Participation in a Multi-institutional Curriculum Development Project Changed Science Faculty Knowledge and Beliefs About Teaching Science

Despite significant pressure to reform science teaching and learning in K12 schools, and a concurrent call to reform undergraduate courses, higher education science content courses have remained relatively static. Higher education science faculty have few opportunities to explore research on how peo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of science teacher education 2015-03, Vol.26 (2), p.193-216
Main Authors: Donovan, Deborah A., Borda, Emily J., Hanley, Daniel M., Landel, Carolyn C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biology
Curriculum Development
Earth Science
Education
Educational Change
Educational Strategies
Elementary School Science
Elementary School Teachers
Elementary Secondary Education
Higher education faculty
K12 collaboration
Knowledge Base for Teaching
Literature Reviews
National Standards
School faculty
Science content courses
Science Curriculum
Science Education
Science Teachers
Secondary School Science
Teacher Attitudes
Teacher Collaboration
Teacher Competencies
Teacher Education Programs
Teaching
Teaching and Teacher Education
Teaching Methods
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Summary:Despite significant pressure to reform science teaching and learning in K12 schools, and a concurrent call to reform undergraduate courses, higher education science content courses have remained relatively static. Higher education science faculty have few opportunities to explore research on how people learn, examine state or national science teaching standards for K12 schools, or learn and practice research-based instructional strategies. The contrast between what is expected of future and practicing teachers in their K12 classrooms and what they experience in content and instruction in typical college or university science courses can be striking. This paper describes a multi-institutional collaboration among content-area science faculty and K12 teachers to develop undergraduate content courses for future elementary teachers in life and Earth science. Using data from the project evaluation, we report evidence of change in faculty knowledge and beliefs about science teaching and learning, and how that this translated into pedagogical practice in their courses.
ISSN:1046-560X
1573-1847
DOI:10.1007/s10972-014-9414-z