CEHD News

by Kevin Rayburn
The CEHD Takes a Multifaceted Approach to Improving Teacher Knowledge
Leland Civils is a graduate student in UofL’s chemistry department and is part of a program in 2005-2006 in which UofL faculty and students help public school science and math teachers improve their own teaching as well as help the students better grasp mathematics and science concepts.

One of the first projects Civils asks the children to do in the elementary classroom reveals a lot about popular stereotypes that can lead kids away from math and science.

“I have the kids draw what they think a scientist looks like,” he says. “Usually they draw a guy in a lab coat with glasses and a pocket protector holding a test tube.”

“But then I tell them, ‘Hey, I’m a scientist, and more importantly, you are a scientist. You are all scientists. When you look at something and wonder how it works, or try to solve a problem, you become a scientist.”

Civils assisted Jefferson County Public School Eisenhower science teacher Jackie Beckley by co-planning and co-teaching with her in her elementary classroom. This was made possible by the GK-12 National Science Foundation funded Groundwork Education in Mathematics and Science (GEMS) program, which was implemented by Drs. Christine Rich and Wiley Williams.

The collaborative program, which began in 2004, brings together faculty members as well as graduate and undergraduate students from both the College of Education and Human Development, mathematics and science faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences, Jefferson County Public School system specialists, and graduate and undergraduate students (Fellows) from the College of Arts and Sciences. They then work with mathematics and science teachers to help kids in six underperforming Title I schools in the Jefferson County Public Schools system.

The program’s aims are three-fold: to increase teacher content knowledge and improve teacher practices in mathematics and science teaching; to improve the communications and teaching skills of GEMS Fellows such as Civils, who may continue to teach or support teaching; and to create excitement and improve knowledge retention among young children. The ultimate goals are to improve kids’ test scores and inspire them to continue pursuit of learning or a career in mathematics or science.

Sherri Brown, an assistant professor of teaching and learning in teh CEHD, has been part of the UofL GEMS science team since 2004 and has assisted in ensuring that the 3rd and 4th grade lessons that Civils and other GEMS participants use contain the right information and abide by proven teacher methods. Dr. Chuck Thompson, professor of mathematics education and the CEHD, has assisted in a similar role with mathematics Fellows and teachers.

Tom Tretter, also a UofL assistant professor of teaching and learning in the CEHD, will begin working with Science Fellows and 7th grade science teachers in Title I schools through the continued NSF-funded GEMs project beginning Fall 2007.

Tretter and Brown say UofL’s participation in GEMS is just one of the many interdisciplinary collaborations involving the CEHD in improving math and science education.

One of the programs being developed by Tretter and Brown is a summer learning camp known as “Hands-on, Minds-on.”

During the two-week camp “high academically achieving, at-risk seventh grade students come to UofL’s campus and other venues to engage in real-world applications of science. The recruitment effort is supported by the local Lincoln Foundation, which backs projects, such as the Whitney Young Scholars Program, which help underserved youth. The funding for the camp is provided by E.on. abd General Electric.

“We want students to actually be on campus and to get excited about learning here,” Tretter says. “We want them to see college as an option after high school. And we want to translate ideas that they learn here to other places off-campus.”

For example, Tretter says students could learn about organic processes by making their own compost piles inside 2-liter bottles. Then, the group could visit a sewage treatment plant to see how the process works on a large scale.

The idea of hands-on learning also feeds into Tretter’s other projects to bring nanoscience and scaling lessons to schools. Nanoscience is the emerging field in which scientists are developing tiny electronic and other devices for medical and other uses. Scaling, related to nanoscience, provides students ways to conceptualize the mind-boggling differences in scale at work at the nano level.

“It’s hard for students to conceptualize such scales; it’s a leap of abstraction for them,” Tretter says. “Devices behave differently as they scale down in size.”

Tretter is developing lessons in nanotechnology and scaling for area middle and high schools, similar to ones he developed previously as an educator in North Carolina.

“Students could even make gold nanoparticles, image them with appropriate tools and see what they’ve generated,” Tretter says. “The whole idea is hands-on, to take your own ideas and explore.”

Making Sure Teachers Know What They’re Teaching

A recent report by the International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development revealed the U.S. in 20th place among 29 industrialized nations in mathematics student achievement.

In science education, the results are not much better.

One reason, says Bill Bush, may be that teachers who teach science and mathematics don’t know their subjects well enough.

“The mathematics and science instruction teachers receive in college does not always align with what they have to teach students,” Bush says.

Bush, a CEHD professor of mathematics education and director of the UofL Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Teacher Development, has worked with colleagues and graduate students for several years on a way to evaluate the level of mathematics knowledge teachers have.

The “diagnostic teacher assessments” developed by Bush’s team measure what teachers know and don’t know about mathematics and science. So far, 24 mathematics tests for middle school teachers have been developed on number computation, geometry and measurement, probability and statistics and algebraic ideas. A total of 18 tests have been developed that address the content of physical science, life science, and early/space that middle school teachers should know. The tests measure content knowledge as well as teaching skills.

The tests are aimed at middle school teachers because studies have shown that students often become disenchanted with science and mathematics at those grades.

“We’re still in pilot stage with these assessments because we’re in the last phase of federal funding,” Bush says. “So far, these assessments have been extremely popular. They’ve been used by 50 different districts and others in 20 different state and territories–from Alaska, Guam and Hawaii to Maine, Vermont and Arkansas.”

Once teachers’ mathematics or science knowledge and teaching skills are assessed, teachers can pursue follow-up training to improve their weak areas.

Development of the assessments has been supported through federal funds secured by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and U.S. Rep. Anne Northup.

“Our timing was good because we developed these assessments just as the No Child Left Behind legislation was passed,” Bush says. “I think we’re meeting a real need out there. We’ve carved out a niche to help prepare better quality mathematics and science educators.”

“This project has moved our whole research agenda forward,” Bush adds. He says that the assessments will be modified for other potential users, including teachers at other grade levels as well as students.

School districts in five Kentucky counties are “field testing” student versions of the mathematics assessments.

“If students aren’t doing well on the tests, then the teachers will know they are not teaching well,” Bush says. “So it’s kind of a feedback tool.”

A lack of science and mathematics teachers, and the educators to teach them, in rural areas of the state is another pressing concern, Bush says.

Bush’s center is working to fill those gaps as a partner in the Appalachian Collaborative Center for Learning, Assessment and Instruction in Mathematics (ACCLAIM). Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the project supports training of mathematics educators who are inclined to go back and teach the next generation of mathematics teachers in their hometowns.

“There’s a severe shortage of mathematics educators nationwide, especially in rural areas,” Bush says. “So far, we’ve trained three doctoral-student cohorts (groups) since 2002. To show you how severe the shortage is, three students were hired by universities in Kentucky before they even did their qualifying exams.”

Another way Bush and colleagues want to help the state improve instruction is to assess how well the state’s universities are training middle-school mathematics teachers.

“We’ve gathered the tests administered by mathematics educators at six colleges and universities in the state,” Bush says. “It should be very interesting to see who is and isn’t, teaching mathematics well.”

Total Community Involvement

Closer to home, the CEHD is taking a hard look at math and science teaching in the Jefferson County Public Schools.

In 2004, only 38 percent of the district’s students scored at the proficient level or above in mathematics and just 37 percent of the students scored at proficient or above in science.

To reverse this trend the General Electric (GE) Foundation recently pledged $25 million to the district to find ways to improve student skills and raise graduation rates.

Tretter and assistant professor E. Todd Brown are among the CEHD faculty members working on the interdisciplinary, community-wide effort.

“We want to help develop world-class standards for the district,” Tretter says. “We want to revamp teacher preparation so teachers that come out of the CEHD or any program will be ready to walk into that classroom and teach students at the highest international standards.”

E. Todd Brown agrees. “I have a hard time with phrases like, ‘achievement gap,’” she says. “It’s really an instruction gap. I believe any kid can learn if they are truly engaged.”

E. Todd Brown’s focus is on early childhood and elementary mathematics instruction. She says a lack of teacher enthusiasm for mathematics, unfortunately, can be transferred to students.

“Unlike literacy, which many teachers love to teach, mathematics is not always their favorite subject,” she says. “And elementary and pre-kindergarten teachers often don’t have a lot of mathematics that they’re required to learn when doing teacher prep.”

Brown is working on several projects, including on-site teacher assessments, teacher training and use of the Internet and other technology to improve mathematics teaching in the early years.

“These early years are so critical, especially in numeracy) mathematics teaching),” she adds. “My passion is finding ways to support our teachers who teach mathematics.”

Karen Karp, chair of teaching and learning in the CEHD, uses the word, “amazing” to describe the work under way in her department and elsewhere in the college.

“We have one of the largest groups of mathematics educators to be found at any institution in the region, and a strong roster of science educators too,” she says. “The scholarship is strong and the impact on the field will be great as well.”

Brown reiterates that excitement. “It’s really exciting to be a part of this team, working on the collective research and engaged in collective thinking–working within the college, among many units at the university and out in the communities.

“I feel like I’m riding on kite strings sometimes.”