Cascarano, C. & Koirala, S. [New York Times]. (2013, December 15). Teaching Science Teachers [Video File].
New York Times Video on the American Museum of Natural History's master's degree program in teaching, part of a broad national campaign to add 100,000 science, technology and math teachers by 2021.
The traditional model for supervision of pre-service science teachers during the field experience within teacher preparation programs includes the appointment of a university supervisor who is often a retired teacher and/or adjunct faculty and a school-based co-operating teacher who rarely receives training from the university to be a mentor. This can lead to a disconnect between the university supervisor, co-operating teacher, and university, and a disjointed experience for the pre-service teachers.
This paper describes a residency model that includes faculty members who serve as Senior Specialists – mentors in school residency rotations, advisors in teaching as a profession, and co-instructors in academic courses and portfolio development. The Senior Specialist acts as the linchpin between the youth programs, science practicum, and courses as well as a support structure and anchor to the five high need, low achieving partner schools with the ultimate goal of strengthening the pre-service teachers’ experience.
While the scholarship examining the teaching of high leverage teaching practices in the context of pre-service teacher education is continuing to grow (Ball & Forzani, 2009; McDonald, Kazemi, & Kavanaugh, 2013; Windschitl, Thompson, Braaten & Stroupe, 2012), fewer teacher educators have been examining how to bring those who mentor pre-service teachers, sometimes called cooperating teachers or pre-service mentor teachers, into this effort.
This paper reviews the literature on mentor teachers’ learning in relationship to high leverage practices and summarizes existing research on mentoring and experienced teacher learning that might help inform the design of our model of mentor teachers’ learning.
Released in 2013, the Next Generation Science Standards have the potential to revolutionize science education in the United States, requiring a very different way of thinking about learning and teaching science. Now is the opportune moment to prepare teachers for these new approaches to science instruction and classroom assessment and introduce them to the types of curriculum resources needed to implement the NGSS successfully. What are these teaching resources and professional development needs?
This article describes the role of museums in supporting schools and teachers in addressing the demands of the NGSS.
In 2012, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City launched the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Urban Residency Program. The AMNH recruits Earth science majors from across the United States who are motivated to teach in high-need schools in New York State. Developing a teacher preparation program from scratch is a tall order, and the museum is learning a tremendous amount from its pilot effort.
Kinzler, R. & Macdonald, M. (2014, January-February). Preparing new science teachers for high-need schools. Dimensions Magazine, 27.
In 2012, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City launched the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Urban Residency Program. Developing a teacher preparation program from scratch is a tall order, and the museum is learning a tremendous amount from its pilot effort.
This article describes a museum-based urban teacher-residency (UTR) program's approach to building subject-specific content knowledge and research experience in Earth Science teacher candidates. In the museum-based program, graduate-level science courses and research experiences are designed and implemented specifically for the UTR by active Earth and Space research scientists that account for almost half of the program's faculty.
This article describes a museum-based urban teacher-residency (UTR) program's approach to building subject-specific content knowledge and research experience in Earth Science teacher candidates.
Informal science education institutions play an important in the public understanding of science and, because of this are well-positioned to positively impact science teacher education. Informal science institutions (ISIs) have a range of affordances that could contribute to learner-centered science teacher identity development. This article describes research from a clinical experience in a museum where teacher candidates engaged visitors in learning dialogs around objects on a moveable cart in an exhibit.
This article describes research from a clinical experience in a museum where teacher candidates engaged visitors in learning dialogs around objects on a moveable cart in an exhibit. We describe how working in informal settings and learning to use the affordances of that setting supports aspiring teachers to connect theory to practice in ways that developed Spielraum in that is student-centered, responsive to the needs of learners, and allows for the imagination future selves and classrooms that are conducive to maintaining these identities.
This chapter examines the affordances of museum resources in informal settings and how they shape science teacher identity. More specifically, this chapter discusses how residents learning how to teach in school settings leverage experiences of learning to teach in museum settings.
Gupta, P., Trowbridge, C., & Macdonald, M. (2016). Breaking dichotomies: Learning to be a teacher of science in formal and informal settings. In L. Avraamidou & W. M. Roth (Eds.), Intersections of formal and informal science (pp. 178-188).New York, NY: Routledge.
This chapter examines the affordances of museum resources in informal settings and how they shape science teacher identity.
Evaluation is an important aspect of science and is receiving increasing attention in science education. The present study investigated (1) changes to plausibility judgments and knowledge as a result of a series of instructional scaffolds, called model–evidence link activities, that facilitated evaluation of scientific and alternative models in four different Earth science topics (climate change, fracking and earthquakes, wetlands and land use, and the formation of Earth’s Moon) and (2) relations between evaluation, plausibility reappraisal, and knowledge.
Evaluation is an important aspect of science and is receiving increasing attention in science education. The present study investigated (1) changes to plausibility judgments and knowledge as a result of a series of instructional scaffolds, called model–evidence link activities, that facilitated evaluation of scientific and alternative models in four different Earth science topics (climate change, fracking and earthquakes, wetlands and land use, and the formation of Earth’s Moon) and (2) relations between evaluation, plausibility reappraisal, and knowledge.
To make sense of the Common Core State Standards mathematical practice (MP) 8, this article illustrates what “repeated reasoning” means, why looking for and expressing regularity in it is such a valuable mathematical habit of mind, and how that differs from analyzing structure (MP 7) and from finding patterns in numerical results.
To make sense of the Common Core State Standards mathematical practice (MP) 8, this article illustrates what “repeated reasoning” means, why looking for and expressing regularity in it is such a valuable mathematical habit of mind, and how that differs from analyzing structure (MP 7) and from finding patterns in numerical results.
