1. What do future teachers need
in an introductory course?
Maximizing the value of your introductory
course for future K-12 teachers
A workshop at the Earth Educators’
Rendezvous
July 16-17, 2015
Anne E. Egger

2. Some statistics
• In 2011, 103,992 students obtained
Bachelor’s degrees in education (compared
to 4671 in geosciences)
• About 60% of those degrees are in
elementary education
• As of 2002, 83% of practicing elementary
teachers had at least 1 semester course in
Earth science
– Better than chemistry (53%) and physics (62%)…
– …but not as good as life science (92%)
• But perhaps even more important…

3. 54% had ONLY one course
Can that one course really
prepare someone to teach
about Earth?

4. How we commonly teach science

5. How we expect them to teach

6. What we teach
• Plate tectonics
• Minerals
• Igneous rocks
• Sedimentary rocks
• Metamorphic rocks
• Weathering
• Soil
• Deserts
• Glaciers
• Mountain-building
• Volcanoes
• Earthquakes
• Running water
• Etc.

7. What we expect them to teach

8. Our introductory courses may be the
only opportunity that future teachers
have to learn about Earth, and to
prepare to teach the Next Generation
Science Standards.
How and what we teach matters.

9. How we teach
• In table groups, list all the things you think
are most important in the way a science
course with lots of future teachers is
taught.
• Don’t think about content.
• Then choose your top three strategies.
• We’ll make a list at the end.

10. Some ways
to better serve future teachers
• Develop content courses specifically for
future teachers that incorporate pedagogy
• Offer special lab or discussion sections
• Pair content and pedagogy courses
• Implement course changes that improve
learning for all students and benefit
everyone (like universal access)

11. Collected research on learning
Research on learning
All freely downloadable from the National Academies Press:
http://nap.edu

12. Key findings for all students
• Students come in to our classes with
preconceptions, not blank slates
• Students must have the opportunity to develop a
conceptual framework that facilitates retrieval
and builds on deep knowledge
• A metacognitive approach helps students monitor
their own learning and become better learners
• Promising practices:
– Developing (and using) learning outcomes
– Engaging students in activities during class, in
groups
– Organizing content in scenarios, with context
– Get and give feedback with formative assessment
Research on learning

13. Research on learning

14. Specific to future teachers:
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
…embodies the aspects of content most germane to its
teachability:
• the most useful forms of representation of the most
regularly taught ideas,
• the most powerful analogies, illustrations, examples,
explanations, and demonstrations
• an understanding of what makes the learning of
specific concepts easy or difficult
• the conceptions and preconceptions that students of
different ages and backgrounds bring with them to the
learning
Shulman, 1986

15. Part of PCK:
Geoscientific thinking
• Methods of investigation in Earth science
– Observation >> experimentation
– Physical and computer-based models
• Habits of mind
– Spatial thinking
– Temporal reasoning
– Geographic facility
– Systems thinking

17. Metacognition and Self-efficacy
Hold that thought.

18. What we teach
• Compare middle-level NGSS performance
expectations to the content in your
syllabus.
– Quick primer on reading the handout
– 10 minutes or so on your own
– 20 minutes or so with your group
– Summarize your findings
– Take a break
– We’ll report out when we come back