In the last twenty years, we have seen increasing evidence that teacher education programs have little or no impact on pre-service teachers' original conceptions of teaching and learning. Therefore it is imperative that pre-service teachers are offered better opportunities to connect what they learn in the university context to the school context. This issue is even more urgent in science education when one considers the calls for finding effective ways to to prepare secondary science teachers to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse pupil population.

Hence, the study proposed here sought to explore the following research questions:

1. What are the difficulties cooperating and pre-service teachers encounter while trying to implement a sociotransformative constructivist orientation in diverse middle school classrooms (i.e., an orientation that intersects inquiry-based science teaching with sociocultural constructivism and multicultural education)?

2. In what ways does a sociotransformative constructivist orientation to teaching enhance cooperating and pre-service teachers' abilities to teach science for diversity and for understanding?

3. In what ways does a sociotransformative constructivist orientation to teaching enhance pupil' attitudes toward and academic performance in science?

To explore these research questions, a three year longitudinal study was conducted, and included three parts. The first part consisted of a two-week summer institute for twenty middle school teachers. The hands-on and minds-on activities offered at the institute was used to illustrate how a sociotransformative constructivist orientation can be implemented in the classroom. The principal investigator and two master service teachers (from the local area) offered instruction. The second part of the project consisted of pairing pre-service teachers with the teachers who participated in the summer workshop. By this time the pre-service teachers had completed a required science methods class based on the same theoretical framework that guided the summer institute. The third part of the project consisted of a follow-up study of the pre-service teachers after they graduated and secured teaching jobs. The new graduates were followed up for the first two years of teaching. Two summer conferences was held with cooperating and novice teachers to strengthen the on-going efforts for mentorship and professional development.

Data for all stages of the study was analyzed using an ethnographic approach. Thus, cooperating pre-service science teachers and a focus group of their pupils were visited regularly by the research team. On-going in-depth interviews and classroom observations were conducted. Some lessons were videotaped and a variety of teacher and student produced work was gathered to add more context and opportunities to contrast emerging themes and categories.

The results of this study enrichs our understanding of how to effectively prepare science teachers to teach for understanding in increasingly diverse schools. Similarly, this study adds insights on how to enhance the academic performance and attitude toward science of diverse middle school pupils.

More details on sociotransformative constructivism:
What is it and how it be used in the classroom? (40K PDF format)
(Link to Download: Adobe Acrobat Reader)

 
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Last Updated: 6/15/03