Inservice Needs of Teachers of Biology: A Comparison between Veteran & Nonveteran Teachers

Abstract

B IOLOGY is a continually changing (e.g. Human Genome Project, AIDS, new techniques such as Southern Blocks). At the same time, the techniques used to teach it (e.g. cooperative learning, microcomputer-based labs, authentic assessmentlike portfolios) are evolving. Consequently, biology teachers need inservice opportunities to update their background in both content and pedagogy. Buccino (1989) recommended that the continued professional development of biology teachers should be a concern of both institutions of higher education and local school systems. Dung (1989) noted that schools alone cannot provide the total professional growth experiences needed for biology teachers and proposed partnerships with higher education institutions and informal education sites (i.e. museums, etc.). The National Research Council (NRC 1990) reported that the nature of inservice activities is changing. For example, NRC noted that 63% of teachers of grades 10-12 have masters degrees, consequently, fewer teachers are returning to higher education institutions for further coursework. In her national survey, Weiss (1987) observed that 46% of teachers of grades 9-12 had taken a course in the past two-to-three years. She asked teachers when they would prefer inservice sessions to be scheduled. The preference was a workday (60%), while 33% responded that they would likely attend if the sessions were held during summer or after school, and about 20% would likely attend a Saturday or evening inservice program. However, school districts are seldom able to provide extensive inservice programs during the school day. Teachers must, for the most part, find alternatives for advancing their professional development. Baird et al. (1994) found in their multistate study of rural teachers that inconvenient location, inappropriate programs, poor programs, lack of information, and lack of personal energy were barriers to participation in inservice activities. During the 1960s and 1970s, NSF sponsored institutes that were frequently conducted on Saturdays, after school, or in the summer. Barrow (1992) reported on Presidential Honorees who teach biology. These exemplary biology teachers reported that more than 50% of their local schools have provided inservice opportunities. These teachers are considered exemplary because they have masters' degrees, attend professional meetings, submit manuscripts for publication, continue to take college courses, and read professional journals on a regular basis. Wivagg (1987) considers reading journals a professional responsibility of teachers. About three-fourths of the Honorees had personally conducted inservice sessions during the past two years. The Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS 1993) recently released Developing Biological Literacy. This curriculum framework addresses changes in the roles that precollege, twoand four-year institutions play in developing biological literacy. These guidelines are going to necessitate inservice activities for current biology teachers. NRC (1990) recommended that inservice programs should vary based on the years of teaching: . . during the first several years of teaching, the focus of inservice programs should be techniques for teaching science. In later years, they should provide mechanisms for updating teachers' knowledge of science (p. 59). This study was conducted to see if there was a difference in perceived inservice needs of veteran and nonveteran biology teachers as recommended by NRC (1990). For the purposes of this study, we considered veterans as having taught five years or more and nonveterans as having taught less than five years.