Methodology
Pre-service science teachers
are given the tools and methods to survive the first year of teaching
in their undergraduate programs. Once in the field, these novice teachers
continue to learn about science teaching from expert role models. There
is little time, however, during the school day to observe “live”
teaching practices and there may be few examplese of new tools and methodologies
that can be observed in the schools. Oone way to circumvent the problem
is to view the exemplary teachers practicing new methodologies using
up-to-date video tools delivered via the Internet. But first, the question
must be answered, ”What do in-service teachers view as the important
aspects of teaching science which should be modeled by expert teachers
for review by the science teaching profession?”
To answer this question,
a survey was developed to
send out to middle and high schools throughout North Carolina. The survey
was developed in three stages. First, initial ideas and beginning points
were taken from earlier work done on the Science Junction (http://www.ncsu.edu/sciencejunction),
a cyber-community for teachers, students and science researchers. Second,
the idea of the project along with some suggestions taken from Science
Junction was presented to a focus group of middle school teachers. They
provided additional ideas for what could be modeled and refined earlier
ideas. The ideas garnered from the focus group were then used to create
a draft of the survey. In the third phase, this draft of the survey
was presented to a group of high school teachers. The teachers reviewed
the survey for clarity additional content as well as ideas to help increase
the return rate. Final revisions were then made to the survey and it
was prepared for mailing.
An
effort was made to mail the survey to a sample that would be representative
of the population of high schools and middle schools in North Carolina.
From the complete lists of middle and high schools in North Carolina,
250 middle schools and 250 high schools were randomly selected. The
high school survey was sent to the Science Department Chairperson, and
the middle school survey was sent to the Principal of the building.
In each case there was an accompanying cover letter explaining the research
and survey and asking that at least one teacher in the building complete
and return the enclosed survey. The only differences between the high
school and middle school survey are questions in the demographics section.
The main body of each survey is identical.
The first section of the
survey contains questions about the background and demographics of the
teacher and the school. The main body of the survey lists twenty items
that could be presented on video via the Internet to assist teachers
in their preparation and professional growth. Teachers are asked to
indicate their interest in each topic by rating it on a 1 to 5 scale,
with 1 indicating that this practice is not something that they would
want to observe, and 5 indicating that this practice is something that
they would be very interested in observing. The last section of the
survey includes an open-ended question that asks the respondents for
any additional suggestions of topics as well as single scaled question
asking for their opinion on how useful they feel this completed project
will be to them.
Incentives were used to raise
the return rate of the survey. Every teacher who returned a survey had
their name entered into a drawing for one of six color printers. The
six Lexmark Z32 printers were given out at the completion of the survey.
When the surveys were returned
the results were analyzed to find which items teachers responded to
most favorably. Mean scores were computed for each of the 21 questions
for the high school teachers and middle school teachers. The scores
were then examined to determine which items were higher in selection
scores. The results were also analyzed to see if there were correlations
between the high school and middle school responses.
Hopefully, these results
will provide a clear direction for what aspects of science teaching
in-service teachers want to see modeled on video delivered via the Internet
to help them improve their own teaching. The next step in this project
will be to collect video samples of the most desired aspects of teaching
science, as shown by the survey, and begin to compile a library of such
activities and behaviors that can then be posted on the world wide web
to be accessed by teachers throughout North Carolina and the world.
Sample
Of the 500 surveys that were
sent to middle and high schools across North Carolina, 144 were completed
and returned. This was a slightly disappointing return rate of 29%.
It was hoped that by offering color printers as rewards that the return
rate would be closer to 40%. One of the reasons for this might have
been the quick turn around time that was required for this survey.
Of the 144 surveys returned,
56 were from middle schools and 88 were from high schools. Some respondents
did not complete all of the demographic information. The respondents
were asked to categorize their school in several areas for sake of comparison.
Their answers indicated that, while more responses indicated that they
were from small schools, there was a reasonable spread across all three
categories. (See Table 1). The middle school respondents were predominately
from small schools, while the high school respondents tended to be in
large schools.
Table 1
Size of Schools
| Number
of Students |
All
Responses |
Middle
School |
High
School |
| 0-400 |
44 (.31) |
26 (.46) |
18 (.21) |
| 401-800 |
29 (.20) |
19 (.34) |
10 (.11) |
| 801-1200 |
31 (.22) |
10 (.18) |
21 (.24) |
| 1201+ |
39 (.27) |
1 (.02) |
38 (.44) |
| Total |
143 |
56 |
87 |
Percentage of responses in each
category shown in parenthesis.
Teachers indicated that they were mostly from rural schools (See Table
2.) This trend was the same for both the middle and high school teachers.
Table 2
Location of School
| Location
of School |
All
Responses |
Middle
School |
High
School |
| Rural |
77 (.56) |
36 (.70)
|
41 (.48) |
| Suburban |
32 (.23) |
7 (.14) |
25 (.29) |
| Urban |
27 (.20) |
8 (.16) |
19 (.22) |
| Total |
136 |
51 |
85 |
Percentages of responses in
each category shown in parenthesis.
The teachers were also asked for their number of years of experience.
As a group they averaged 13.9 years of experience with a minimum of
1 and a maximum of 39. (See Table 3). The two groups were remarkably
similar in the years of experience. The middle school teachers averaged
14.0 years of experience and the high school teachers averaged 13.9
years.
Table 3
Experience of Teachers
|
All
Responses |
Middle
School |
High
School |
Mean Years
of
Experience |
13.9 |
14.0 |
13.9 |
Min. Years of
Experience |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
Max. Years of
Experience |
39.0 |
32.0 |
39.0 |
Of the 100 counties in North
Carolina, surveys were returned from 60 of them. The figures below show
the numbers of surveys sent to each county and the number of surveys
returned from each county. Because some schools copied the survey and
sent back multiple copies, it is actually possible to have more surveys
returned from a county than were sent to that county. The figures below
depict middle school surveys sent and returned and high school surveys
sent and returned.
Figure 1- Map showing the number of surveys sent to High Schools in
each county.
Figure 2- Map showing the number of surveys returned from High Schools
in each county.
Figure 3- Map showing the number of surveys sent to Middle Schools in
each county.
Figure 4- Map showing the number of surveys returned from Middle Schools
in each county.
