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Science curriculum reform for education majors.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

From 1998-2001 Coastal Carolina University changed how two science courses were taught to Early Childhood and Elementary Education majors. Neither the biology course nor the physics course significantly changed preservice students attitudes about who does science, their general attitude about science, or the frequency in which they were involved in extracurricular science activities. Students in both courses did as well as students taught in a traditional format on post course content exams, even though less "content" was covered. In this article we describe the impetus for the curricular reform efforts, the quantitative and qualitative assessment of the courses, as well as share some unexpected outcomes.

Background

The leaking pipeline of women and under-represented minorities out of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) begins in late elementary school and persists throughout the educational system and into the workplace. No universal constant can be pointed to as the cause of this phenomenon (Ambrose, et al., 1997). Rather, it appears that unintentional discriminatory practices from a variety of sources produce the cumulative effect (Potter & Rosser, 1992; Vetter, 1992). Research has shown that teachers' attitudes towards math and science have a profound influence on their students' interest and their instruction of these subjects (Westerback, 1982; Young & Kellogg, 1993). The manner in which teachers praise, question and respond to students differs by gender (Jones & Wheately, 1990); boys are more likely to receive positive teacher feedback than girls (Kahle & Meece 1994). It is no surprise that teacher beliefs affect the way female students operate in the classroom (Leder 1990; Melnick et al. 1986; Shepardson & Pizzini, 1992).

To decrease the number of girls leaking out of the scientific pipeline we need to reach individuals that have a significant impact on their lives, their K-12 teachers. We targeted preservice teachers because we frequently teach in the manner in which we are taught and the way science is taught to preservice educators significantly influences their teaching behavior (Wagner et al. 1995; Renner 1976). We hoped that by modeling best practices in the science courses for elementary education majors they would be more likely to teach inquiry-based science. Prospective teachers need a more constructivist approach to learning science, as recent standards advocate...

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