department of Physics
About a hundred years ago, 1903 to be exact, George Bernard Shaw wrote what is often considered his most significant play, Man and Superman,[2] in which a central character of the play, John Tanner, M.I.R.C.[3], authors The Revolutionist’s Handbook and Pocket Companion that is appended to the play. Included in the handbook is a set of a hundred or so precepts for living titled Maxims for the Revolutionist. Some regard The Revolutionist’s Handbook as Shaw’s finest satire[4], and many of the maxims have found their way into the everyday lexicon of familiar quotations.
Maxim #36 is frequently cited in conversations about teaching. “He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches[5].” Some critics speculate that the sentiment wasn’t original with Shaw; he was simply paraphrasing Oscar Wilde, “Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.” [6]
Shaw’s incendiary comment on teaching may have been
influenced by his own educational experiences and his reflections on those
experiences. It’s an oversimplification
to say that education in
I believe that to be a teacher is to be a member of the most honorable profession. The task of preparing to teach is really a task of becoming a teacher; a process that engages us continually throughout our professional life. The initial stage of preparing teachers is a responsibility of colleges and universities and the local K-12 schools they support. The next stage, insuring a successful transition into the classroom- the induction period, is a period and a process requiring individual attention by experienced teaching professionals and community support of the professional societies. Teachers continue to develop and refine their skills, build their knowledge, increase their professional stature and develop their leadership through professional development programs offered by universities and professional societies. Not only are we preparing teachers when they are undergraduates, but as a community, we are preparing teachers throughout the early, middle and late stages of their careers. Preparing teachers is more than a supply/demand workforce issue; it is the model for life-long education.
My strategy for answering the two questions posed to me in the letter of invitation for this working conference was to direct you toward: (1) areas of research and evaluation to guide your thinking as you seek to revise your teacher education programs, (2) programs that embed a scholarly approach to teacher preparation initiatives, and (3) opportunities for engagement beyond your own department. Answering the question of what is being done demands only a judgment about where to find information sources that may be of value to a physics department considering change; so I will address that first. The second question, what can be done, is somewhat trickier to answer. Departments differ in tradition, culture, resources and goals; so I will be cautious in my recommendations.
The good news is that there is an expanding interest in teacher preparation within many academic disciplines, including the sciences. Colleges of Education across the country are engaging in the scholarship that buttresses the changes occurring in teacher preparation programs even while they attend to the more routine details associated with getting students from college classrooms in K-12 classrooms as teachers.
Academic institutions are not the only groups supporting and reporting studies on teacher preparation. Private foundations, academic consortia, centers for teaching and learning and other coalitions are involved in studying teacher preparation, from policy to practice. Bureaucrats and academics want to get a better grip on the problems facing education, often for different reasons. We study the problems, conduct research and evaluation, issue reports, and disseminate results in public addresses, conventional print and on the web. There isn’t a lack of good information.
The bad news there’s not a lack of good information. The real challenge for physics faculty is to keep abreast of the important results of research and evaluation and determine which outcomes of which initiatives offer the best prospect for improving their own departmental and university programs. As frequently noted, not all research and evaluation is created equal.
Teacher preparation issues attract the interest of several sectors of society, with academia being only one component. Studies in teacher preparation and related classroom practices are motivated by any number of drivers including practical, mundane matters such as workforce supply and demand as well as the ever-present desire to improve education. Awareness of these broad concerns and knowledge of particular approaches enables us to make better judgments about what changes are needed and what changes are possible within our own departments. I have focused on two questions to partition my ideas. First, what communities of scholars are developing information about the teaching of teachers? Second, what are some examples that could useful to physics faculty who work with teachers?
In my view, preparing a teacher is the one of the best examples of a life-long learning process. The process involves teachers, institutions of higher education, the schools in which the teachers work, professional societies, and the public, as represented, in part, by various government agencies. However, I believe the final responsibility for learning what needs to be learned and doing what needs to be done as a professional teacher resides with the individual teacher.
The debate of whether the responsibility of teacher education resides in the college of education or the college of science is a familiar one, but one that has been resolved. Both science and education departments must do their part to insure the highest quality programs and internships for future teachers as possible. Science and education faculty must actively mentor teachers in their early years and demonstrate by their own actions what makes a quality teacher.
The federal infrastructure that expends taxpayer dollars in the name of education must responsibly structure opportunities for faculty and professional groups to make headway in learning about teaching, learning about preparing teachers, and developing the tools and heuristics to guide the development of individual programs or changes in existing programs. Professional associations and societies must engage individuals at all stages of their careers and collectively speak out on behalf of teachers in public forums. And, teachers and college faculty must come together informally on a regular basis to build local professional networks to offer the continuous support needed by classroom teachers.
In my view, there is not a single problem to be fixed in teacher education. Instead, the complex set of interactions among different constituencies intended to produce more and better teachers is simply the nature of teacher preparation in the 21st century. We are advantaged in this country by a great many resources that when applied to reforming courses, induction experiences and professional development opportunities allow us to better support the development of individual teachers and the profession as a whole.
In examining the resources, I have singled out four communities that disseminate information about teacher preparation, each for different reasons, but all with some measure of scholarship as the foundation to their work (Table A). These sample resources are illustrated in Table A and focus on general issues of teacher preparation. Note: Numbers in brackets in Tables A and B are keyed to Table D that lists the source information and is found at the end of this paper.
Source type
|
Sample sources . . .
|
of particular interest . . . |
|
Academic centers for teaching and learning; research consortia |
Center
for the Study of Teaching and Policy, University of Washington (CPT) [2] Texas
A&M University Institute for School-University Partnerships [3] |
Finding
on Learning to Teach [1a] Learning
from Mentors: A Study Update [1b] How
Teachers Learn to Engage Students in Active Learning [1c] Teacher
Preparation Research: Current Knowledge, Gaps and Recommendations [2] Teacher
Demand Study 2001-2002 |
|
Foundations/societies/organizations |
Educational Testing Service/Milkan Family Foundation [4] |
How
Teaching Matters—Bringing the Classroom Back Into Discussions of Teacher
Quality [4] |
|
Federal and state education agencies |
Texas
Education Agency [7] |
No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001; Teacher
Education Resources, directories, links such as CPT[2], and Department of
Education publications [5] Employment
and Licensure What’s
Going On Educator
Resources “Update
on Class Size,” an Evaluation Brief[6] Employment
and Licensure Today’s
News Curriculum
and Assessment [7] |
|
Print/web media |
Education Week [8]
|
Quality
Counts 2002 [8]; Teacher Quality,
State-to-State Data Comparison |
Changes in the climate at colleges and universities have had an impact on teacher education. The disappearance of the teachers colleges, while having a positive impact on recruiting students with diverse interests and expanding the offerings of the college or university, has rendered teacher education programs less visible and relegated teacher education to only one of many undergraduate majors.
Our physics community has a solid history of activity regarding teacher preparation, often as visible recipients of externally funded programs for teacher preparation and enhancement. Some physics departments have a rich history of providing exemplary courses for pre-service elementary and secondary teachers. But not all, and not even most, physics departments value the student who declares an interest in teaching high school physics as highly as the one who positions himself/herself for graduate education in physics. This conference, and ones like it, is about changing this departmental viewpoint. Table B illustrates some examples of projects that offer insight into how reforming courses and programs can be a scholarly endeavor by faculty in physics departments. These resources in Table B focus more directly on science/physics instruction.
|
Source |
Sample Project |
Sample Resources
|
|
|
National Science Foundation [9] |
ACEPT [10] MCTP [11] UTeach [9] Project Teach [9] PhysTEC [12] |
Reformed
Teaching Observation Protocol: an instrument designed to measure reformed
teaching, teaching that adheres to standards.
ACEPT |
|
|
Journeys
of Transformation: Case reports from
faculty as they directed changes in science courses. MCTP Attitudes
and Beliefs about the Nature of and Teaching of Mathematics and Science: an instrument to measure future teachers’
beliefs about teaching science and mathematics. MCTP |
|||
|
UTeach
( Project
Teach is an exemplary teacher preparation program linking high schools,
two-year colleges and universities where |
|||
|
Models
for teacher preparation: mentoring and induction; Physics coursework for
future teachers, physics and education department collaborations development
of an extensive coalition in support of teacher preparation. [12] |
|||
|
Professional societies/organizations |
American Physical Society [12] National Research Council [13] |
PhysTEC
[12] Educating
Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology [13] |
|
|
physics education research community—research in learning and teaching |
|
Tools:
conceptual tests [14];
Curriculum
R&D[14] Peer-reviewed publications |
|
|
physics community—departmental programs |
|
http://www.phys.washington.edu/ugrad/handbook/node14.html This
department is identified because of its long history in teacher preparation
coupled with curriculum development. |
|
Highlights from these studies . . .
By regarding future teachers as a “special class” of students, we can identify outcomes of research and evaluation that direct us toward ways of improving our undergraduate courses and related learning experiences for future teachers. Table C identifies five areas in which research and evaluation suggest the components for a reformed teacher preparation program.
Table C: Selected Research and Evaluation Results
|
|
Selected Research and Evaluation Results
|
|
Content Preparation |
When future teachers major or minor in the
subject area they teach, their students outperform their peers. [4] |
|
Connections between subject matter
preparation in science and mathematics and quality teaching are more complex
than the common view that “more is better”---studies suggest a “threshold
effect.” [2] |
|
|
Content area majors are not a sufficient
requirement to INSURE that teachers have the subject matter necessary for
teaching. [1a] |
|
|
Pedagogical Preparation |
Studies suggest that content-specific
pedagogical coursework may have a positive effect on quality teaching. [2] |
|
Pedagogical preparation of teachers is
influenced by future teachers’ beliefs. [2] |
|
|
At the Interface: Induction Programs |
Teachers (new and experienced) view the
clinical experience as the most important component of the teacher
preparation program, and pedagogical coursework and both field experiences
contribute to the development of professional knowledge. [2] |
|
“Reform-oriented” mentoring programs
require a broad view of mentoring—buttressed by scholarship and professional
in practice. [1b] |
|
|
|
|
|
Classroom Practice and Practices |
Students engaged in hands-on learning
activities outperform their peers. [4] |
|
Teachers with higher content knowledge and
more experience tend to employ instructional strategies (e.g. questioning
skills) that enhance student achievement. [13] |
|
|
Alternative assessments, such as student
portfolios, do not produce as high of gains in student achievement as regular
and frequent testing. [4] |
|
|
Teaching for active engagement generally
demands content and pedagogical knowledge that is not provided in the typical
teacher education program. Teachers
need to experience active engagement in order to use it themselves. [1c] |
|
|
Becoming a Professional |
Sustained professional development is
results in more effective classroom practices. [4] |
|
Professional development topic areas differ
in their direct effect on student achievement. For example, cooperative learning did not
produced increases in academic performance of the teachers’ students whereas
training in laboratory skills does. [4] |
|
|
Professional development is a career-long
process. [13] |
Teacher Preparation: What Can Be
Done?
Each generation of scholars seeks ways to improve education in response to the social and political climate. In the early part of the 20th century John Dewey lamented, “It is a common complaint that there is multiplication of studies to the point of confusion and congestion, with the result of constant danger of superficiality and miscellaneous scattering, so that students get a smattering of many subjects and a thorough mastery of none. The situation is a reflex of social aimlessness and dispersiveness. A society that is largely held together by the aim of many individuals to get on as individuals is not really held together at all. Changes occur with breathless rapidity, but they have little organization and next to no center and unified tendency. The curriculum of the schools reflects that situation.”[7]
If we are serious about improving teacher preparation, then we should remember that at this point in time we are advantaged in ways unavailable to earlier generations of reformers. In the sciences, we have a reasonably healthy federal infrastructure to support teacher education initiatives. The NSF program Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Teacher Preparation (STEM-TP) program developed out of concern for the number of teachers teaching out of field and a transition from large collaboratives to addressing the need to support more local programs, and the NSF Mathematics Science Partnership (MSP) program intends to have a broad influence on the science and mathematics preparation of teachers.
Many colleges and universities, particularly the land grant universities have broadened their extension mission to include other kinds of outreach, including science, mathematics and engineering programs for K-12 student and their teachers. To provide better support for instruction, most major universities now have permanent centers to support effective teaching and learning, and many of these have a research agenda as well. Becoming aware of the numerous sources of information, both on and off campus, is essential knowledge for physicists engaging in program reform.
As a result of research in physics education, we in the physics community have many instructional tools, from diagnostics to instructional assessment tools, at our service for teaching our courses. The Physical Science Resource Center (PSRC) [14] of the American Association of Physics Teachers provides a good starting place for seeking information directly applicable to our physics courses.
Education benefits from more carefully designed and
conducted scholarly studies about teacher preparation. And all of us have immediate and easy access
to this wealth of information through the Internet. We no longer have to wait until we attend a
conference to learn about what a similar institution in
The demands and responsibilities of the K-12 teacher have increased dramatically from the time I first entered the classroom as a teacher. We need only to review the websites of the state education agencies to be advised of demands on the daily life of the classroom teacher, such as state mandated testing or standards-based school improvement. Physicists working with students who will become teachers must be informed about the classroom teacher’s professional environment.
Where can a physics department begin?
Jack Hehn, Education Manager of the American Institute of Physics, reminded us in his talk “the department is the unit of change.” The obvious starting place for departments is to insure that your undergraduate programs of study in physics include a visible and viable track for students who wish to become teachers. One word of caution, however, when outlining the lessons learned from the University of Nebraska’s physics department teacher education initiative, Hehn and Diandra Leslie-Pelecky cautioned departments to “evaluate their responsibility for teacher preparation relative to other departmental responsibilities.” I agree with Hehn and Leslie-Pelecky. Curricular reform or departmental changes need to be planned and deliberate and must match the long-term goals of the department.
I recommend two actions for departments that could be accomplished immediately; neither of which demands new resources and both of which could generate conversations within the department about teacher preparation.
Recommendation #1: Physics departments should support and promote their role in teacher preparation by insuring its visibility on their website.
Recommendation #2: Physics departments should support and promote teacher preparation by insuring that careers in education and routes to teaching careers become an integral component career discussions at their Society of Physics Students meetings.
As you begin to become more engaged in teacher preparation in your department, I would recommend attention be given to recruiting and retaining students who want to be teachers in your physics programs. Find a way to identify current students who may have an interest in teaching and support them by involving them in physics education meetings such as this one. Recommendations #3 and #4, requiring planning, could be placed on your departmental meeting calendar for the 2002-2003 academic year.
Recommendation #3: Physics department faculty should introduce students planning to be future teachers to professional associations, (e.g. Physics faculty members should model active participation in professional meetings by being engaged and encouraging students to get involved professional at an early stage of their careers).
To build student interest in physics programs for future teachers, begin conversations with teachers in your local schools and teaching physicists at regional two-year colleges. Have informal meetings regularly, but focus on having formal outcomes that improve the numbers of students considering teaching.
Recommendation #4: Physics faculty at universities and four year colleges should develop articulation agreements with physics faculty at regional two-year colleges that focus on the science preparation of future teachers.
Curricular reform and developing programs specifically for future teachers demands the support of a substantial number of faculty in the department. One person can initiate change, but it takes a department to institutionalize change. Recommendation #5 urges you to engage in discussions about the department’s role in teacher preparation.
Recommendation #5: Schedule a set of departmental discussions about teacher preparation. Identify a subset of faculty interested in these issues. Identify a set of teacher education related topics and use these as the springboard for discussions.
Recommendation #6 encourages you to embed the outcomes of research and evaluation in planning programs for future teachers. Change needs to address content courses, pedagogical courses, classroom practices, mentoring and professional development. Preparing good teachers is requires physics and education faculty members working together. It requires physics departments to teach in a way that is congruent with standards-based instruction. Physics departments can learn from classroom teachers, and faculty should consult teaches as they plan program change. New teachers need to be initiated into the profession with substantive mentoring programs and provided with encouragement and opportunity to be involved in the professional organizations.
Recommendation #6: When making program changes, integrate lessons learned from research and evaluation.
My motivation for anchoring my talk in Shaw’s well known quotation, “He who can . . .” was simple. I didn’t know the context of the quotation and when confronted with this comment, I was unable to defend teaching as the honorable profession I knew it to be. These few words, clever as they may seem, don’t reflect the whole of Shaw’s insights into education. Knowing that I will leave you with another Shaw quotation, one that characterizes what this working conference is about.
“If you have an apple, and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” G. B. Shaw
Table D: Source information:
|
[1] |
|
http://ncrtl.msu.edu/ |
|
[2] |
Center
for the Study of Teaching and Policy, |
http://depts.washington.edu/ctpmail/PDFs/TeacherPrep-WFFM-02-2001.pdf |
|
[3] |
Texas
A&M University Institute for School-University Partnerships |
The
Institute for School-University Partnerships, |
|
[4] |
Educational
Testing Service and Milken Family Foundation |
http://www.ets.org/research/pic/teamat.pdf |
|
[5] |
|
www.ed.gov |
|
[6] |
North
Carolina Department of Public Instruction |
http://www.ncpublicschools.org |
|
[7] |
Texas
Education Agency |
http://www.tea.state.tx.us |
|
[8] |
Education
Week |
http://www.edweek.org |
|
[9] |
National
Science Foundation |
http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/ehr/DUE/awards/cetp.asp http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/pirs_prs_web |
|
[10] |
|
Reformed
Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP), ACEPT Technical Report No. IN00-2,
IN00-3 http://purcell.phy.nau.edu/AZTEC/RTOP/pdf |
|
[11] |
|
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~toh/MCTP.html |
|
[12] |
American
Physical Society |
http://www.aps.org; http://phystec.org |
|
[13] |
National
Research Council report |
http://www.nationalacademies.org http://www.nap.edu |
|
[14] |
American
Association of Physics Teachers; |
http://www.aapt.org;
http://www.psrc-online.org/ |
Bibliography
Carr, Pat M., George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950-Criticism
and Interpretation,
Educational Testing Service/Milkan Family Foundation How
Teaching Matters—Bringing the Classroom Back Into Discussions of Teacher
Quality
Gardner, Maureen B. (ed.), et. al. , Journeys of Transformation—Case Reports from
Participants in the
National Research Council, Committee on Science and
Mathematics Teacher Preparation, Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics
and Technology,
O’Kuma, T. L., et. al.,
Ratner, Joseph (ed), Intelligence in the Modern World—John Dewey’s Philosophy, Random House, Inc., 1939.
Shaw, Bernard. Seven Plays. Dodd, Mead and Company,
Wenglinsky, Harold, How Teaching Matters, Educational
Testing Service,
Wilson, Suzanne M., et. al., Teacher
Preparation Research: Current Knowledge, Gaps and Recommendations, Center
for the Study of Teaching and Policy,
[1] Current
address: Momentum Group,
[2] Shaw,
Bernard. Seven Plays. Dodd, Mead and Company,
[3] Member of the Idle Rich Class
[4] Carr,
Pat M., George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950-Criticism and Interpretation,
[5] Shaw, ibid.
[6] http://www.iqmind.com/teacher/lounge_article.html
[7] Intelligence in the Modern World—John Dewey’s Philosophy, Joseph Ratner (ed.), Random House, Inc., 1939, page 688.