New Academy At U. Of Tennessee Aims To Improve Quality Of Science Teaching

Nearly two years ago, Kenneth Monty, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and a few of his colleagues sat around a table discussing ways of improving math and science education for grade-school and secondary-school students. "We asked ourselves, `Why is education in math and science, from kindergarten through the 12th grade, not working right?'" Monty recalls. "The problem we hit on is that most teachers never get a chance to see what mathematicians and scientists actually do for a living. They mostly look at the textbooks." >From that informal gathering and its deceptively simple conclusions sprang the idea for a forum to educate educators: the Academy for Teachers of Science and Mathematics, a four-week resident program that will host 75 teachers from Tennessee and three nearby states beginning this summer. At first glance, the academy seems similar to other recent teacher-education efforts by federal and state agencies in various parts of the United States. Through lectures at the University of Tennessee and visits to laboratories, the program will offer teachers, who must be recommended by their supervisors in order to qualify, a chance to learn what's happening in the world beyond the classroom. What makes this program different, though, is the support of not only a major university and federal and state governments, but also a major U.S. corporation. Funding of $3 million is being provided by the Tennessee Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Energy. In addition to its financial support, the Energy Department will provide personnel and facilities from its Oak Ridge National Laboratory, located near the university. The third sponsor is the Martin Marietta Corp. of Bethesda, Md., which has an Energy Department contract to operate the Oak Ridge lab. The program is "fairly unique," says Anthea Maton, national coordinator of projects for the National Science Teachers Association in Washington, D.C. "The structure isn't new, but what is new is the local impact. Most other programs have been more national in scope. And some are funded either by federal agencies or big business, but not both." Martin Marietta is using the academy as a springboard for greater involvement in education, according to Michael Hopp, the company's director of management and organization development. "In the past, we've done a great deal of things at the college and university levels," explains Hopp. "But science and math are very close to our heart. So last year we did a study to see how we could help solve problems in education. It's our first endeavor of this scale and magnitude to assist public education." At present, the curriculum is still being planned. Included in the program, however, will be opportunities for teachers to use lab equipment, witness experiments, and hear about state-of-the-art science from working scientists and mathematicians. A large portion of the program will involve facilities and personnel of the Oak Ridge lab. Eventually, Monty says, applications will be accepted from teachers throughout the South. The goal is for the academy to become an important regional educational program and, perhaps, a model for other programs here. @BODY SUBHEAD = A Growing Need According to the Energy Department, similar programs are being planned, including one in Chicago, although not necessarily with the same variety of backers. But regardless of format or sponsorship, the need to bolster math and science teachers' knowledge of the field is rising, educators say. Turnover among these teachers is at a worrisome level, owing to job dissatisfaction and a rapid increase in retirement rates, according to a 1989 follow-up to a survey of math and science teachers conducted in 1985-86 by Horizon Research Inc., a Chapel Hill, N.C., firm. Of approximately 211,000 teachers surveyed, only 71 percent who were teaching math and science in 1985-86 were still teaching the same subjects at the same school in 1989. A 4.5 percent attrition rate led Horizon to conclude that new educators will have to be recruited in large numbers every 15 years. Moreover, recent data indicate that at grade-school and secondary-school levels, less time is being devoted to the teaching of science and math than to other subjects, such as reading. For instance, in 1987, teachers spent an average of 18 minutes a day teaching science in kindergarten through third grade, versus 43 minutes for math and 77 minutes for reading. In grades four through six, science again rated low: 29 minutes, versus 52 for math and 63 minutes for reading, according to Horizon. The underlying reasons for the lack of emphasis vary. Educators and researchers blame not only the difficulty of attracting qualified teachers, but also poor accommodations and supplies in many schools. The 1989 Horizon study noted that "adequate facilities and equipment are of special significance in science instruction. Yet many science teachers are dissatisfied with the resources available to them.... They describe their facilities and equipment as one of the worst aspects of their working conditions, one which seriously interferes with their ability to teach science effectively." It's this sort of frustration that Monty hopes to overcome with the opening of the academy. "We're trying to cover a uniform gap in education in the schools," he says. "While they're here, we'll try to get [teachers] thinking about things they saw that could be used back home. For example, most kids would benefit if you give them a chance to see what you can do with algebra. "What you find in textbooks may not stand up today. Someone may do an experiment in 1992 that forces a new way of looking at material in a 1991 textbook....We'll give them show-and-tell in a modern lab. It's impressive to see all those bells and whistles, but they're not worth a damn thing if you don't know what they mean. "This will be a training vehicle. We want to design programs so [teachers] can see how the scientific method works. But essentially, they're layfolk, and we need to educate them in layman's terms." Edward R. Silverman is a freelance writer based in Hoboken, N.J.

New Academy At U. Of Tennessee Aims To Improve Quality Of Science Teaching

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