“They sit selfishly.” Beginning STEM Educators’ Expectations of Young Adolescent Students

摘要

To meet the demand for certified math and science teachers, alternative certification programs attempt to provide fast-track training and licensure of STEM-area educators (Goldhaber, Kreig, Theobald, & Brown, 2014 Goldhaber, D., Krieg, J., Theobald, R., & Brown, N. (2014). The STEM and special education teacher pipelines: Why don’t we see better alignment between supply and demand? Seattle, WA: Center for Education Data and Research. Retrieved from http://cedr.us/papers/working/CEDR%20WP%202014-3.pdf?[Google Scholar]). Teachers prepared in programs with a middle level specialization have been shown to participate in effective practices such as teaming and collaborative instructional strategies (Mertens, Flowers, & Mulhall, 2002 Mertens, S. B., Flowers, N., & Mulhall, P. (2002). The relationship between middle-grades teacher certification and teaching practices. Middle School Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment , 119–138.?[Google Scholar]). However, few preparation programs have middle level specializations, and teachers prepared in accelerated programs tend to have greater difficulties with classroom management, planning, and differentiated instruction than those prepared in traditional programs (Darling-Hammond, 2009 Darling-Hammond, L. (2009). Educational opportunity and alternative certification: New evidence and new questions. Policy brief 1 . Stanford, CA: Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.?[Google Scholar]; Wilson, 2011 Wilson, S. (2011, April). Effective STEM teacher preparation, induction, and professional development. In NRC Workshop on Highly Successful STEM Schools or Programs . http://www7. nationalacademies. org/bose/Successful_STEM_ Schools_Homepage.html (accessed May 2011).?[Google Scholar]).Researchers examined a cohort of beginning teachers completing an accelerated STEM M.A.T. program whose struggles with planning and engaging young adolescents seemed outside of the norm. Utilizing the middle school model (NMSA, 2010 National Middle School Association. (2010). This we believe: Keys to educating young adolescents . Westerville, OH: Author.?[Google Scholar]; Jackson & Davis, 2000 Jackson, A. W., & Davis, G. A. (2000). Turning points 2000: Educating adolescents in the 21st century . New York, NY: Teachers College Press.?[Google Scholar]), Lortie’s (1975 Lortie, D.C. (1975). Schoolteacher . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.?[Google Scholar]) apprenticeship of observation, and the formation of teaching beliefs (Richardson, 2003 Richardson, V. (2003). Preservice teacher beliefs. In J. Raths & A. C. McAninch (Eds.), Teacher beliefs and classroom performance: The impact of teacher education. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.?[Google Scholar]) as an integrated framework, this study sought to describe and explain the beliefs of beginning STEM teachers prepared in an accelerated M.A.T. program. Findings indicate new teachers from STEM backgrounds view their students through the lenses of their previous educational experiences and highlight the need for traditional teacher preparation and specialized middle level instruction.