Alignment of teachers' educational goals and habits of understanding, action, reflection, and improving practice with the Iowa State University Secondary Science Teacher Education Program

Abstract

This study compares the extent to which the educational goals and habits promoted by the former and current Iowa State University Secondary Science Teacher Education Program (ISU SSTEP) transfer out into its graduates’ teaching practices. Investigated habits include graduates’ practices of understanding, action, reflection, and improving practice. Six teachers from the ISU SSTEP participated in this study. Three participants studied under the former program that included a single semester-length science teaching methods course. The other three participants graduated from the current program, which features a coordinated sequence of semester-length science teaching methods courses, and a semester-length course addressing the nature of science and its implications for teaching and learning science. Data collection included three classroom observations, teacher questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, questionnaires for students about perceived emphasis of educational goals, and analysis of classroom artifacts. Data collected in this study is part of a larger study conducted under the direction of ISU science education faculty to determine the effectiveness of the current ISU SSTEP, and how it may be improved. Analysis of the data collected in this study illuminated factors that influence the transfer of ISU SSTEP goals and habits out into its graduates’ teaching practices. Suggestions are offered regarding how the ISU SSTEP might address some of these factors and improve the transfer of its promoted goals and habits out into its graduates’ pedagogical practices. However, some factors that interfere in the transfer of its promoted goals and habits may be beyond the control of the ISU SSTEP.