For the Love of Science Education
The new College of Education emphasis area will train the researchers needed to shape the future of science education in elementary and middle schools.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications
Sept. 17, 2007


Arizona is the nation’s fastest-growing state and has a statewide push for a high-tech science industry during a time when the population is becoming increasingly diverse.

With this mix, one pressing question is: How can Arizona improve science education quickly, especially for those who are low-income or non-English speaking?

The University of Arizona’s new Science Education Scholars Program for doctorate degree seekers is attempting to answer those questions.

The program is for people with a background in science and are interested in researching ways elementary and middle school students – especially those from varying cultural and linguistic backgrounds – learn science to help improve practical knowledge about science education.

“We want a small group of people who will have a very intense program,” says Bruce Johnson, who helped develop the science education emphasis area under the teaching and teacher education degree.

The program intends to admit two to three new students annually and, given the UA’s geographic area, the Hispanic and American Indian populations are of great interest.

“It’s easy for teachers to assume kids come with similar backgrounds, but that’s becoming less and less true now,” says Johnson, department head and associate professor of teaching and teacher education in the College of Education.

The program is collaborating with the chemistry department and the language, reading and culture department.

“The approach we hope to develop really has to deal with something that is responsive to all populations” said Norma Gonzalez, a language, reading and culture professor.

“We want the teachers to be able to look at households from a perspective that looks at strengths, rather than deficits,” Gonzalez says. “Especially when there are poor or minority-type students, there is a tendency to see what's lacking rather than resources. We would like to develop teachers in a way that they will approach households ethnographically.”

The program’s students will graduate with a minor in language, reading and culture, so they will have be able to take courses such as language and culture in education, anthropology in education and teaching English-language learners.

“There are many ways of tapping into science principles that are part of our everyday practices – that are community-based,” Gonzalez says. That may include studying local land formations and the growth of indigenous plants – things students in Southern Arizona can connect with more immediately.

“We want to be involved with teacher education and feel this would strengthen the school districts and all aspects of teaching,” she added. “We have a deep investment in the schools, and it’s important to think about those things and to have broad, interdisciplinary content knowledge.”

Elsa Schaub, one of the program’s students, said the old thought that under-represented students are predisposed to poor performance in areas like science is not supported by research findings.

She is trying to determine ways the classroom environment can hamper or help student learning.

“I want to contribute to the field of learning environments in science and encourage students to go into science and math,” Schaub says. “It’s important to help them see how important that is in their daily lives.”

Schaub, who taught science for six years with Tucson Unified School District, says she found that under-represented children typically had a difficult time connecting to course material.

“Many times, the curriculum doesn’t reach the student to the extent that I think it should be possible,” she says.

“Many of the students found that the material didn’t really tap into their personal backgrounds and what they knew,” she says. “The students would talk to me sometimes and let me know that there were things they felt we didn’t have enough time to explore.”

But time is not always the key factor.

Schaub found the students were less interested and less engaged during the formal class period, but were generally more exploratory during after school science programs, which allowed for a more creative and flexible curriculum.

“It’s interesting how students learn so well in environments those aren’t as limiting as the classroom,” she says.

The concern is not specific to the College of Education.

Last month, officials submitted the UA’s preliminary budget to the Arizona Board of Regents. In that initial document, administrators said they intended to seek state funds that would help improve education and instruction in science and other high-demand areas like mathematics, engineering and technology.

Also, earlier this year, the federal 21st Century Competitiveness Act was signed into law, approving funds and initiatives meant to improve science and technology.

“It’s interesting how this has developed,” Johnson says, noting that the first “big push” for science education arrived in the 1950s and 1960s – the era of Sputnik, the world’s first human-built satellite. The push then was for more scientific researchers.

Today, scientists are still in demand, but so is a population with a deeper understanding of science, Johnson said, which is pushing the need for science education researchers with doctorates.

“It’s a very specific program,” he said. “They’ll be learning how to do educational research, get practical experience and work with diverse learners, both cultural and linguistic.They’ll also study a body of science education on what things are like in schools and how students learn.”

Miria Biller, also concerned about the state of science education, wants to focus on equitable education methods.

“It’s just the possibility of creating curriculum, especially curriculum that is relevant and involves the student where they’re talked with and not talked to,” says Biller, who has taught bilingual education, math and science in local public schools for the last three years.

As an educator, Biller wanted science education to integrate smaller group work, increased cross-disciplinary studies and changes for students to write in their native languages.

“I just kept feeling, as a teacher, ‘I can only help so many students and I should be able to do more,'” Biller says.

For now, Biller is evaluating a curriculum called “Investigating and Questioning our World through Science and Technology,” or IQWST, which contains a series of grade-specific units that allow for an increased number of labs and more interaction.

Christopher Harris, an assistant professor of teaching and teacher education, helped developed IQWST prior to coming to the UA. It is in its pilot phase at the Wildcat School, a UA affiliated nonprofit charter school that emphasizes science and math training for middle school students.

“Part of my reason for going back to school was so that I could have a larger impact, either statewide or nationwide, to develop curriculum and improve students’ attitude toward science,” she says. “With some of the resources schools have, they only purchase textbooks eight to 10 years, so information is almost always outdated. Any activities and labs have to be teacher-invented.”

Share

Resources for the media

Bruce Johnson

626-8700

brucej@email.arizona.edu