Content Details
ED464812 - What the Science Standards Say: Implications for Teacher Education. Spotlight on Student Success
- Category
- Executive Agency Publications
- Collection
- Education Reports from ERIC
- SuDoc Class Number
- ED 1.615:
- Date Issued
- January 1, 2000
- Author
- Hammrich, Penny L
- Source Institution
- Mid-Atlantic Lab. for Student Success, Philadelphia, PA
- Sponsoring Agency
- Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC
- Publication Type
- Information Analyses
- Subject
- Educational Change, Elementary Education, Higher Education, National Standards, Preservice Teacher Education, Preservice Teachers, Science Education, Science Teachers
- Abstract
- This digest, part of the Spotlight on Student Success series, outlines the implications of new national science standards for the preparation of science teachers. This Spotlight on Student Success describes changes in teacher education students' conceptions of science, teaching, and learning as they participate in a K-8 science methods course at an eastern urban university that utilizes principles derived from national reform initiatives. The course, conducted in 1996 during the spring semester with 35 teacher education students, focused on the role of teachers as decision makers in promoting scientific literacy for all students. The overall goal of the course was to familiarize teacher education students with reform initiatives in science education and their role as change agents in the reform. During the course, students learned to apply the principles of national reform initiatives in designing, implementing, and evaluating curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The course had four phases that addressed the following topics: (1) confronting and challenging teacher candidates' conceptions of science and science teaching; (2) applying the principles reflected in the national reform initiatives in developing science lessons; (3) evaluating science resources and instructional programs; and ( 4 ) sharing with teachers the process of reform. Among the outcomes of the program were: although the teacher education students had varying conceptions of science, the majority revealed that their conception of science is directly influenced by their conception of effective science instruction; students articulated an intellectual understanding of the process of constructing knowledge, but expressed a difference in how to facilitate knowledge construction; and the principles reflected in the national reform initiatives were viewed by teacher candidates as being beneficial but very time consuming.