Linking general education and science teacher preparation.

Publication: Journal of College Science Teaching

Publication Date: 01-NOV-07

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COPYRIGHT 2007 National Science Teachers Association

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This educational project involves prospective science teachers in implementing a natural science course for nonscience majors. Our model creates a space for nonscience majors to experience learner-centered teaching practices while giving prospective teachers an opportunity to apply their science and science education course knowledge and learning.

National and international reports indicate that U.S. secondary school students continue to lag behind students from other countries in their understanding and application of science (NCES 2002). Consequently, the ways in which science teachers are trained have come under intense scrutiny. In particular, results of educational research on teacher education indicate that one of the central challenges in the preparation of prospective science teachers is ensuring that their college coursework is infused with realistic opportunities for them to plan, implement, and assess student-centered lessons that promote meaningful learning (NRC 2001).

To address this central issue in the preparation of future science teachers, we have designed and implemented an educational model that involves prospective secondary school science teachers in all aspects of teaching a natural science course for nonscience majors. The model gives prospective science teachers an opportunity to immediately apply and test their science and science education course knowledge and learning, while creating a space for nonscience majors to experience research-based teaching practices (Donovan, Bransford, and Pellegrino 2002).

The new model

Our model relies on the careful coordination of the activities of two interrelated college courses taught by the same instructors: A natural science course (NATS) for nonscience majors and a science teaching course (STCH) for prospective secondary school science teachers enrolled in the Science Teacher Preparation Program at our university. We expect the model to be easily transferable to the coupling of any standard science teaching methods course and introductory science course at the college level.

We designed the NATS course to introduce freshmen nonscience majors to relevant--and sometimes controversial--topics at the interface of science, technology, and society. The course is structured to engage students in interactive learning activities using the learning cycle as the main instructional model (Lawson 1995). In every session students work in small groups of two to four people on specific hands-on and minds-on activities planned to promote mastery of course content and to develop key thinking and cooperative learning skills.

The focus of the STCH course is to prepare prospective science teachers to develop thoughtful lessons that engage students' interest while addressing specific learning goals. STCH students are undergraduate science majors typically in their junior and senior year, who have completed at least 18 units of science courses and 3 to 10 units of science education courses. Although the course in its prior offerings had a field component in which students worked for a total of 40 hours in a secondary school classroom, we had little control over the nature of their experience. Thus, not all of the prospective science teachers were exposed to exemplary models of learner-centered teaching practices and many did not develop the teaching knowledge and skills defined in the course learning objectives.

As part of the reformed STCH course, instructors meet with the prospective teachers for 75 minutes twice...

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