eric.ed.gov har udgivet: To extend current understanding of school-based agriculture teacher development, this study explored the relationship between teacher development experiences and the self-efficacy of early career agriculture teachers. Three teacher development experiences were of interest: (a) preservice coursework, (b) student teaching, and (c) professional development. Teacher development experiences were analyzed in relation to classroom management self-efficacy, instructional strategies self-efficacy, leadership self-efficacy, science teaching self-efficacy, and math teaching self-efficacy. The relationships between development experiences and self-efficacy were analyzed through five linear regressions with teacher development experiences as independent variables and the five areas of self-efficacy as separate dependent variables. Only statistically insignificant relationships were identified for classroom management self-efficacy and instructional strategies self-efficacy. Student teaching and professional development were statistically significant, positive predictors of leadership self-efficacy. Professional development was also… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Schools in 47 high-poverty school districts located mostly along the Atlantic Coast of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia may have a head start on new requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, thanks to a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Begun in April 2000, the five-year Coastal Rural Systemic Initiative (CRSI) is striving to stimulate sustainable systemic improvements in science and mathematics education in school districts with a long history of low student expectations, persistent poverty, low teacher pay, and high administrator turnover. The CRSI capacity-building model is designed to address issues in rural school districts that traditionally limit the capacity for creating sustainable improvements in math and science programs. A critical action step is that each school district… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Science education reform standards have shifted focus from exploration and experimentation to evidence-based explanation and argumentation to prepare students with knowledge for a changing workforce and critical thinking skills to evaluate issues requiring increasing scientific literacy. However, in urban schools serving poor, diverse populations, where the priority is on students’ assessment results in reading and math, students may not receive reform-based science. The rationale for this qualitative study was to examine how two elementary teachers from high-poverty urban schools planned for reform-based science in response to a quality state science assessment in conjunction with their training and resources. Their state assessment included an inquiry task requiring students to construct responses to questions based on their investigation data. From evaluating evidence using Zembal-Saul’s continuum for teaching science as… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education has become one of the main priorities in the United States. Science education communities and researchers advocate for integration of STEM disciplines throughout the teaching curriculum. This requires teacher knowledge in STEM disciplines, as well as competence in scientific literacy. Since nature of science (NOS) is a critical component of scientific literacy, this study examined teachers’ conceptions NOS over a one-year period. Participants included 21 middle school science and mathematics teachers who integrated science and mathematics in their classrooms. We employed two NOS instruments to collect data on participants’ NOS conceptions “before” and “after” a one-year online graduate program. This study examined changes in NOS understanding for the group as a whole, between science and mathematics teachers, and whether beginning… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Four 3-year projects within the Rural Telecomputing Initiative enabled rural teachers in Montana, Colorado, Minnesota, and Tennessee to connect with math and science reform communities and use resources available through the Internet. This study of the projects’ first 2 years examined: (1) whether the projects made a difference in teachers’ isolation and attempts to improve math and science education; and (2) whether resources the projects developed were valuable to rural teachers in reforming math and science education. The study included two written surveys, 9 months apart, of teachers and principals. Evaluation teams visited two participating schools within each local project annually, observing science and mathematics classes; interviewing principals, teachers, and students; and moderating focus groups. Results found that teachers became substantially more comfortable with the Internet. Telecomputing… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Politicians, academics, and business and community members all seem to be raising concerns that America is not as globally competitive as it once was. This is due, in part, to the fact that public schools in America are not producing high school graduates with the math, science, and technical skills to succeed in higher education or be employed in a knowledge-based, global marketplace. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs requiring science, engineering or technical training will increase 24 percent between 2004 and 2014 to 6.3 million. However, less than half of high school graduates in the United States are academically prepared for college-level math and science. Between 1970 and 2010, America’s proportion of science and engineering doctorates will fall from 50 percent to 15 percent.… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in career commitment and perceived efficacy among early career agriculture teachers as well as the relationships between early career agriculture teachers’ perceived efficacy and career commitment. Five areas of self-efficacy were investigated among early career agriculture teachers in five western states: classroom management, instructional strategies, leadership of students, science teaching, and math teaching. Only small effects were found on four of the five self-efficacy variables based on years of teaching experience. Using multiple linear regression analysis, a predictive model for early career agriculture teachers’ career commitment was developed. The final model explained a total of 20% of the variance in early career agriculture teachers’ career commitment. Two areas of self-efficacy were identified as significantly related to early… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: It is ironic that although children often form lasting decisions, at a young age, about their aptitude for and interest in science we are least successful at preparing elementary teachers to nurture their students’ science interests. This is despite the fact that most elementary teachers teach in contained classrooms where they are responsible for science content at this critical, developmental stage for their students. Science preparation for preservice, elementary teachers is traditionally relegated to large, general-education lecture courses. Even when these courses have laboratories, they tend to depend on cook-book style exercises where procedures are given and the outcomes are known. This leaves many pre-service, elementary teachers not only ill-prepared, but also fearful of the science content that they must teach. We here advocate a change in… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper outlines a University-School District partnership with the intent to increase the number of middle grades mathematics and science teachers. This externally funded initiative includes onsite, authentically situated professional development for pre- and in-service teachers at three different urban, low-socioeconomic schools with a majority Hispanic population of students. Program objectives include increasing mathematics and science content knowledge, increasing self-efficacy in teaching math and science, building and incorporating a success-driven school culture and infrastructure to increase student performance in a well-articulated, scalable and transformable model. Program components include site based common planning times, STEM Thursdays where science and mathematics lessons are practiced and refined, authentic summer research opportunities for pre- and in-service teachers to work with scientists and university faculty, teacher certification workshops and a mentoring model… Continue Reading →
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eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper presents a series of illustrative LEGO Mindstorms-based science and math activities, developed under an NSF GK-12 Fellows project, for elementary, middle, and high school grades. The activities, developed by engineering and science graduate Fellows in partnership with K-12 teachers, are grade appropriate, address pertinent learning objectives, and adhere to the science and math learning standards of New York City and State. To measure the effectiveness of the use of LEGO Mindstorms-based lab activities in science and math lessons, pre- and post-lesson assessment surveys, consisting of content and evaluation questions, were administered to all participating students. In this paper, we provide: our motivation to investigate the effectiveness of LEGO Mindstorms-based lessons; descriptions of six LEGO Mindstorms-based science and math activities and their associated assessment; statistical analysis;… Continue Reading →
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