Did you know? 34 UTeach pre-/in-service teachers joined PREP last summer. In total, UTeach affiliates comprised ~50% of our hires! One of them, Christina Hull (UTeach ‘19), won our 2024 Instructor Excellence Award. UTeach grads can do amazing things!

As a valued member of our UTeach community, we are excited to share some new initiatives and resources to support you in your journey as an educator and strengthen our vibrant alumni network.

Marshall, J., & Young, E. S. (2006). Preservice teachers' theory development in physical and simulated environments [pdf]. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 43(9), 907–937. We report a study of three prospective secondary science teachers' development of theories-in-action as they worked together in a group to explore collisions using both physical manipulatives and a computer simulation (Interactive Physics). Analysis of their investigations using an existing theoretical framework indicates that, as the group moved from physical experiments to the computer simulation, their attention shifted from planning their experiments to processing system feedback, which impeded the iterative refinement of their theories-in-action. The nature of the theories they developed also changed. Learners' attitudes toward science and prior experiences affected the exploration process in both environments. In particular, prior instruction in physics and an authoritarian view of science seemed to impede engagement in the development and testing of theories-in-action. Certain features of the computer system itself also impeded exploration.

Marder, M., & Hamrock, C. (2017, working paper). The authors assess the impact of teachers from different preparation pathways on Algebra I and Biology learning outcomes in Texas. They find that teachers prepared by standard programs stay in teaching longer than those from alternative certification and their students learn more.

Pérez, M., & Romero, P. (2014). The Journal of the World Universities Forum, 6(4), 21–36. Initial results indicate that UTeach implementation is creating institutional change and establishing programs that are making headway in bringing STEM teacher preparation to the forefront of each university’s mission. This article examines this scale-up experience as an example of a successful model for strengthening university-based STEM teacher preparation. Specifically, we review the implications for the university of the future, and address the necessary institutional changes required for successful program implementation. Our experience shows that successful program implementation in a university setting requires a balanced approach. Clear articulation of operational and instructional program components, structured implementation support, explicit program benchmarks and continuous evaluation of progress must be paired with an awareness of the local context and opportunities for adaptations and innovations to the model.

Stroup, W., Hills, T., & Carmona, G. (2011). Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 16(3), 199–220. This paper summarizes an approach to helping future educators to engage with key issues related to the application of measurement-related statistics to learning and teaching, especially in the contexts of science, mathematics, technology and engineering (STEM) education.

Craig, C., Evans, P., Stokes, D., Bott, S. (in press). In M. Peters, B. Cowie & I. Menters (Eds.) A companion to research in teacher education. New York, NY: Springer Publishing.

Enderle, P., Dentzau, M., Roseler, K., Southerland, S. A., Granger, E., & Hughes, R. (2014). Science Education, 98, 1077–1108. Current reform efforts in science place a premium on student sense making and participation in the practices of science. Given the disparity between these activities and current teaching practices, effective means of professional development around such practices must be identified. We use a close examination of 106 science teachers participating in Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) to identify, through structural equation modeling, the essential features in supporting teacher learning from these experiences. Findings suggest that participation in RET shape science teacher practice and beliefs, which in turn influence practice. Essential features of RET include engaging teachers socially in the research context and in research projects that are personally relevant to them. The model suggests ways to maximize the professional development potential of RET intended to support engagement in disciplinary practices.

Makar, K., & Confrey, J. (2003). Chunks, clumps, and spread out: Secondary preservice teachers’ informal notions of variation and distribution. In C. Lee (Ed.), Reasoning about variability: A collection of current research studies [On CD]. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publisher. Current reforms in mathematics education place increasing emphasis on statistics and data analysis in the school curriculum. The statistics education community has pushed for school instruction in statistics to go beyond measures of center, and to emphasize variation in data. Little is known about the way that teachers "see variation." The study reported here was conducted with 22 prospective secondary math and science teachers enrolled in a preservice teacher education course at a large university in the U.S. which emphasized assessment, equity, inquiry, and analysis of testing data. Interviews conducted at the beginning and end of the course asked the teachers to make comparisons of data distributions in a context that many U.S. teachers are increasingly faced with: results from their students' performance on high-stakes state exams. The results of these interviews revealed that although the prospective teachers in the study did not rely on traditional statistical terminology and measures as much as anticipated, the words they did use illustrate that through more informal descriptions of distributions, they were able to express rich views of variation and distribution. This paper details these descriptions, categorizing them into three major areas: traditional notions, clumps & chunks (distribution subsets), and notions of spread. The benefits of informal language in statistics is outlined.

Dickinson, G., Summers, E. J., & Jackson, J. (2010). Developing expertise in project-based science: A longitudinal study of teacher development and student perceptions. In R. E. Yager (Ed.), Exemplary science for resolving societal challenges (pp. 1–18). Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association. The authors contend that preservice training in Project-Based Science (PBS) facilitates early faithful implementation of PBS, which in turn provides students with the opportunity to engage in the public discourse and debate advocated in Goals 2000 Objective 4.