- Year 2017
- NSF Noyce Award # 1557328
- First Name Thomas
- Last Name Dick
- Discipline Other: Math and Science
- Co-PI(s)
Rebekah Elliott elliottr@science.oregonstate.edu
SueAnn Bottoms SueAnn.Bottoms@oregonstate.edu - Presenters
Rebekah Elliott, Oregon State University,
elliottr@science.oregonstate.edu
Need
Studies of teacher preparation highlight the lack of consensus in preparation components and specificity of expectations in teacher candidates? instructional practices (Ball & Forzani, 2011). In response, a growing body of research highlights the use of pedagogies of practice to support teacher candidates?(TCs) instructional skill (Kazemi, Ghousseini, Cunard & Turrou, 2016). For TCs to gain skill with the ambitious teaching envisioned by researchers (e.g., Lampert, 2001; Schoenfeld, 2011) they need more than opportunities to investigate teaching during teacher preparation, rather they need to enact the complexity of teaching in supported and strategic ways (Grossman, Compton, Igra, et al., 2009; McDonald, Kazemi & Kavanagh, 2013). The Ambitious Math and Science Teaching Fellows (AMS-TF) project supports teacher candidates (i) learning research-based math and science ambitious teaching practices that support equitable instruction and (ii) developing cultural competence.
Goals
The AMS_AF project is a collaboration of Oregon State University’s College of Science, Education and Graduate School and Teacher?s Development Group aimed to recruit, retain, and develop 16 highly-qualified teachers to work in high needs educational settings. Teacher candidates, teacher educators, math and science secondary teachers are partners in developing candidates’ instructional knowledge and skill through cycles of working in schools teaching NGSS and CCSSM aligned lessons across the year. These opportunities are in addition to candidates working in two partner LEA school placements across an entire school year and completing a teaching performance assessment portfolio (edTPA).
Approach
Following completion of a Master’s of Science degree program, AMS teaching fellows, employed by a high needs LEAs, collaborate with district mentors, former cooperating teachers, and teacher educators in quarterly face-to-face meetings and in online community discussions to continue building knowledge and skill with math and science high leverage teaching practices and cultural competence. Through these interactions fellows integrate district curricular and instructional goals with the knowledge and skills developed in the master’s program. AMS fellows employed in districts who partner with Teachers Development Group (TDG) engaged in Mathematics Studio participate in TDG sponsored activities. Each summer OSU offers a Science and Math Institute for AMS Fellows and TDG offers summer courses in partner LEAs.
Outcomes
Spring 2017, the first cohort of eight teaching fellows (2 math, 6 science) are about to graduation with a master’s of science degree and initial teacher licensure. All candidates have successfully completed the edTPA, with no remediation, and with an average score above the state and national averages. Data are being collected and archived for analysis on candidates’final student teaching evaluations. Video-record data from cycles of ambitious math and science teaching have been analyzed for formative feedback to candidates and archived for summative analysis to be conducted in summer 2017 to inform program improvements. A second cohort of eight teacher fellows (6 math and 2 science) applied and were selected in spring 2017. The 2016 and 2017 cohorts of AMS-TFs will attend the first annual Ambitious Math and Science Institute in summer 2017. Key deliverables include ambitious math and science teacher education curricular designs supporting candidates’ instructional skill.
Broader Impacts
The AMS-TFs project will graduate its first cohort in June 2017. The broader impacts of the project include curricular design innovations, the challenges and benefits of these designs for supporting long term improvement in math and science teaching. The research from the project will be disseminated with other Noyce projects within Oregon at the annual Teachers of Teachers of Mathematics (TOTOM) conference, via meetings with other state recipients of Noyce grants, regionally at Noyce conferences 2017, and at annual meetings of ASTE and AMTE.
