Longitudinal Evaluation of Noyce Science Teachers to Determine Sources of Effective Teaching

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There is a well-documented need for competent, confident, and committed science teachers to serve in high-need school districts. This Phase 2 Noyce project will produce thirty new certified secondary science teachers. It will leverage the work of the Phase 1 Noyce project, and continue the collaboration between the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Lincoln Public Schools, to address the overarching question: What aspects of teacher recruitment and preparation lead to effective teaching by beginning and intermediate science teachers? In addition, the project will conduct a research study to compare two different routes to teacher certification, a traditional four-year undergraduate program that meets the state's minimum certification requirements and an extended Master of Arts program (developed through the Phase 1 Noyce grant) that exceeds state requirements and meets the national definition of "highly-qualified" for science teachers. By advancing the field's knowledge of how individual aspects of teaching interact with one another and the long-term effect of science teacher education on effective secondary science teaching, researchers and teacher educators can better understand how to recruit teacher candidates and create more informed science teaching education programs, thus contributing to the education of more highly qualified science teachers. The project's objectives are to: (1) Analyze potential differences between two routes to science teacher certification using pre-post systematic data collected on pre-service teachers (specifically: demographic information, subject matter knowledge, clinical experiences, emergent pedagogical knowledge and instructional practices, and teaching beliefs and self-efficacy); (2) Analyze two programs' long-term interactions with science teachers' beliefs, self-efficacy, instructional practices, and overall effectiveness (specifically: student learning, teacher retention, and dropout rates); (3) Test two models of teacher preparation that connect attributes of teacher preparation and effective science teaching; and (4) Disseminate key findings on science teacher preparation and teacher effectiveness to teacher educators and science education leaders and associations. Multiple and mixed methods will be used for the longitudinal study and evaluation of the project activities. This work, funded by the National Science Foundation's Division of Undergraduate Education's Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, will provide reliable information for state and national policy makers related to teacher preparation and certification, thus empowering teachers to nurture generations composed of intelligent citizen consumers of scientific knowledge and practices and, potentially, encourage more people to choose STEM-related careers.