CLUSTER: Investigating a New Model Partnership for Teacher Preparation

知识专长：这个以研究为导向的项目整合了非正式和正式的科学教育部门，使他们的综合资源承担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）和纽约城市大学教育高级研究中心（CUNY-CASE）之间的伙伴关系。 它整合了科学职业阶梯，在NYHOS的非正式科学教学培训和就业的持续计划，与CCNY科学教师准备计划。 正在进行的纵向和比较研究的目的是检查和记录的效果，这一综合方案的城市科学教师的生产。 这项研究的成果包括一个新的研究机构，研究科学中心实习对改善城市高中课堂科学教学的影响。 研究结果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规学习中心，这是一个由国家科学基金会支持的位于旧金山弗朗西斯科探索馆的学习和教学中心）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。 科学职业阶梯计划从事本科生作为基于查询的口译员（解释者）的游客到科学的纽约大厅。 将这种经验与正式的教师认证计划相结合，使参与者能够协调科学中心，大学科学和教育课程以及K-12教室的经验。 参与者在毕业时获得教授科学的许可证。 这种方法在Kirshner和Whitson（1997，Situated Cognition：Social，Semiotic and Psychological Perspectives，Mahwah，NJ：Erlbaum）指出的情境学习概念中有其理论基础。 通过学徒经历，情境学习再现了学习者将在真实的世界中面临的复杂和模糊的情况。 科学中心为未来的教师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和学习技能，如加德纳（1991）所指出的那样（The Unschooled Mind，纽约：基础书籍）。更广泛的影响：有充分的证据表明，城市学区缺乏科学教师。 造成这种短缺的原因涉及教师职业连续性的所有阶段，从招聘到培训和留用。 与此同时，美国教师的人口构成与学生人口的构成越来越不同步，这引发了人们的担忧，即榜样可能严重短缺，导致城市学校的情况恶化。 面对这些挑战，许多创新的教师招聘和教师培训计划已经开发出来，以加强传统的教学途径。这些方案的范围从高中院校的学生表示有兴趣在教学中的招聘和培训个人作出中年职业生涯的变化。 上述CLUSTER程序代表了一种新的替代方案。 美国有250多个科学中心。 其中许多学校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.