Julie A. Bianchini - US grants

The is a Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) proposal to conduct research on how beginning teachers of secondary school science practice the teaching of science. The investigator, an assistant professor in the school of education at UCSB who teaches science education classes, proposes that her own teaching practices be an object of investigation. The project would study the experiences of students in the science education program at the University of California, Santa Barbara who had taken her course in science education to see how they translate the course materials into teaching practices. One intent of this project is to provide rich textual descriptions of science instruction. It will use a "design experiment" methodology and thereby provide a valuable example, and evaluation, of that method as an way to intervene in science teacher education.

This proposal was submitted as a SGER because the exploratory nature of conducting research on teaching by studying the teaching of one's self, as a means of scientific discovery, generates some negative reaction by reviewers. However, the research method proposed here is also accepted and adopted by other researchers as a ground-breaking way of investigating difficult subjects such as the relationship between teaching and learning. It follows a method used by Maggie Lampert at the University of Michigan to study herself prepare mathematics classroom and her research has been widely cited as a model of research into good teaching practices. Such methods have not been employed at the college level of teaching however, and this project offers the possibility of new insight into how to improve teaching of young new teachers.

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
(Public Law 111-5).

The University of California, Santa Barbara's (UCSB) Division of Mathematical, Life, and Physical Sciences, UCSB's Gevirtz Graduate School of Education (GGSE), three regional community colleges (Santa Barbara City College, Ventura Community College, and Alan Hancock College), and seven school districts in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties are collaborating to prepare exceptional secondary science and mathematics teachers for California's secondary schools. CalTeach at Santa Barbara (CTSB) is recruiting STEM majors into science and math teaching through a new Minor in Science and Mathematics Education. The project is increasing the overall number of science and mathematics credential candidates in UCSB's fifth year Teacher Education Program by 47% and building cohorts of students through shared activities so as to prepare and retain student-centered, reform-minded science and mathematics teachers. An estimated 75 scholarships ($10,000 each) are being awarded over a five year period to STEM majors who have successfully completed their undergraduate degree and been accepted to the UCSB Teacher Education Program. Selection procedures favor students who are the first in their families to attend college, bilingual, and/or graduates of the undergraduate Minor in Science and Mathematics Education. Three scholarships each year are designated for community college transfer students. Scholarship recipients complete their student teaching in schools serving substantial numbers of students who are economically disadvantaged and/or English learners. They fulfill their teaching commitments in designated, high need partnership school districts while completing an enhanced beginning teacher induction program. Evaluation research is determining how best to meet program objectives of recruitment, teacher preparation, and establishment of cohorts of exceptional science and mathematics teachers.

Interdisciplinary (99) Revision, implementation, and research of three environmentally-focused, pedagogically innovative undergraduate courses are being undertaken by a team of faculty from departments in the sciences, engineering, and education. These courses - one in biology, one in engineering, and one in geography - are part of a new Minor in Science and Mathematics Education and central to CalTeach, a University of California-wide initiative to recruit and better prepare STEM undergraduates for careers as secondary science and mathematics teachers. The transformed courses highlight four core themes: sustainability and the environment; connections across science, technology, society, and education; evidence-based argumentation in science; and innovative pedagogical strategies effective in K-12 schooling. The courses' collective purpose is to shape the scientific ideas and pedagogical practices of prospective science teachers - to help create a cadre of undergraduate science students who bring both holistic and critical thinking to their teacher education programs.

The ESTEEM (Enhanced Support in Technology Entrepreneurship for Engineering Majors) program provides financial, academic and social support to first-generation college students enrolled in engineering or computer science. Four cohorts of 10 juniors are selected in the Fall quarter for four consecutive academic years. Each Scholar has strong academic potential, financial need, and a desire to complement their technical training with entrepreneurship/leadership skills. The overall objective of the ESTEEM program is to increase the completion rate of engineering degrees and promote successful transitions to careers in engineering and related fields by low-income first-generation college students. The students are provided scholarships, tutoring, community-building, networking events, and assistance with graduate school and employment applications. In addition, ESTEEM Scholars have the opportunity to act as peer-mentors for lower-division engineering students, to undertake summer internships in a research lab or in industry, and to attend a professional meeting.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Children from low-income language minority backgrounds begin kindergarten at a significant disadvantage compared to their English-speaking peers, highlighting the need to provide them with enriching educational experiences in early childhood. Many state readiness standards now highlight preschool science as a key domain in the preparation of young children for the transition into formal schooling (Head Start, 2007). Yet, the lack of studies with rigorous research designs to evaluate the effectiveness of preschool science curricula has prevented researchers from drawing conclusions about best practices. In addition, preschool science curricula have been designed for classrooms made up of European American children from middle income backgrounds and the effectiveness of these programs have not been tested with low-income Latino preschool children from Spanish- speaking backgrounds. The overall goal of the proposed study is to design and test the efficacy of a preschool science curriculum for low-income Latino children that focuses on improving their conceptual understanding of germ contagion and contamination, and food and nutrition, an area of interest to NIH related to developing creative and innovate research education to deliver information about healthy living in science to children. Our study is novel in that it integrates health and biology concepts in a multi-unit science curriculum, instead of introducing health information as a stand-alone topic outside of science, typical of preschool programs. In the proposed research, 40 preschool classrooms will be assigned randomly to one of two experimental groups: 1) a treatment group that receives the biology-based health science curriculum; 2) an attention control group that receives a standard health curriculum from published, on-line materials. Within each experimental group, half of the classrooms will receive the curriculum in Spanish and the other half will receive the curriculum in English. All children, ages 4 and 5, will participate in pre- and postest assessment sessions. We expect that relative to control group, children will show an increase in conceptual understanding of health concepts related to biological process, and science inquiry skills as measured by their capacity to ask questions and generate explanations. There will be significant increases on measures of science understanding and inquiry skills for both groups of children (those receiving the instruction in Spanish and those in English) although the overall effects of the experimental curriculum will be stronger for children receiving the instruction in their primary language (Spanish).This study will provide vital information for the development and dissemination of a biology-based preschool health science program particularly for low-income Latino children from Spanish-speaking backgrounds, but appropriate for different types of learners.

This project establishes CalTeach:Physical Sciences and Engineering (CTPSE). The project team includes faculty from the College of Engineering as well as the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Physics, and Education; high school teachers and principals from two STEM Academies in the high-needs Santa Barbara Unified School District; and program directors and community leaders from UCSB's Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement program, the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy Foundation, and the Santa Barbara County PreK-20 STEM Council. The project is preparing 24 highly qualified and diverse physics and chemistry teachers. These teachers are implementing the National Research Council's Framework for K-12 Science Education in high-needs secondary schools, specifically, to teach science and engineering core ideas and practices to underserved students. The project team is tracking the professional trajectories of the Teacher Scholars to evaluate their effectiveness as beginning teachers in high-needs schools and to strengthen CTPSE program components in light of evaluation findings.

The broader impacts of this project include increasing UCSB's production of thoroughly trained, highly motivated physics and chemistry teachers by 140%. Strategies found effective in preparing science teachers to integrate engineering and science, and to actively engage students in solving engineering problems and investigating natural phenomena are being widely disseminated. The CTPSE project is improving the teaching of chemistry and physics to underserved students in California, providing more Latinos/as, low-income students, and English learners with access to an excellent and equitable physical science education.

This project will implement a Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Phase II project, STEM Teachers for English Language Learners: Excellence and Retention (STELLER), at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). STELLER addresses the growing national need to recruit, prepare, and provide effective induction support for new STEM middle and high school teachers with degrees in STEM fields and strong content-specific pedagogical preparation. A unique aspect of this project is the intent to focus on preparing new teachers who can meet the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs), students whose difficulties in speaking, reading, writing, or understanding English may hinder their learning. This program seeks to recruit undergraduate STEM students across all disciplines for entry into a 13-month post baccalaureate program leading to certification and a career teaching in high needs secondary schools. A total of 40 scholars will be supported over the five years of the project. The new teacher scholars will obtain teaching positions in high-need secondary schools with a particular emphasis on placement in the Santa Barbara Unified School district but also elsewhere on the California Central Coast in Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, and Kern counties.

STELLER's team will consist of UCSB faculty from science, mathematics, engineering, computer science, and education; teachers and administrators from the high-need Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD); directors from UCSB's Office of Education Partnerships; and community leaders from the Santa Barbara County K-20 STEM Council. The program will continue efforts begun under the Noyce Phase I CalTeach at Santa Barbara (CTSB) to increase the quality, number, and diversity of secondary science and mathematics teachers who graduate from UCSB's post-baccalaureate Teacher Education Program (TEP). Starting at the undergraduate level, a focus on English Language Learners (ELLs) will be added so as to thoroughly prepare secondary science and mathematics teacher candidates to teach the disciplinary-specific language, core ideas, and practices outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards and the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics. The trajectories of CTSB and STELLER Teacher Scholars will be tracked to generate new insights into effective teacher education. This project will produce a 24% increase in UCSB's production of science and mathematics teachers. Evaluation efforts will include an assessment of activities specific to this project as well as continued assessment of the success of beginning teachers from the initial Phase I Noyce Program at UCSB. A mixed methods approach will be used in project evaluation. Data regarding the program operation will be collected through surveys and interviews with all participants. Data regarding teacher effectiveness and training will be collected in classroom observations, tracking of average state standardized test scores of students, and performance on the state-mandated teaching performance assessment.

In the 2010 National Research Council's report, "Preparing Teachers: Building Evidence for Sound Policy," areas related to STEM teacher preparation that lacked a sufficient research base were highlighted. This Noyce Track 4B research project, The Science and Mathematics Teacher Research Initiative (SMTRI), seeks to conduct a research study focusing on secondary STEM teacher preparation at five University of California's campuses: UC Berkeley (UCB), UC Davis (UCD), UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), UC Santa Cruz (UCSC), and UC San Diego (UCSD). This project focuses on a critical challenge in STEM education: preparing novice secondary school teachers to provide effective science and mathematics instruction to the increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse secondary school population who have traditionally been underserved in STEM education and are underrepresented in STEM degrees and careers. The study will analyze the impact of the University of California Undergraduate CalTeach program, which provides undergraduate STEM majors with STEM education coursework and field practicum, on the development of novice teachers' knowledge, beliefs and practice as they progress through their program of pre-service teacher preparation into the first year of teaching. This will be done through a comparative study of CalTeach students to non-CalTeach students in the same teacher preparation programs. The study will also track the participants through the first year of teaching to analyze school placement, retention and teaching efficacy of the two groups. The research will include an emphasis on the preparation of teachers to implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Common Core State Standards (CSSS-Mathematics) and the related challenge of integrating the teaching of academic language and literacy into the teaching of STEM subjects for English Learners (EL).

The SMTRI research study will conduct three analyses to investigate: (1) the impact of undergraduate STEM Education on STEM graduates' decision to become teachers -- who they are and what they do after graduation; (2) the development of CalTeach program graduates' knowledge, beliefs and practice for teaching mathematics and science in comparison with the development of non-CalTeach graduates as they progress through teacher preparation into their first year of teaching; and (3) the impact of the form of the teacher preparation program by comparing novice teacher development in an undergraduate teacher education program at UCB with the development of novice teachers in traditional graduate programs of teacher education at UCD, UCSB, UCSC and UCSD. The STEM focus for this proposal is secondary STEM teacher education (certification areas: biology, chemistry, mathematics and biology). The SMTRI project also will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups by improving the knowledge base on preparing all teachers to work with culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. The project will develop a research and development partnership among five university teacher education programs (UCB, UCD, UCSB, UCSC, UCSD) with the possibility of scaling up to similar teacher education programs nationally. Ultimately, SMTRI has the potential to make a significant contribution to research on STEM education, teacher education, and EL learning as it examines STEM teacher preparation and the integration of science, language and literacy teaching in the NGSS and CCSS. The findings of this study have the potential for wide scale impact in an area of professional education where many teacher education programs are weak in preparing student teachers to implement standards-based science and mathematics teaching in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms.