Under a prior grant from NSF, Green River Community College developed an interdisciplinary, inquiry-oriented science content course for students intending to teach in elementary and middle schools. The current project assesses the effectiveness of that course, as well as the community college experience, in influencing teachers' beliefs about the nature of science and their use of inquiry-based pedagogies in their own K-8 classrooms.
The intellectual merit of this project is its unique focus on community college students. This student population represents approximately half of future teachers, but is under-represented in research on teacher training and practice. Subjects include students who begin their education at a community college and complete a teaching certificate through several pathways. These students are being followed throughout four years of preparation and into the K-8 classroom. One group of subjects comprises Green River students enrolled in a pre-teacher preparation program who take the inquiry-based interdisciplinary science series. A second group (control group) comprises students whose preparation has been more traditional. Both groups then merge into year three of a four-year program housed at Central Washington University, where they take science methods courses. These groups of students are being followed from the first year of college to the K-8 classroom to assess how their beliefs about the nature of science evolve. In addition, the classroom practice and use of instructional materials of teachers who belong to both the experimental and control groups is being assessed. The use of a cross-sectional design allows subjects to be assessed at various points along this teacher preparation continuum.
Findings on the influence of interdisciplinary, inquiry-based science courses on teacher beliefs and practices will be broadly applicable to community colleges and four-year institutions. The outcomes advance our understanding of how best to prepare SMT teachers. In addition, the role of community colleges in SMT teacher preparation is being addressed, with the potential of expanding the model of interdisciplinary science courses to other community colleges nation-wide.
