National Academies Press: OpenBook

The Role of Scientists in the Professional Development of Science Teachers (1996)

Chapter: 4 Administrators' and Others' Responsibilities for Encouraging Scientists' Participation in Professional-Development Programs

« Previous: 3 A Guide for Scientists
Suggested Citation:"4 Administrators' and Others' Responsibilities for Encouraging Scientists' Participation in Professional-Development Programs." National Research Council. 1996. The Role of Scientists in the Professional Development of Science Teachers. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2310.
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Suggested Citation:"4 Administrators' and Others' Responsibilities for Encouraging Scientists' Participation in Professional-Development Programs." National Research Council. 1996. The Role of Scientists in the Professional Development of Science Teachers. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2310.
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Page 50
Suggested Citation:"4 Administrators' and Others' Responsibilities for Encouraging Scientists' Participation in Professional-Development Programs." National Research Council. 1996. The Role of Scientists in the Professional Development of Science Teachers. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2310.
×
Page 51
Suggested Citation:"4 Administrators' and Others' Responsibilities for Encouraging Scientists' Participation in Professional-Development Programs." National Research Council. 1996. The Role of Scientists in the Professional Development of Science Teachers. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2310.
×
Page 52
Suggested Citation:"4 Administrators' and Others' Responsibilities for Encouraging Scientists' Participation in Professional-Development Programs." National Research Council. 1996. The Role of Scientists in the Professional Development of Science Teachers. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2310.
×
Page 53
Suggested Citation:"4 Administrators' and Others' Responsibilities for Encouraging Scientists' Participation in Professional-Development Programs." National Research Council. 1996. The Role of Scientists in the Professional Development of Science Teachers. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/2310.
×
Page 54

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4 Administrators' and Others' Responsibilities for Encouraging Scientists' Participation In Professional-Development Programs University leaders must make it clear to their science departments that the qual- ity and quantity of the service that each department provides to precollege science teachers (both preservice and inservice training) and in the general education of conscience majors will be important considerations in the distribu- tion of university resources and faculty positions. [National Research CounciL 1990, p. 75] Participation by scientists can become the rule rather than the exception if universities provide more recognition and reward both internally (on campus) and externally (in the scientific community)] to faculty members who participate in professional-development programs. The lack of recognition and rewards, particularly for junior faculty at research universities, is a major impediment to scientists' participation in professional development. INTERNAL REWARDS The nation's colleges and universities have intensified discussion and debate about the relationship between teaching and research (Boyer, 1990; Kennedy, 1990; AAHE, 1993~. The institutional culture of nearly every university requires that faculty contribute by research, teaching, and service, but few institutions 1 The need for increased recognition and reward applies to other kinds of teaching at research universities as well, for example, undergraduate teaching. This matter is being addressed by the National Research Council Committee on Undergraduate Science Education. 49

so PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE TEACHERS reward research and teaching equally, and fewer reward service at all. A central issue is that research has a wide range of external rewards (such as grants, inter- national prestige, and meeting invitations), whereas teaching is rewarded exter- nally or internally only rarely and sometimes by no one but appreciative students. Faculty members, therefore, routinely undervalue undergraduate teaching, in- cluding the teaching of future science teachers. Even more discouraging is that at many research universities, working with teachers in professional-development programs is not even valued as teaching, but as "service" to the community. To increase professional rewards for scientists who are involved in profes- sional development of teachers, universities must show that they value and re- ward their faculty members' participation. The following are examples of how universities have recognized the importance of closer connections between K-12 education and universities. il · The Department of Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Wash- ngton School of Medicine established a program that began by asking questions of educators about their needs and then designing a partnership that addressed those needs. Department members, with the encouragement and endorsement of the department chair, can become involved in professional-development activi- ties for K-12 teachers. Because it looks at teachers' needs and then finds appro- priate funding sources, the program has the potential to have a positive impact on education in the Seattle area. The department is also planning a course with teachers and faculty of the College of Education for elementary-school teacher preparation, a summer program with middle-school teachers, and a secondary- school teacher program involving specific topics. · As a part of the academic senate's committee structure at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), a committee on community education was estab- lished in 1985. The committee is responsible for promoting educational activities for teachers and for informing the faculty of the importance of these activities and recommending how to improve them. The committee serves as a forum for discussing the continuity of courses and teaching in K-16 subjects. The impetus for the program is the recognition that as the K-12 system undergoes educational reform, it becomes more important than ever for college and university faculty to be aware of the changes. It might also be critically important for faculty to become involved in the decision-making processes so that the postsecondary institutions have some impact on the future directions of K-12 reform. The committee on community education has requested that faculty receive teaching credit, not service credit, for teaching professional-development courses for teach- ers. The University of California has discussed awarding points to faculty for the teaching of professional-development courses. The point system might be based on numbers of students taught and their level. (See Appendix E for more infor- mation about the UCI committee program.) · At the University of Arizona, promotion and tenure guidelines for the

SCIENTISTS' PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL-DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS 51 faculty were revised in 1992 to define inservice education of teachers as teaching, rather than service, so that faculty participation could be better rewarded. The faculty of science also has approved special promotion and tenure guidelines for faculty who take a major role in K-12 teacher education. (These guidelines are included in Appendix E.) University administrators can support programs in other ways. They can provide space and joint appointments, thereby allowing university staff to spend time in teaching or research and time in outreach programs. That would give staff an academic home; built-in contacts with faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers in their departments; academic credibility; and accessi- bility to scientific research. Administrators can also allow program participants to work with as many groups as possible across a campus. For example, a land-grant institution's cooperative extension service could help to establish ties with teachers in rural areas, and human-relations offices could help to recruit teachers from urban schools with large minority-group populations. Administrators can help to pro- mote activities both on and off campus. EXTERNAL REWARDS The national concern about science education has generated many sources of grant support for educational programs, particularly through the National Science Foundation. Private organizations, specifically the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the life sciences, have also committed more of their resources to this issue. The impact on science faculty in recent years, when federal appropriations for basic research have been flat, has been immediate. Science faculty members are now obtaining large grants to support educational programs. The hope is that university administrators, who presumably share the desire to improve science education, will support and reward these scientists in tenure and promotion deci- sions. In addition to receiving science-education grants, however, a simple and effective way to promote scientists' involvement in science education would be for federal agencies to promote more educational supplements to research grants that can support teachers working in research laboratories. Scientists can use the suggestions in Chapter 3 to make such interactions as productive as possible and use the information in Appendix A to learn about their colleagues' efforts around the country. PROFESSIONAL-SOCIETY RECOGNITION Scientific professional societies have become more involved in science edu- cation. Nearly all professional societies have education as one of their stated goals. In the physical sciences, the American Chemical Society and the Ameri

52 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE TEACHERS can Physical Society have special precollege-education committees and programs that have made substantial efforts to reach out to the precollege teaching commu- nity. The American Chemical Society has a separate section for precollege education. The American Physical Society has created a program with the Ameri- can Association of Physics Teachers to link the professional development of physics teachers more closely with the physics research community. The life-science community, however, has a wider diversity of professional organizations. Rather than having a single broadly encompassing organization, the life sciences have hundreds of smaller organizations. Most of the program- matic focus of life-science education programs has been on graduate and post- graduate education. In recent years, interest in K-12 education has increased dramatically, as evidenced by an increase in the number of precollege-education committees. Special symposia and workshops for teachers and students at na- tional meetings are becoming more common. These can be an effective way to interest scientists in professional development and an efficient way for them to educate themselves about the issues. Some of the activities of professional soci- eties, however, assume that scientists already know the best ways to become involved. Professional societies should offer workshops and symposia on sci- ence-education reform for scientists so that they can understand the needs, the opportunities, and the most productive ways to become involved. Some societies (such as the American Society for Microbiology, the Ameri- can Society of Human Genetics, and the American Society for Cell Biology) have begun to feature educational activities in their newsletters or monthly news jour- nals; others (such as the Genetics Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science) have spun off separate education newsletters. Some (such as the American Physiological Society, the American Society for Biochem- istry and Molecular Biology, and the American Society for Cell Biology) provide grants for teachers to work in research laboratories. The Society for Neuro- science has begun a collaboration with the National Association of Biology Teachers to develop teaching materials in neuroscience. Some societies (such as the American Society for Microbiology, the American Physiological Society, the American Chemical Society, and the American Institute of Physics) have hired staff to focus specifically on education issues. The Genetics Society of America has several education programs. It occa- sionally includes education papers in its professional journal, Genetics, and dis- seminates information about outreach programs in a booklet titled GENeration and another titled Genetics in the Classroom. Similarly, the American Society for Cell Biology includes education articles in the essays section of its journal, Molecular Biology of the Cell. Scientists rarely read education journals and are more likely to read and learn about science education if articles about it are included in the specialized scientific journals. Science includes some articles on science education, and the AAAS Directorate for Education and Human Re- sources Programs publishes Science Education News eight times a year. If more

SCIENTISTS' PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL-DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS 53 specialized journals published articles on science education and science-educa- tion research, artificial barriers between teaching and research might be lowered. At the same time, such publication would legitimize and give broader recognition to creative teaching. (Specific information about how to get in touch with scien- tific and science-education organizations is found in Appendix F.) The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) conducted a full-day program for 25 high-school biology teachers and 50 of their students on the day before the official beginning of its 1993 annual meeting, in New Orleans. ASHG collaborated with the state affiliate of the National Association of Biology Teach- ers (NABT) to identify teachers and students; the state affiliate arranged for transportation to the meeting for teachers and students from areas outside New Orleans and worked with the education committee of ASHG to develop the program. During the morning program, ASHG provided three brief descriptions of subjects of current active investigation in human genetics. The focus was on open questions and the different ways in which scientists are approaching them. Some exhibitors donated examples of technologies used to investigate the ques- tions highlighted during the morning presentations, and students and teachers used those technologies during the afternoon sessions. One of the afternoon sessions provided a simulated genetic-counseling clinic to demonstrate the use of data derived from the technologies in counseling sessions. All the teachers and students received free registrations to the annual meeting, and each one attending was assigned an ASHG member as a mentor to serve as a guide and interpreter for the scientific sessions. ASHG also provides at its own expense two speak- ers for each annual meeting of NAB T and one speaker for the annual meeting of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). RECOMMENDATIONS University Administrators University administrators in research universities, comprehensive colleges, liberal-arts colleges, and community colleges should support K-12 teachers' pro- fessional development by · Becoming involved in professional-development activities in local com . . mumbles. · Forming partnerships with schools and school districts and working with school administrators. · Providing incentives for faculty to be involved in K-12 science education by recognizing faculty involvement in teacher professional development, rewards through promotion and tenure decisions, and recognition of professional devel- opment as a legitimate teaching activity of university science faculty. · Providing on-campus facilities and support for K-12 teachers.

54 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE TEACHERS · Examining undergraduate science teaching to see whether their institution is preparing future science teachers effectively. . Promoting cooperation between science departments and schools of edu cation to improve science education at all levels. · Participating in national science-education reform at all educational lev- els and facilitating the participation of their faculty. Scientific Professional Societies Scientific professional societies can do a number of things to promote scien- tists' involvement in improving science-rich opportunities for K-12 teachers. They can · Organize special workshops at annual meetings for scientists interested in K-12 education. · Organize workshops and scientific sessions directed at teachers at annual meetings. · Secure funding and coordinate summer research opportunities for teach- ers in members' research laboratories. · Publicize and disseminate effective supplementary curricular materials. . . once education. Encourage and welcome teacher membership in societies by reducing fees, publicizing meetings in science-education journals, and including teachers on education committees. Recognize and reward scientists for outstanding accomplishment in sol . · Arrange for and subsidize speakers at teacher professional meetings, such as those of NABT, NSTA, and state science-teacher associations. Professional societies should devote a section of scientific-research journals and newsletters to education articles and refereed education-research papers. Such a change in editorial policy will help to reduce the barriers between teach- ing and research. Professional organizations that have memberships drawn from many disci- plines or subdisciplines of biology (such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute of Biological Sciences) should increase their efforts to create networks among scientists committed to education reform. The networks could improve communication among biolo- gists and between biologists and scientists in other disciplines.

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Scientists nationwide are showing greater interest in contributing to the reform of science education, yet many do not know how to begin.

This highly readable book serves as a guide for those scientists interested in working on the professional development of K-12 science teachers. Based on information from over 180 professional development programs for science teachers, the volume addresses what kinds of activities work and why. Included are useful examples of programs focusing on issues of content and process in science teaching.

The authors present "day-in-a-life" vignettes, along with a suggested reading list, to help familiarize scientists with the professional lives of K-12 science teachers. The book also offers scientists suggestions on how to take first steps toward involvement, how to identify programs that have been determined effective by teachers, and how to become involved in system-wide programs. Discussions on ways of working with teachers on program design, program evaluation, and funding sources are included.

Accessible and practical, this book will be a welcome resource for university, institutional, and corporate scientists; teachers; teacher educators; organizations; administrators; and parents.

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