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From Scarcity to Abundance: Using Concurrent Undergraduate Teacher Preparation to Address the Mathematics/Science Teacher "Shortage"
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Conference Strand III Title: From Scarcity to Abundance: Using Concurrent Undergraduate Teacher Preparation to Address the Mathematics/Science Teacher "Shortage"
Section I: Content Statement of the Issue: The President has set a goal of training 70,000 more mathematics and science teachers. In their widely recognized report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, the National Academies of Science set the target at 10,000 newly prepared mathematics and science teachers each year (NAS, 2005). But the question remains, how do we translate these goals From Vision To Action? The solution requires us to look beyond the usual means of attracting new individuals and preparing them for the teaching profession. Strategies to strengthen and enhance the capacity of mathematics and science teacher preparation programs by simply aiming to do more of what we do now will not be successful. This presentation will encourage participants to look at mathematics and science teacher recruitment and preparation from a perspective of abundance rather than the consciousness of shortage or scarcity. A new, concurrent approach to teacher preparation makes it possible for many of our nation’s best and brightest undergraduate applied science students at major research and land grant universities to become qualified mathematics and science teachers while pursuing their primary disciplinary degree. Through innovations in program structure, these models strengthen programs and enhance capacity by accessing and leveraging the resources of the entire university. Literature Review: Over the past quarter of a century, numerous national reports have lamented U.S. student performance in mathematics and science on both national and international assessments (e.g., National Assessment of Education Progress – NAEP; Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study – TIMSS; Program for International Study Assessment – PISA); and the preparation of mathematics and science teachers (e.g. Educating Americans for the 21
st
Century, America’s Pressing Challenge –
Building a Stronger Foundation: A Companion to Science and Engineering Indicators). One of the consistent themes in these reports has been a dramatic shortage of mathematics and science teachers. The conceptualization of the mathematics and science teacher problem, and its solutions, from this perspective of scarcity has yielded inadequate results. Teacher preparation models introduced over the past two decades may have actually made the problem worse, not better. There are two traditional structural models of teacher preparation – the “squeezed” and the “stacked.” With the “squeezed” undergraduate model, content preparation and pedagogy preparation are “squeezed” into the undergraduate program. The unfortunate result is not much depth or preparation in either.
Severe criticism of the “squeezed” model, in a series of reports during the 1980’s, resulted in a shift to a “stacked” model. In the “stacked” model, students obtain a BA/BS in some content field and then attend graduate school for the education component. Many universities shifted from the “squeezed” undergraduate model to the “stacked” graduate school model (see below).
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| | Authors: Dalton, Michael. and Knott, Molly. |
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Conference Strand III
Title: From Scarcity to Abundance: Using Concurrent Undergraduate Teacher Preparation to
Address the Mathematics/Science Teacher "Shortage"
Section I: Content
Statement of the Issue: The President has set a goal of training 70,000 more mathematics and science
teachers. In their widely recognized report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, the National Academies of
Science set the target at 10,000 newly prepared mathematics and science teachers each year (NAS, 2005).
But the question remains, how do we translate these goals From Vision To Action? The solution requires
us to look beyond the usual means of attracting new individuals and preparing them for the teaching
profession. Strategies to strengthen and enhance the capacity of mathematics and science teacher
preparation programs by simply aiming to do more of what we do now will not be successful.
This presentation will encourage participants to look at mathematics and science teacher recruitment and
preparation from a perspective of abundance rather than the consciousness of shortage or scarcity. A
new, concurrent approach to teacher preparation makes it possible for many of our nation’s best and
brightest undergraduate applied science students at major research and land grant universities to become
qualified mathematics and science teachers while pursuing their primary disciplinary degree. Through
innovations in program structure, these models strengthen programs and enhance capacity by accessing
and leveraging the resources of the entire university.
Literature Review: Over the past quarter of a century, numerous national reports have lamented U.S.
student performance in mathematics and science on both national and international assessments (e.g.,
National Assessment of Education Progress – NAEP; Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study – TIMSS; Program for International Study Assessment – PISA); and the preparation of mathematics
and science teachers (e.g. Educating Americans for the 21
st
Century, America’s Pressing Challenge –
Building a Stronger Foundation: A Companion to Science and Engineering Indicators). One of the
consistent themes in these reports has been a dramatic shortage of mathematics and science teachers.
The conceptualization of the mathematics and science teacher problem, and its solutions, from this
perspective of scarcity has yielded inadequate results. Teacher preparation models introduced over the
past two decades may have actually made the problem worse, not better. There are two traditional
structural models of teacher preparation – the “squeezed” and the “stacked.” With the “squeezed”
undergraduate model, content preparation and pedagogy preparation are “squeezed” into the
undergraduate program. The unfortunate result is not much depth or preparation in either.
Severe criticism of the “squeezed” model, in a series of reports during the 1980’s, resulted in a shift to a
“stacked” model. In the “stacked” model, students obtain a BA/BS in some content field and then attend
graduate school for the education component. Many universities shifted from the “squeezed”
undergraduate model to the “stacked” graduate school model (see below).
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