By Michelle Hines, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-5371
Posted 11-28-06
Dr. Heidi Carlone
GREENSBORO, NC – How do good science teachers foster interest, confidence and competence in their students? And do short-term improvements translate into long-term gains?
Dr. Heidi Carlone, a researcher in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at UNCG, is seeking answers to these questions with a five-year, $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s early career development program.
As Carlone sees it, these are questions of “science identity,” or the ways students become competent in scientific knowledge and practices, and develop scientific dispositions. The NSF grant allows her to track cohorts of fourth, fifth, and sixth grade science students for three years. She will assess the impact of different teaching practices on a wide range of students’ developing identities and find strategies to support teachers in their quest to make science accessible, attractive and motivating to a broad range of students.
“Students often develop their academic identities in the critical years of early adolescence,” said Carlone, who also recently received the Early Career Research Award from the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. “Some think that people are born to be scientists. But I’m asking if ‘science people’ can be cultivated through excellent pedagogy. If we provide students with strong science experiences and opportunities for success in science in their early schooling years, perhaps scientific ways of thinking will become a part of who they are and who they want to be – a part of their identities.”
Carlone believes research on effective science teaching is essential in a nation where shortages of well-qualified science and math teachers are plaguing school systems. In its 2005 Report to Congress, the National Academy of Sciences identified the need to strengthen science education nationwide. The Academy stressed the increasing need to attract qualified teachers and to better educate potential future scientists. Recent statewide estimates indicate that the number of mathematics and science teachers teaching out-of-field or without full licensure range from 20 percent to as high as 69 percent. The turnover rate is further accentuated by a significant out-migration of math and science teachers who can find lucrative opportunities elsewhere.
The emphasis on standardized testing in literacy and math has shoved science to the margins, Carlone says. NSF statistics also point to a growing shortage of scientists. For example, undergraduate enrollment in engineering and the natural sciences has declined significantly since 1986, while opportunities in science and engineering occupations are expected to increase three times faster than the projected rate for all other occupations in the coming decade. Carlone’s biggest concern is that the U.S. may be losing a great deal of potential science talent.
She started her work in August and is still in the beginning stages of the project, which is funded through 2011. She’s currently surveying and studying science teachers and schools within a 60-mile radius of Greensboro. Her goal is to identify the best science teachers she can find, ideally four exemplary teachers at each grade level.
“This year is just about finding these exemplary classrooms,” Carlone said. “I want to get an in-depth understanding of what is happening in these classrooms.”
After careful observation, she will select a sampling of about 10 fourth-graders to follow over a three-year period. She will begin a new observation cycle each year, tracking selected students as they continue their science educations. She may apply for a grant extension to further the study.
“If students develop a science identity in early adolescence, as they begin to form ideas about who they are, I expect that will have lasting impacts on their future science interest, achievement and participation,” Carlone said.
But her ultimate question is even more significant: How can teachers use the study to improve their instruction and cultivate science identities in the classroom?
“Most of the time excellent teaching is measured by how well students do on a standardized test,” she said. “A focus on science identity means that good teaching is not only evaluated by student achievement, but it includes much more than that. I want to know if students acquire new ways of talking, seeing the natural world, describing themselves and relating to others. This is teaching for identity transformation. It’s a whole new way to consider what counts as effective teaching.”
