Integrating Inquiry-Based Science and Education Methods Courses in a "Science Semester" for Future Elementary Teachers

University Of Delaware, Newark DE

Investigators

Abstract

Interdisciplinary (99) In this project we are adapting problem-based learning and other inquiry-based approaches to create a curriculum where science and education methods are integrated ("science semester") for elementary teacher education majors. Our goal is to foster integrated understandings of science and pedagogy that future elementary teachers need to effectively use inquiry-based approaches in their classrooms. This project responds to calls to improve science education for all students (AAAS, "Science for All Americans," 1986; "Benchmarks for Science Literacy," 1993) by making preservice teachers' experiences in undergraduate science courses more consistent with reforms at the K-12 level (NRC, "National Science Education Standards," 1996; NSF, "Shaping the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology," 1996, NSF96-139). The senior personnel in this proposal collectively teach three science courses (biology, earth science, physical science) and an elementary science education methods course that are required for elementary teacher education (ETE) majors. A variety of active, collaborative, and inquiry-based approaches are used in these courses, but their collective impact is weakened by the lack of coordination in the students' degree programs. Presently, students take the courses in variable sequences and at widely scattered times. Too many students fail to appreciate the value of science courses to their future careers as teachers, and when they reach the methods course in the junior year they often retain little of the science content studied earlier. These episodic encounters with science make it difficult for students to learn the content, and to translate their understandings of science into effective, inquiry-based teaching strategies. To encourage integrated understandings of science concepts and pedagogy, a coordinated set of science and methods courses are being designed as a junior-year science semester. Traditional subject matter boundaries are being crossed to stress shared themes that teachers must understand to teach standards-based elementary science. The design is adapting exemplary approaches that support both learning science and learning how to teach science. Students work collaboratively on multidisciplinary problem-based learning (PBL) activities that place science concepts in authentic contexts and build learning skills. "Lecture" meetings are large group active learning sessions that help students understand difficult concepts, make connections between class activities, and launch and wrap-up PBL problems. Investigatory labs include activities from elementary science kits as launching points for in-depth investigations that demonstrate the continuity of science concepts and pedagogies across age levels. In the methods course students critically explore the theory and practice of elementary science teaching, drawing on their shared experiences of inquiry learning in the science courses. Field placements in elementary classrooms are built-in to allow students to ground their studies of science and pedagogy in actual practice. Participating faculty are collaborating with external evaluators to assess the impact of this project. The ability to plan for and use inquiry approaches depends strongly on sound understandings of science concepts, so formative aspects of the evaluation examine students' developing science content and pedagogical knowledge (e.g., conceptions of inquiry teaching). The summative aspect of the evaluation will examine whether student teachers who completed the science semester teach science differently than those who complete traditional (stand-alone) courses in science and methods. External evaluators use structured interviews of supervising teachers, survey data from the student teachers, and classroom observations of student teachers sampled from the science semester and traditional groups to examine how they conceive of and use inquiry-based approaches in their science lessons.