- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 2049983
- First Name Stephen
- Last Name Farenga
- Institution Queens College, City University of New York
- Role/Position Principal Investigator (PI)
- Proposal Type Workshop
- Workshop Category Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Chemistry, Geosciences, Life Sciences, Physics
- Target Audience Co-PIs, Other Faculty/Staff, Project PIs
- Topics Lessons learned from developing/implementing a Track 1 project / Track 2 project / Track 3 project / or Track 4 Research project, Making the most of clinical experiences
- Additional Presenter(s)
Salvatore Garofalo – sgarofalo@qc.cuny.edu
Goals
Participants will learn: 1.An alternative to traditional student teaching seminars that benefit the teacher candidates through preparation of responding to difficult topics. 2.An effective strategy to gauge teacher candidates’ understanding of evolution and anti-science sentiment. 3.The impact of meaningful conversations about these difficult topics on the pedagogy of science teacher candidates.
Evidence
A case study was conducted to understand science teacher candidate’s understanding of evolution, anti-science and overall lack of scientific literacy in the general public. The evidence collected were responses from our Noyce teacher candidates in regard to several texts presented on these difficult topics. The evidence from the case study was positive in that this method of instruction for the student teaching seminar was effective for teacher preparation during this time of widespread misinformation. Teacher candidates were better able to understand the topics of evolution and the anti-science movement through the reading and discussion of texts on these topics. Teacher candidates felt they were better able to respond to student questions regarding these topics because of the student teaching seminar. Teacher candidates believe these topics were important and necessary to address through their curricula and pedagogy.
Proposal
The goal of the Noyce SciTech TEAMS Program at Queens College is to prepare highly-qualified science teachers. Part of this preparation is to ensure teacher candidates are equipped with pedagogical content knowledge that is robust to appropriately handle sometimes delicate situations. The current political and cultural environment teacher candidates are facing is daunting. In response, our student teaching seminar course has been redesigned to specifically prepare teacher candidates to address these issues as they begin their careers. Over the course of two semesters of student teaching, teacher candidates read three books that specifically explain both sides of the difficult topics and arguments of evolution, anti-science, misinformation, and lack of science literacy in the general public as exposed by social media. Teacher candidates gather weekly to discuss what they learned and how it would affect their pedagogy. A case study was conducted to better understand how this redesigned student teaching seminar course impacted candidates’ understanding of the topics, the strategies they may use in their own classrooms, and how to use evidence-based reasoning when responding to their own students. Results have been encouraging that this method was beneficial for teacher candidates as they felt better prepared and more confident in their ability to teach and respond to this “hidden curriculum” which comes with being a science teacher.
