The Clinical Experience for Pre-Service Science Educators: An Exploratory Study of Their Collegial Networks and Opportunity-to-Learn Trajectories

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

Clinical experience is one of the features of teacher preparation assumed to have a significant impact on novice educators. There is, however, only a thin research base about what makes such internships effective. This study, funded by the National Science Foundations' Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, through Track 4--Research on the Preparation, Recruitment, and Retention of K-12 STEM Teachers, will examine the clinical experiences of pre-service secondary science teachers from three different preparation institutions. The research study will: (1) investigate how teacher candidates use "advice and information networks" during clinical preparation to develop knowledge about the work of teaching and to inform decisions about planning, instruction, and assessment; (2) investigate candidates' "opportunities to learn" over time in the classroom, documenting which aspects of teaching novices are given the opportunity to try out and with what frequency; (3) develop quantitative measures reflect the quality of "advice and information network" experiences and the "opportunity to learn" data sets. These will be used to predict novices' edTPA (Teacher Performance Assessment) scores on planning, instruction, and assessment. This study will reveal from whom pre-professionals seek help in the field, what they learn over time, and how it influences their work with young learners. This project will help inform the design of clinical experiences by identifying how networks of support might be structured and how cooperating teachers might provide productive feedback, as well as articulating a trajectory of experiences that may improve teacher candidates' opportunities to learn over time. The clinical experiences of sixty pre-service secondary science teachers will be investigated in order to develop a more empirically-grounded representation of the learning opportunities of pre-service educators during their time in K-12 classrooms. The first component maps out how teacher candidates use "advice and information networks" (cooperating teachers, field supervisors, peers in the preparation program, other teachers in the clinical placement, methods instructors, members of on-line communities, etc.) during clinical preparation to develop knowledge about teaching and to inform decisions about planning, instruction, and assessment. The second component examines teacher candidates' "opportunities to learn" over time in the classroom. It will document which aspects of teaching novices are given chances to try out and with what frequency over time--these experiences may include observations of accomplished teaching, interacting with students in varied ways, co-planning with a cooperating teacher, and co-teaching. Data for each of the first two components of the study will become part of a case history for each participant, and will include interviews with the pre-service teachers, the contents of on-line surveys by these novices, interviews with methods instructors and interviews with field supervisors. Quantitative measures will be developed that reflect the quality of "advice and information network" experiences and the "opportunity to learn" data sets. These will be used to test whether these composite measures are significant predictors of the quality of teacher candidates' practices as derived from an instrument known as the edTPA. The edTPA includes documentation of candidates' planning tools, lessons, assessments, analysis of student work, and analytic reflections on a sequence of instructional episodes they designed and taught. If researchers and teacher educators can understand the patterns of help-seeking and opportunities to learn by novices that contribute substantively to their knowledge and practice, then it could be possible to engineer opportunities for them to interact regularly with others who influence their development as professionals. Improved clinical experiences will mean more competent beginning teachers who, even early in their career, are better situated to support students in learning about and participating in science. This work is supported, in part, by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.