Development and Implementation of a Comprehensive Evaluation Model for Science Teacher Preparation Programs

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Interdisciplinary (99) This project is a collaborative effort among faculty members in several departments in the College of Science and in the College of Education of the University of Arizona. These faculty are designing a formative assessment process for a set of newly designed courses for pre-service teachers. Because there is a paucity of comprehensive models that can be used to assess the effectiveness of actual teacher preparation programs, the main goal is to develop such a comprehensive formative assessment model, by adapting and implementing diverse assessment instruments to evaluate five key aspects of the program's student learning outcomes: (1) conceptual understanding, (2) subject-matter "structure," (3) teaching and learning beliefs, (4) decision-making skills, and (5) "professional performance" during the student teaching period in secondary schools. These different assessment tools and practices are drawn from current research in science education and from recent work undertaken in NSF-supported projects known as Collaboratives for Excellence in Teacher Preparation. Through these activities the project team is (1) assembling a set of tested and reliable assessment instruments that will be made available to science and science education teachers; (2) implementing an ongoing evaluation process that will provide information about the effectiveness of the educational practices in the science education and subject-matter courses at the college level; and (3) reporting the evaluation results in a way to foster among faculty an analysis of and reflection on the nature and quality of the subject-matter courses for all the students. "Conceptual Understanding" of prospective teachers is being measured by developing an instrument that will draw upon research analyzed in Wandersee, Mintzes, and Novak, "Research in Alternative Conceptions in Science", in D. L. Gabel (Ed.), Handbook of research in science teaching and learning (pp. 177-210), New York: Macmillan and the NSTA (1994), and Pfundt and Duit, "Bibliography: Students' Alternative Frameworks and Science Education," Institute for Science Education at the University of Kiel, Germany (March, 2000). A very well-known example of such an instrument is the Force Concept Inventory designed by Halloun and Hestenes in the field of physics in the 1980s. The acquired "Subject Matter Structure" of students is a measure of the coherence of their understanding of science disciplines -- the ability to see the big picture and the place of a body of specialized knowledge in that larger framework. Research indicates that secondary science teachers with high scores on "Subject Matter Structure" have greater skill in selecting topics for inclusion in the secondary science curriculum. Their starting point is the work of G.R. Gess-Newsome and N.G. Lederman, "Preservice Biology Teachers' Knowledge Structures as a Function of Professional Teacher Education: A Year-Long Assessment, Science Education, Vol. 77, No. 1 (1993), pages 25-45. The work of Simmons et al., "Beginning Teachers: Beliefs and Classroom Actions," Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Vol. 36, No. 8. (1999), pp. 930-954, is being adapted to measure "teaching and learning beliefs." Some prospective teachers still believe that boys are better suited for science than girls, that some students are bound to fail, that learning is passive, that teaching is imparting knowledge to students, and that theory is largely not relevant to teaching. If these beliefs go unchallenged and future teachers are not taught to critically examine their own ideas, ineffective models of teaching are perpetuated. The work of Koballa and Tippins is being used as a starting point to creating instruments for measuring "decision making skills." See T.R. Koballa and D.J. Tippins, "Cases in Middle and Secondary Science Education," (Merrill Publishers, Upper saddle River, NJ, 2000). "Professional Performance" is being measured by adapting James Gallagher's Secondary Teacher Analysis Matrix (Michigan State University, Department of Teacher Education, 1995) and the Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in Preparation of Teachers' "Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol."