Study of Preservice Teachers' Science Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge

该项目旨在通过改善职前STEM教师的准备来服务于国家利益。为了使国家在由技术驱动的全球经济中保持竞争力，需要优秀的STEM教师来培养新一代的大规模和高能力的STEM劳动力。为此，该项目将在全国范围内对即将进入STEM教学队伍的个人进行STEM的优势和劣势以及教学知识的研究。本研究通过考察这些职前教师在准备前和准备期间的经验，试图揭示优化教师知识以实现有效科学教学的经验。它还将评估为职前教师准备开发的新方法的流行程度和有效性，这可以为政策制定者提供信息，以便为职前教学计划的设计和扩展提供信息。预期这项工作还将导致更有效地利用稀少的资源。任何职前教师都可以免费使用评估工具进行自我评估。科学和教育课程的本科教师也将能够使用这些评估来衡量新生的知识，以及他们在课程期间所获得的知识。本研究的结果有可能为未来实施确定本科职前计划最有前途的特征。在国家科学基金的支持下，利用项目组先前开发的心理测量学上有效和可靠的评估，本研究将描述教师知识的两种基本类型：1)学科知识；2)教学内容知识，涉及学习者普遍持有的先入之见和误解，反映学生学习进程的各个阶段。这两种教师知识的高水平已被证明预示着学生在科学课堂上的巨大收获。利用从每次评估附带的调查中收集的数据，职前教师的知识将在多元线性回归中建模，以确定在大学之前获得的知识（来自高中成绩、课程作业和标准化科学成绩）、所修大学课程的数量和类型、教师准备计划的属性和学生教学经验，以及人口变量的预测贡献。这些评估和调查由100个科学方法课程的教师对2000名本科职前教师进行，将确保一个庞大而全面的全国新教师样本，包括小学通才、小学科学专家、初中和高中科学教师，因为几乎所有打算教科学的人都参加这些课程。职前教师将能够选择最符合其预期内容重点和年级水平的评估，以及他们可能教授的任何科目。该项目有可能有助于改善职前科学教师的培训。该项目由美国国家科学基金会IUSE: EHR项目支持，该项目支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。这是一个3级参与学生学习项目，涉及IUSE: EHR职前STEM教育和研究/评估/评估领域。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving the preparedness of pre-service STEM teachers. For the nation to remain competitive in a global economy driven by technology, excellent STEM teachers are needed to prepare new generations of a large and highly competent STEM workforce. Toward this end, the project will conduct a nationwide study of the strengths and weaknesses of STEM and teaching knowledge of individuals who will soon enter the STEM teaching workforce. By examining these pre-service teacher experiences before and during their preparation, this research seeks to reveal the experiences that optimize teacher knowledge for effective science teaching. It will also assess the prevalence and efficacy of novel approaches developed for pre-service teacher preparation, which can provide policy makers with information to inform the design and expansion of pre-service teaching programs. It is anticipated that the work will also lead to more efficient use of scarce resources. Any pre-service teacher will be able to use the assessment instruments at no cost for self-assessment. Undergraduate instructors of both science and education courses will also be able to use these assessment to gauge the knowledge of incoming students, as well as the knowledge gains they experience over the duration of their course. Results of this research have the potential to identify the most promising features of undergraduate pre-service programs for future implementation. Making use of psychometrically valid and reliable assessments previously developed by the project team with NSF support, the study will characterize two essential types of teacher knowledge: 1) subject matter knowledge; and 2) pedagogical content knowledge concerning the common preconceptions and misconceptions held by learners, reflecting stages in student learning progressions. High levels of these two kinds of teacher knowledge have been shown to predict large student gains in science classrooms. Using data collected from a survey accompanying each assessment, pre-service teachers’ knowledge will be modeled in multiple linear regressions to determine the predictive contribution of knowledge acquired prior to college (from high school grades, coursework, and standardized science scores), the number and type of college courses taken, attributes of their teacher preparation program and student teaching experiences, as well as demographic variables. Administration of these assessments and surveys to 2,000 undergraduate pre-service teachers by faculty in 100 science methods classes will ensure a large and comprehensive national sample of new teachers, including elementary school generalists, elementary science specialists, and middle school and high school science teachers, because virtually all those intending to teach science take these classes. Pre-service teachers will be able to choose the assessment that most closely aligns with their intended content focus and grade level, along with any subjects that they may teach. The project has the potential to contribute to improving the training of pre-service science teachers. This project is supported by the NSF IUSE: EHR program, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. It is a Level 3 Engaged Student Learning project that addresses the IUSE: EHR Pre-service STEM Education and Research/Evaluation/Assessment areas.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.