Undergraduate Science Course Reform Serving Pre-service Teachers: Evaluation of a Faculty Professional Development Model

本项目重点关注职前、本科、K-6理科教师的培养和长期发展的关键需求。目标是调查这些本科生的影响，以标准为基础，改革入门级科学课程，这些课程由教师根据他们参与NASA有远见的学者机会（NOVA）专业发展计划而开发。在专业发展影响设计模型中，从全国101所不同院校中选出30门改革和30门比较本科理科课程，按院校类型分层进行比较。正在使用多种定量和定性工具收集数据，并在多个点使用比较和关系研究进行分析。要探讨的研究问题包括：确定对本科生的短期影响和对在职毕业教师自身课堂科学教学的长期影响；确定产生重大影响的改革课程的特征，确定有效的教师发展努力的特征。该项目的智力价值来自于可供研究的大量改革课程样本（所有这些都基于通过NOVA开发的相同的广泛纵向专业发展模型）。这项研究促进了对有效的教师专业发展的理解，以及对影响学生主题和教学内容知识的本科科学课程的特点的理解。该项目的广泛影响源于参与研究的学生群体的多样性和机构的多样性。研究样本的人口由30%以上的少数民族机构组成，地理上多样化，并且代表了各种教师培训机构。这项研究正在推进30个直接参与的机构的本科科学教师及其学生的教学、培训和学习，更广泛地说，是在一个全国性的机构网络中。

This project focuses on critical needs in the preparation and long-term development ofpre-service, undergraduate, K-6 teachers of science. The goal is to investigate theimpact on these students of undergraduate, standards-based, reform entry level sciencecourses developed by faculty based on their participation in the NASA Opportunities forVisionary Academics (NOVA) professional development program. Thirty reform and 30comparison undergraduate science courses from a national population of 101 diverseinstitutions, stratified by institutional type, are being selected and compared in aprofessional development impact design model. Data is being collected using multiplequantitative and qualitative instruments and analyzed using comparative and relationalstudies at multiple points. Research questions to be explored include: determination ofshort-term impacts on undergraduate students and long-term effects on graduatedin-service teachers in their own classroom science teaching; identification ofcharacteristics of reform courses that produce significant impacts and identification ofcharacteristics of effective faculty development efforts.The intellectual merit of the project evolves from the large sample of reformed coursesavailable for study (all based on the same extensive longitudinal professionaldevelopment model developed through NOVA). The study is advancing understandingof effective faculty professional development and of the characteristics of undergraduatescience courses that impact student subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge.The broader impacts of the project stem from the diversity of the student populationsand variety of the institutions involved in the study. The population from which the studysample is drawn consists of over 30% minority institutions, is geographically diverse,and is representative of the variety of teacher preparation institutions. The study isadvancing the teaching, training and learning of undergraduate science faculty andtheir students at the 30 institutions directly involved and, more broadly, at a nationalnetwork of institutions.