Abstract
This study addresses the
question: If science teachers in North Carolina could see various technologies
or methodologies modeled in the classroom via video clips on the Internet,
what would they want to see?
Data was collected from 144
surveys of middle and high school teachers across the state. The teachers
provided demographic information and answered 20 Likert-style questions
about their level of interest on methodologies that could be modeled
on the Internet.
The collected data was then
analyzed to find which method received the most favorable responses.
The numbers were compared both on the basis of the percentage of respondents
who answered favorably and on the mean score for each question. Correlation
tables were made to determine trends with the demographic information
and the responses given. The strongest trend that was discovered was
a .77 correlation between the mean scores for middle school teachers
and high school teachers on the survey questions. This indicates both
groups of teachers had similar opinions.
The survey shows that science
teachers in North Carolina are more interested in seeing inquiry-based
methodologies than seeing the latest technology modeled in the classroom.
These results provide a clear direction for the continuation of this
project to aid science teachers in their own classrooms.
Review of Literature
For the last decade there
has been a strong reform movement in education, including science education.
This reform has focused on teaching methodologies, national or regional
standards, and the incorporation of the two through professional development.
An additional, and thus far unrealized, aid in accomplishing these objectives
could be for teachers to observe modeling of these methodologies via
the Internet.
In
science education, reform has centered around two aspects of teaching.
The first is to ensure that teachers are familiar with the latest content,
research, and techniques of practicing scientists (Anderson, 1993).
The second is providing veteran teachers experience with learning cycle/student
centered teaching practices (Radford, 1998). In the article, "SCI-LINK:
An Innovative Project Linking Research Scientists and Science Teachers,"
Dr. Norman D. Anderson (1993) describes a project based at the University
of Minnesota and North Carolina State University. The primary focus
of this project was to have practicing science teachers collaborate
with research scientists during a two-week summer session. During the
session, teachers produced curricular material fashioned during their
on-site collaborations that they could take with them and use in their
classrooms. The project met with widespread, positive feedback from
the teachers and virtually all of them reported using the materials
they developed the following year.
Project LIFE in Louisiana,
while trying to help teachers change their methodology, identified an
obvious need for inquiry based/student centered practices (Radford,
1998). Most teachers were not practicing inquiry based/student centered
learning because they had not been taught how to teach that way. Once
again the primary method for training these teachers was through summer
sessions. These teachers attended a three-week summer session which
focused on practicing hands-on science and understanding how to implement
the learning cycle. The results of the study indicated that after the
teachers introduced this type of teaching model, along with the LIFE
curricula, the attitudes and perceptions of the teachers improved and
the attitudes and achievement of the students improved as well (Radford,
1998).
Standards led reform, present
in 49 of 50 states, was recently described in a report issued by the
Regional Educational Laboratory Network (Laboratories, 2000). This report
summarized the success of the reform movements and money that has been
spent on this effort. They found that not only are student standards
being enacted throughout the country, but some states are also enacting
teacher performance standards. A common characteristic of successful
reform programs included professional development in which the teachers
felt ownership. One state, Florida, developed an online resource center
for teachers, with the understanding that teachers were so pressed for
time that this could be an easily available resource. This resource
center focused on providing prepared units or lessons for teachers that
were tied directly to the state standards. This could also be a resource
which incorporated access to modeling of teaching strategies.
Kentucky has been on the
leading edge of education reform for the past decade and has committed
a substantial amount of money to developing quality professional development
with the understanding that educational reform will only occur with
teacher learning (Borko, Elliott, & Uchiyama, 1999). Kentucky points
out that changes in practice are unlikely to occur without guidance
and learning from colleagues (Borko et al., 1999). One roadblock to
implementation of successful professional development in Kentucky was
geography. Many of the schools in need of updating their standards and
methods were located some distance from the University system which
made travel difficult. Another obstacle was the minimal amount of time
teachers were willing to spend on professional development. Again it
seems that Kentucky is on the verge of using the Internet to overcome
the problems of geography while being able to deliver meaningful experiences
modeled after successful classrooms on a timetable that would be the
most convenient for the teachers.
Parke and Coble (1997) conducted
a study to examine how schools and teachers could answer the challenge
to change the way science has been traditionally taught. They uncovered
some negative attitudes from teachers about current professional development
models. Teachers tire of having having change mandated and issues handed
down to them from thier administrations. When teachers do not have a
stake in the change process, they tend to take new ideas and change
them to fit their old teaching habits. On the positive side, teachers
want to feel connected to each other, to peer support, and to the process
of professional development, such as self-selecting the topics. They
also feel it is important that professional development focus on reforms
in education and helps to support life-long learning (Parke & Coble,
1997). If science teachers had access to materials on the Internet,
they could foster this sense of life-long learning while connecting
with other successful teachers. This process would be solely teacher
initiated and would allow teachers to explore new methods on their own
terms.
Many times teachers leave
professional development activities excited about a new topic or plan
but then struggle with the implementation of this idea in their classroom.
Some of the reasons for this could be found in a study by Sanchez and
Valcarcel (1999) that examined what teachers actually do and think about
when planning for instruction. Although this study took place in Spain,
the findings are largely applicable in the United States as well. When
planning what to teach, most teachers consult their text, look at the
general concepts, then search for material and activities to convey
these concepts to the students. Content and objectives vastly outweighed
the methodology or student interest as priorities in planning. Teachers
compacted all of their planning into about two to three hours a week,
and incorporated virtually no active learning nor aspects of the learning
cycle. Over 60% of the teachers felt that they needed to improve their
planning for instruction and over 35% gave specific examples of things
that would help them, such as obtaining up to date knowledge in the
subject areas, and learning new teaching and assessment strategies (Sanchez
& Valcarcel, 1999). One way to address these needs is Internet access
to models of the latest teaching methods and developments in science
education.
Educational reform and professional
development are moving forward together (Borko et al., 1999; Laboratories,
2000; Parke & Coble, 1997; Radford, 1998). Involving teachers in
discovering what is needed to help them improve their practices can
facilitate education reform. Some of the barriers and drawbacks of traditional
professional development such as geography (Borko et al., 1999), top-down
initiatives (Parke & Coble, 1997), two to three week summer sessions
that are not available for all teachers (Anderson, 1993; Radford, 1998),
and cost (Laboratories, 2000), can be at least partially alleviated
by making these opportunities available to all science teachers over
the Internet. It has also been shown that teachers learn the best in
their own classrooms, at their own pace, and that the best source of
ideas are experienced teachers (Van Zant, Raszka, & Kutzner, 2001).
All three of those models for successful teacher learning, which is
the goal of professional development, can be easily realized through
the medium of the Internet. Professional development opportunities via
the Internet are certainly not a panacea for all that ails science teaching.
However, a model that utilizes the Internet, aimed at transforming traditional
science classrooms into learner centered science classrooms, can be
another tool to give students the best science education experience
possible.
