Undergraduate Science Course Reform Serving Pre-service Teachers: Evaluation of a Faculty Professional Development Model

University Of Alabama Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa AL

Investigators

Abstract

This project focuses on critical needs in the preparation and long-term development of pre-service, undergraduate, K-6 teachers of science. The goal is to investigate the impact on these students of undergraduate, standards-based, reform entry level science courses developed by faculty based on their participation in the NASA Opportunities for Visionary Academics (NOVA) professional development program. Thirty reform and 30 comparison undergraduate science courses from a national population of 101 diverse institutions, stratified by institutional type, are being selected and compared in a professional development impact design model. Data is being collected using multiple quantitative and qualitative instruments and analyzed using comparative and relational studies at multiple points. Research questions to be explored include: determination of short-term impacts on undergraduate students and long-term effects on graduated in-service teachers in their own classroom science teaching; identification of characteristics of reform courses that produce significant impacts and identification of characteristics of effective faculty development efforts. The intellectual merit of the project evolves from the large sample of reformed courses available for study (all based on the same extensive longitudinal professional development model developed through NOVA). The study is advancing understanding of effective faculty professional development and of the characteristics of undergraduate science courses that impact student subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge. The broader impacts of the project stem from the diversity of the student populations and variety of the institutions involved in the study. The population from which the study sample is drawn consists of over 30% minority institutions, is geographically diverse, and is representative of the variety of teacher preparation institutions. The study is advancing the teaching, training and learning of undergraduate science faculty and their students at the 30 institutions directly involved and, more broadly, at a national network of institutions.