Development and Implementation of a Comprehensive Evaluation Model for Science Teacher Preparation Programs

跨学科(99)这个项目是科学学院和亚利桑那大学教育学院几个系的教职员工共同努力的结果。这些教师正在为一套为职前教师设计的新课程设计一套形成性评估程序。由于缺乏可用于评估实际教师培训计划有效性的综合模型，主要目标是开发这样一个全面的形成性评估模型，通过采用和实施不同的评估工具来评估该计划的学生学习结果的五个关键方面：(1)概念理解，(2)学科“结构”，(3)教学和学习信念，(4)决策技能，和(5)在中学学生教学期间的“专业表现”。这些不同的评估工具和做法来自目前在科学教育方面的研究，以及最近在国家科学基金会支持的名为卓越教师培训合作项目中开展的工作。通过这些活动，项目组正在(1)组装一套经过测试和可靠的评估工具，供科学和科学教育教师使用；(2)实施持续的评估程序，提供关于大学一级科学教育和主题课程的教育实践的有效性的信息；(3)报告评估结果，以促进教职员工对所有学生的主题课程的性质和质量进行分析和反思。正在通过开发一种工具来衡量对未来教师的“概念性理解”，该工具将借鉴Wandersee、Mintze和Novak所做的研究，“科学中的另类概念研究”，D.L.Gabel(编辑)，“科学教与学研究手册”(第177-210页)，纽约：麦克米伦和NSTA(1994)，以及Pfundt和Duit，“目录学：学生的另类框架和科学教育”，德国基尔大学科学教育研究所(2000年3月)。这类工具的一个非常著名的例子是Halloun和Hestenes于1980年代在物理学领域设计的原力概念清单。学生后天获得的“学科结构”是衡量他们对科学学科理解的连贯性--看到大局的能力和一系列专业知识在这个大框架中的位置。研究表明，“学科结构”得分高的中学理科教师在选择纳入中学理科课程的选题方面拥有更高的技能。他们的出发点是G.R.Gess-Newome和N.G.Lederman的著作，《职前生物学教师的知识结构作为专业教师教育的功能：一项为期一年的评估》，科学教育，第77卷，第1期(1993)，第25-45页。西蒙斯等人的著作《初任教师：信念和课堂行动》，《科学教学研究期刊》，第36卷，第8期(1999年)，第930-954页，正在被改编来衡量“教学信念”。一些未来的教师仍然认为，男孩比女孩更适合科学，一些学生注定会不及格，学习是被动的，教学是向学生传授知识，理论与教学基本无关。如果这些信念不受挑战，未来的教师不被教导批判性地审视自己的想法，那么无效的教学模式就会永垂不朽。Koballa和Tippins的工作正被用作创造测量“决策技能”的工具的起点。见T.R.Koballa和D.J.Tippins，“中学科学教育案例”(美林出版社，上马鞍河，新泽西州，2000年)。通过采用詹姆斯·加拉格尔的中级教师分析矩阵(密歇根州立大学教师教育系，1995)和亚利桑那州卓越合作组织编制教师改革后的教学观察方案来衡量“专业表现”。

Interdisciplinary (99) This project is a collaborative effort among faculty members in several departments in the College of Science and in the College of Education of the University of Arizona. These faculty are designing a formative assessment process for a set of newly designed courses for pre-service teachers. Because there is a paucity of comprehensive models that can be used to assess the effectiveness of actual teacher preparation programs, the main goal is to develop such a comprehensive formative assessment model, by adapting and implementing diverse assessment instruments to evaluate five key aspects of the program's student learning outcomes: (1) conceptual understanding, (2) subject-matter "structure," (3) teaching and learning beliefs, (4) decision-making skills, and (5) "professional performance" during the student teaching period in secondary schools. These different assessment tools and practices are drawn from current research in science education and from recent work undertaken in NSF-supported projects known as Collaboratives for Excellence in Teacher Preparation. Through these activities the project team is (1) assembling a set of tested and reliable assessment instruments that will be made available to science and science education teachers; (2) implementing an ongoing evaluation process that will provide information about the effectiveness of the educational practices in the science education and subject-matter courses at the college level; and (3) reporting the evaluation results in a way to foster among faculty an analysis of and reflection on the nature and quality of the subject-matter courses for all the students. "Conceptual Understanding" of prospective teachers is being measured by developing an instrument that will draw upon research analyzed in Wandersee, Mintzes, and Novak, "Research in Alternative Conceptions in Science", in D. L. Gabel (Ed.), Handbook of research in science teaching and learning (pp. 177-210), New York: Macmillan and the NSTA (1994), and Pfundt and Duit, "Bibliography: Students' Alternative Frameworks and Science Education," Institute for Science Education at the University of Kiel, Germany (March, 2000). A very well-known example of such an instrument is the Force Concept Inventory designed by Halloun and Hestenes in the field of physics in the 1980s. The acquired "Subject Matter Structure" of students is a measure of the coherence of their understanding of science disciplines -- the ability to see the big picture and the place of a body of specialized knowledge in that larger framework. Research indicates that secondary science teachers with high scores on "Subject Matter Structure" have greater skill in selecting topics for inclusion in the secondary science curriculum. Their starting point is the work of G.R. Gess-Newsome and N.G. Lederman, "Preservice Biology Teachers' Knowledge Structures as a Function of Professional Teacher Education: A Year-Long Assessment, Science Education, Vol. 77, No. 1 (1993), pages 25-45. The work of Simmons et al., "Beginning Teachers: Beliefs and Classroom Actions," Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Vol. 36, No. 8. (1999), pp. 930-954, is being adapted to measure "teaching and learning beliefs." Some prospective teachers still believe that boys are better suited for science than girls, that some students are bound to fail, that learning is passive, that teaching is imparting knowledge to students, and that theory is largely not relevant to teaching. If these beliefs go unchallenged and future teachers are not taught to critically examine their own ideas, ineffective models of teaching are perpetuated. The work of Koballa and Tippins is being used as a starting point to creating instruments for measuring "decision making skills." See T.R. Koballa and D.J. Tippins, "Cases in Middle and Secondary Science Education," (Merrill Publishers, Upper saddle River, NJ, 2000). "Professional Performance" is being measured by adapting James Gallagher's Secondary Teacher Analysis Matrix (Michigan State University, Department of Teacher Education, 1995) and the Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in Preparation of Teachers' "Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol."