A Model for Integrating Technology in Preservice Science and Mathematics Content-Specific Teacher Preparation

A model of a 1-year, graduate level content-specific teacher preparation program is described that integrates learning about and teaching with electronic technologies as an integral component in teaching and learning science and mathematics, grades 3–12. The development of an integrated knowledge structure of science/math, technology, and teaching science/math with technology requires experiences focused on an integration of three important components: planning during the preactive stage, monitoring and regulating during the interactive stage, and assessing and revising in the postactive stage of teaching. The program model features an integration of experiences in incorporating technology in teaching science and math that specifically relate or interconnect their thinking in these three stages of instruction.     

Pre‐Service Teachers and Mathematics: The Impact of Service‐Learning on Teacher Preparation

In spite of repeated reform efforts, there is research and data that suggest that teachers lack the needed knowledge to successfully teach elementary mathematics. Some argue that teachers lack the needed content knowledge while other argue that a lack of confidence and practice are impacting teachers’ ability to successful teach mathematics. As a result of these issues, this paper looks at the impact of a service‐learning experience on pre‐service teachers’ confidence and preparation in the area of mathematics. The service‐learning experience had a number of intended and unintended outcomes. As a result of the service‐learning experience, pre‐service teachers noted increased understanding, innovation and confidence in the area of mathematics.     

Connecting Mathematics and Science in Undergraduate Teacher Education Programs: Faculty Voices from the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation

The study reported in this paper investigated perceptions concerning connections between mathematics and science held by university/college instructors who participated in the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation (MCTP), an NSF-funded program aimed at developing special middle-level mathematics and science teachers. Specifically, we asked (a) “What are the perceptions of MCTP instructors about the ‘other’ discipline?” (b) “What are the perceptions of MCTP instructors about the connections between mathematics and science?” and (c) “What are some barriers perceived by MCTP instructors in implementing mathematics and science courses that emphasize connections?” The findings suggest that the benefits of emphasizing mathematics and science connections perceived by MCTP instructors were similar to the benefits reported by school teachers. The barriers reported were also similar. The participation in the project appeared to have encouraged MCTP instructors to grapple with some fundamental questions, like “What should be the nature of mathematics and science connections?” and “What is the nature of mathematics/science in relationship to the other discipline?”     

Mathematics and Science Teachers' Use of and Confidence in Empirical Reasoning: Implications for STEM Teacher Preparation

The recent trend to unite mathematically related disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) under the broader umbrella of STEM education has advantages. In this new educational context of integration, however, STEM teachers need to be able to distinguish between sufficient proof and reasoning across different disciplines, particularly between the status of inductive and deductive modes of reasoning in mathematics. Through a specific set of mathematical conjectures, researchers explored differences between mathematics (n = 24) and science (n = 23) teachers' reasoning schemes, as well as the confidence they had in their justifications. Results from the study indicate differences between the two groups in terms of their levels of mathematical proof, as well as correlational trends that inform their confidence across these levels. Implications particularly for teacher training and preparation within the context of an integrated STEM education model are discussed.     

Science Teacher Efficacy and Outcome Expectancy as Predictors of Students' End‐of‐Instruction (EOI) Biology I Test Scores

The purpose of this study was to compare teacher efficacy beliefs of secondary Biology I teachers whose students' mean scores on the statewide End‐of‐Instruction (EOI) Biology I test met or exceeded the state academic proficiency level (Proficient Group) to teacher efficacy beliefs of secondary Biology I teachers whose students' mean scores on the EOI Biology I test fell below the state academic proficiency level (Non‐proficient Group). The mean difference on the Personal Science Teaching Efficacy (PSTE) subscale scores between the two groups was not statistically significant. This indicates that personal science teaching efficacy was not statistically related to how a teacher s students scored on the EOI Biology I test. The mean difference on the Science Teaching Outcome Expectancy (STOE) subscale scores demonstrated a statistically significant difference between the science teaching outcome expectancy of the Non‐proficient Group and Proficient Group teachers. Proficient Group teachers had significantly higher STOE scores than teachers Non‐proficient Group teachers. This finding suggests that End‐of‐Instruction Biology I test scores were related to the expectations that a teacher held for his/her students to learn biology regardless of student home environment, availability of classroom materials, or student motivation.     

Institutional Norms and Policies That Influence College Mathematics Professors in the Process of Changing to Reform‐Based Practices

This case study was an investigation of the role of the institutional culture of a university in the process of changing to reform‐based practices for two college mathematics professors. A framework is presented for identifying and analyzing institutional norms and policies that are present and those lacking in supporting faculty efforts toward reform. The primary categories considered in the framework are the teaching and learning context, the professional community, and the university's reward system. This framework is applied to the cases, and findings indicate that institutional norms in the forms of priorities for how time is allocated to professional responsibilities (as part of the teaching context), and colleagues and administrators who understood and shared the professors' goals for reform (as part of the professional community) strongly influenced the professors' efforts toward change. Additionally, a reward system that recognized efforts to improve teaching and learning was critical in establishing a culture that promoted change. However, despite the fact that both professors were in the same mathematics department, the nature of the influence of these factors was not uniform. The institutional culture indeed had multiple layers that required examination for each professor's individual context. The findings help highlight the importance of institutional context for both K‐12 and college level teaching and learning. The nature of these influential factors and the institutional layers were discussed for each case, along with implications for other institutions.     

Practicing Reform‐Based Science Curriculum in an Urban Classroom: A Hispanic Elementary School Teacher's Thinking and Decisions

This study explores the thinking and decisions of Vera (pseudonym), a Hispanic elementary teacher, while she enacted a reform‐based science curriculum in an urban school in the southern United States. Vera's thinking, decisions, experiences, and practices were documented over a 2‐year period. Using the data collected from semistructured interviews, participant observations and classroom documents, a rich and complex case study of Vera is developed in this paper. This case study describes how Vera makes curricular choices from reform‐based science curricula such as the LiFE curriculum; how she enacts those choices to empower poor urban minority students; how Vera believes that preparing students for the high‐stakes test is empowering because it ensures continued schooling for students; how, for Vera, teaching connected science using students' lived experiences is a risky act; and how she uses negotiation in her science teaching.     

Incorporating Mathematics into the Science Program of Students Labeled “At‐Risk”

Twenty three at‐risk high school female students who had failed mathematics and science in a traditional school setting were the subjects of this study that integrated mathematics and science lessons over a period of four weeks. Using a combination of direct instruction, calculations, graphing, hands‐on projects, and discussion, the topic of mechanical advantage was studied, to find out how well students understood the topic. The study found that these students who initially knew very little about mechanical advantage, and who did not see any need to use mathematics in the study of science, indicated an increased understanding of mechanical advantage, and also seemed to realize that integrating mathematics and science enhanced learning.     

Practicing Reform‐Based Science Curriculum in an Urban Classroom: A Hispanic Elementary School Teacher's Thinking and Decisions

This study explores the thinking and decisions of Vera (pseudonym), a Hispanic elementary teacher, while she enacted a reform‐based science curriculum in an urban school in the southern United States. Vera's thinking, decisions, experiences, and practices were documented over a 2‐year period. Using the data collected from semistructured interviews, participant observations and classroom documents, a rich and complex case study of Vera is developed in this paper. This case study describes how Vera makes curricular choices from reform‐based science curricula such as the LiFE curriculum; how she enacts those choices to empower poor urban minority students; how Vera believes that preparing students for the high‐stakes test is empowering because it ensures continued schooling for students; how, for Vera, teaching connected science using students' lived experiences is a risky act; and how she uses negotiation in her science teaching.     

Understanding of Earth and Space Science Concepts: Strategies for Concept‐Building in Elementary Teacher Preparation

This research is concerned with preservice teacher understanding of six earth and space science concepts that are often taught in elementary school: the reason for seasons, phases of the moon, why the wind blows, the rock cycle, soil formation, and earthquakes. Specifically, this study examines the effect of readings, hands‐on learning stations, and concept mapping in improving conceptual understanding. Undergraduates in two sections of a science methods course (N= 52) completed an open‐ended survey, giving explanations about the above concepts three times: as a pretest and twice as posttests after various instructional interventions. The answers, scored with a three point rubric, indicated that the preservice teachers initially had many misconceptions (alternative conceptions). A two way ANOVA with repeated measures analysis (pretest/posttest) demonstrated that readings and learning stations are both successful in building preservice teacher's understanding and that benefits from the hands‐on learning stations approached statistical significance. Concept mapping had an additive effect in building understanding, as evident on the second posttest. The findings suggest useful strategies for university science instructors to use in clarifying science concepts while modeling activities teachers can use in their own classrooms.     

The Effects of a Teacher In‐Service on Low‐Achieving Grade 7 and 8 Mathematics Students

Previous research (e.g., Woodward & Baxter, 1997 ) found that Standards‐based mathematics teaching provides marginal or no benefits for low achievers, in contrast with positive effects for middle and high ability students. A randomized quasi‐experiment in 52 Canadian schools found that low achieving grade 7 and 8 students who received support consisting of placement on a learning continuum, instruction focused on their specific learning needs, and concrete materials to represent mathematical constructs, benefited from teaching that emphasized construction over transmission of knowledge. Treatment students showed small but statistically significant improvements over controls in student achievement, and controversially, in mathematical beliefs, and attitudes. The latter finding raised issues of the appropriate balance between Type I and Type II error in educational research.