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Best Practices for Scientist Involvement in Reform
Research on scientist and engineer involvement indicates best practices for scientists to consider in different roles.
- For scientists or engineers working in partnership with organizations to develop educational products and programming or in partnership with science educators:
- Successful partnerships elicit complementary talents and expertise from each partner. Partnerships offer the opportunity for each member to increase their awareness and appreciation of the other as professionals in allied realms of endeavor, expand their skills in co-creating effective science learning experiences for others, and develop confidence in playing leadership roles in science education reform.
- Effective science education partnerships can be established by moving from initial efforts in outreach, a stance characterized by offering expertise and supporting external reform, to a more enduring approach of partnership, which demands that both partners examine their own science teaching and learning and promote both external and internal reform. In particular, it has been suggested that three major shifts can help improve the model of educational outreach efforts: 1) the adoption of a mutual learning model of partnership, 2) the integration of partnership into the training of scientists, and 3) the development of sustained infrastructures for partnership.
- Successful partnerships between universities and K-12 institutions must address the different professional cultures of the partners, and find ways to accommodate the similar and dissimilar aspects of these cultures. Partners should also acknowledge differences in language that occur between scientists and educators, as the technical terminology for each field does not always align.
- Tanner, K.D., Chatman, L, and Allen, D. Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning: Science Teaching and Learning Across the School–University Divide—Cultivating Conversations through Scientist–Teacher Partnerships.Cell Biol Educ 2(4): 195-201, 2003. http://www.lifescied.org/cgi/content/full/2/4/195.
- Professional Culture Considerations for Partnerships:
- For scientists and engineers working in professional development of teachers:
- Scientists and engineers can contribute to professional development programs in a number of different ways, including: demonstrating good science-process teaching, providing accurate science content knowledge to enhance teacher understanding of scientific process, verifying accurate content in existing lesson plans, providing research opportunities to practicing teachers, acting as scientific mentors to teachers, providing connections to the scientific community, assisting in development of grant proposals for science-education projects, and providing access to equipment and materials.
- Professional development activities can be in the form of; lecture series, short workshops, summer workshops, equipment training, assistance facilitating or implementing supplemental or inquiry-based curricula development, or opportunities for research experience for teachers.
- For scientists interested in improving the quality of pre-service teacher education or undergraduate or graduate students interested in outreach:
- Scientists and engineers working in universities can work to enhance the science education track in their departments. Ways to do this include; adopting interactive teaching methods into introductory course and providing interested and talented students the opportunity to serve as peer teachers or mentors, developing and offering courses that teach prospective teachers how to help students learn effectively and why some educational methods are better than others, establishing mentor programs between local master teachers and students who are prospective teachers, and developing ways to continue working with students after graduation as they pursue teaching.
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