Science and Mathematics Teacher Research Initiative: a Comparative Study of CalTeach Students to non-CalTeach Students in the Same Teacher Preparation Programs

University Of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz CA

Investigators

Abstract

In the 2010 National Research Council's report, "Preparing Teachers: Building Evidence for Sound Policy," areas related to STEM teacher preparation that lacked a sufficient research base were highlighted. This Noyce Track 4B research project, The Science and Mathematics Teacher Research Initiative (SMTRI), seeks to conduct a research study focusing on secondary STEM teacher preparation at five University of California's campuses: UC Berkeley (UCB), UC Davis (UCD), UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), UC Santa Cruz (UCSC), and UC San Diego (UCSD). This project focuses on a critical challenge in STEM education: preparing novice secondary school teachers to provide effective science and mathematics instruction to the increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse secondary school population who have traditionally been underserved in STEM education and are underrepresented in STEM degrees and careers. The study will analyze the impact of the University of California Undergraduate CalTeach program, which provides undergraduate STEM majors with STEM education coursework and field practicum, on the development of novice teachers' knowledge, beliefs and practice as they progress through their program of pre-service teacher preparation into the first year of teaching. This will be done through a comparative study of CalTeach students to non-CalTeach students in the same teacher preparation programs. The study will also track the participants through the first year of teaching to analyze school placement, retention and teaching efficacy of the two groups. The research will include an emphasis on the preparation of teachers to implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Common Core State Standards (CSSS-Mathematics) and the related challenge of integrating the teaching of academic language and literacy into the teaching of STEM subjects for English Learners (EL). The SMTRI research study will conduct three analyses to investigate: (1) the impact of undergraduate STEM Education on STEM graduates' decision to become teachers -- who they are and what they do after graduation; (2) the development of CalTeach program graduates' knowledge, beliefs and practice for teaching mathematics and science in comparison with the development of non-CalTeach graduates as they progress through teacher preparation into their first year of teaching; and (3) the impact of the form of the teacher preparation program by comparing novice teacher development in an undergraduate teacher education program at UCB with the development of novice teachers in traditional graduate programs of teacher education at UCD, UCSB, UCSC and UCSD. The STEM focus for this proposal is secondary STEM teacher education (certification areas: biology, chemistry, mathematics and biology). The SMTRI project also will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups by improving the knowledge base on preparing all teachers to work with culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. The project will develop a research and development partnership among five university teacher education programs (UCB, UCD, UCSB, UCSC, UCSD) with the possibility of scaling up to similar teacher education programs nationally. Ultimately, SMTRI has the potential to make a significant contribution to research on STEM education, teacher education, and EL learning as it examines STEM teacher preparation and the integration of science, language and literacy teaching in the NGSS and CCSS. The findings of this study have the potential for wide scale impact in an area of professional education where many teacher education programs are weak in preparing student teachers to implement standards-based science and mathematics teaching in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms.