CLUSTER: Investigating a New Model Partnership for Teacher Preparation

智力优势：这个以研究为导向的项目整合了非正式和正规的科学教育部门，利用它们的联合资源满足对准备充分和多样化的城市科学教师的迫切需求。它代表了纽约城市学院(CCNY)、纽约科学馆(NYHOS)和纽约城市大学高级教育研究中心(CUNY-CASE)之间的合作伙伴关系。它将NYHOS非正式科学教学培训和就业的持续计划--科学职业阶梯--与CCNY科学教师培训计划相结合。正在进行的纵向和比较研究旨在检验和记录这一综合计划对城市科学教师培养的影响。这项研究的结果包括一项关于科学中心实习对改善城市高中课堂科学教学的影响的新研究。正在向非正规科学教育界(通过科学和技术中心协会和学校非正式学习中心--位于旧金山探索馆的国家科学基金会支持的学习和教学中心)和正规教育界(通过国家科学教师协会和美国教育研究协会)传播成果。科学职业阶梯计划聘请本科生作为纽约科学馆参观者的探究式口译员(讲解员)。将这种体验与正式的教师认证计划相结合，使参与者能够协调在科学中心、大学科学和教育课程以及K-12课堂的体验。参与者将在毕业时获得教授科学的执照。正如Kirshner和Whitson(1997，情境认知：社会、符号和心理学视角，新泽西州Mahwah：Erlbaum)所指出的，该方法有其在情境学习概念中的理论基础。情境学习通过学徒体验，重现了学习者在现实世界中所面临的复杂和模糊的情境。科学中心为未来教师的情景学习提供了一个潜在的理想环境，使他们能够发展、锻炼和完善他们的科学教学技能，正如加德纳(1991)所指出的那样(《未受教育的心灵》，纽约：基础书籍)。更广泛的影响：城市学区的科学教师短缺是有据可查的。造成这一短缺的原因涉及教师专业连续性的各个阶段，从征聘到培训和留用。与此同时，美国教师的人口构成与学生人口结构越来越不一致，这引发了人们的担忧，即榜样的严重短缺可能会导致城市学校的情况日益恶化。面对这些挑战，开发了许多创新的教师招聘和教师培训方案，以加强传统的教学途径。这些计划的范围从为对教学感兴趣的学生提供的高中学院到招聘和培训中年职业转变的个人。上述集群计划代表了一种新的替代方案。美国有250多个科学中心。其中许多都有广泛的青年实习计划，并与当地大学建立了合作关系。因此，该模型具有广泛的适用性。

INTELLECTUAL MERIT: This research oriented project integrates the informal and formal science education sectors, bringing their combined resources to bear on the critical need for well-prepared and diverse urban science teachers. It represents a partnership among The City College of New York (CCNY), the New York Hall of Science (NYHOS), and the City University of New York Center for Advanced Study in Education (CUNY-CASE). It integrates the Science Career Ladder, a sustained program of informal science teaching training and employment at the NYHOS, with the CCNY science teacher preparation program. The longitudinal and comparative research study being conducted is designed to examine and document the effect of this integrated program on the production of urban science teachers. Outcomes from this study include a new body of research related to the impact of internships in science centers on improving classroom science teaching in urban high schools. Results are being disseminated to both the informal science education community (through the Association for Science and Technology Centers and the Center for Informal Learning in Schools, an NSF supported Center for Learning and Teaching situated at the San Francisco Exploratorium) and the formal education community (through the National Science Teachers Association and the American Educational Research Association). The Science Career Ladder program engages undergraduates as inquiry-based interpreters (Explainers) for visitors to the NY Hall of Science. Integrating this experience with a formal teacher certification program enables participants to coordinate experiences in the science center, college science and education classes, and K-12 classrooms. Participants receive a license to teach science upon graduating. The approach has its theoretical underpinnings in the concept of situated learning as noted by Kirshner and Whitson (1997, Situated Cognition: Social, Semiotic and Psychological Perspectives, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum). Through apprenticeship experiences, situated learning recreates the complexity and ambiguity of situations that learners will face in the real world. Science centers provide a potentially ideal setting for situational learning by future teachers, allowing them to develop, exercise and refine their science teaching and learning skills as noted by Gardner (1991, The Unschooled Mind, New York: Basic Books). BROADER IMPACT: There is a well-documented shortage of science teachers in urban school districts. The causes of this shortage relate to all phases of the teacher professional continuum, from recruitment through training and retention. At the same time, the demographic composition of American teachers is increasingly out of synch with the demographics of the student population, raising concerns that a critical shortage of role models may be at hand, contributing to a worsening situation in urban schools. In the face of these challenges many innovative teacher recruitment and teacher preparation programs have been developed to augment traditional pathways to teaching. These programs range from high school academies for students expressing an interest in teaching to the recruitment and training of individuals making mid-life career changes. The CLUSTER program described above represents a new alternative. There are more than 250 science centers in the United States. Many of these have extensive youth internship programs and collaborative relationships with local colleges. Therefore, the proposed model is widely applicable.