School Systems Hiring Science Majors As Teachers

Many observers endorse waiving the pedagogy requirement initially, but say additional training in education is crucial Facing a shortage of qualified applicants, some public school districts have begun hiring college graduates who majored in the sciences, rather than in education, to teach science, primarily in high schools. Science education observers say the practice is likely to increase in coming years. Most are cautiously optimistic about its effectiveness, although many warn that greater facility with science must not come at the expense of teaching skills. Photo: Carol Clayton NO TRADEOFFS: AAAS's Shirley Malcom says both scientists and nonscientists can make good science teachers. In cities such as New York and Oakland, Calif., the number of teaching openings, especially in science and math, has exceeded the number of licensed teachers available to fill them. New York, for example, lost nearly 6,000 teachers in 14 months over 1995 and 1996. As a result, the school district there is hiring men and women who majored in non- education disciplines such as biology, chemistry, and physics, under the condition that the new hires obtain state teaching certification within a specific period (J. Steinberg, New York Times, July 29, 1996, page B1). here, districts are turning to working or retired scientists to bolster their science teaching. The success of these programs and the precise number of science majors involved are difficult to determine. New York Board of Education public affairs officers did not respond to repeated requests for information, and Sharon Mitchell, an Oakland Unified School District personnel specialist for recruitment, cannot supply exact figures. However, she says that partnerships between her district and local colleges to place non-education majors in the classroom began in the early 1980s, and such efforts are continuing at even greater levels today. These teachers receive education training before standing in front of students, according to Oakland school officials. "This has been very good for urban districts such as Oakland. We have such a need for teachers in California because of class-size reduction, etc.," Mitchell comments. She cites the sciences, along with bilingual education and special education, as "a shortage area in California." Districts such as Oakland "earmark those areas" in an attempt to recruit people to teach them, Mitchell adds. Most outside observers, speaking in general terms about the pluses and minuses of such an approach, say that for science education to be effective, teachers must be trained adequately in both content-the particular science discipline- and pedagogy. "I don't like the idea of trading either the deep knowledge of the subject area or an understanding of young people and the kinds of techniques that are likely to be effective in helping them understand the science," states Shirley Malcom, director of education and human resources programs for the Washington, D.C.-based American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). "It is possible to make good teachers out of both groups of people." Malcom adds: "I'd love to be able to attract more people from the [science] disciplines into teaching, but not unless they're willing to come in as learners." MAKING AN IMPACT: Theodore Brenner believes young science grads’ enthusiasm would be an asset in the classroom. The effort to recruit more scientists to teach school has many passionate supporters. As an official with the New York- based National Executive Service Corps-a nonprofit consulting group that uses retired executives to assist educational, cultural, governmental, and other organizations- Theodore Brenner helped to bring retired scientists and engineers into elementary-school classrooms in an initiative unrelated to the current New York program. "I don't want to denigrate teachers, but the area of math and science has been a weak point," he contends. A former school-board member in his hometown of Rumson, N.J., Brenner was "disturbed" by a trend in which teachers were obtaining advanced degrees in the teaching of science or mathematics, and not in science or math itself. "A lot of teachers, especially in elementary schools, are not particularly interested in that area. . . . We felt we really made an impact in the classroom by bringing these people in to work with the teachers and the students." Regarding the New York program, he states: "I think it makes an awful lot of sense. I can't speak to what the state [certification] requirements are, but I think it's a great idea. Our experience was primarily with retired people, and it worked out well. I'd think that bringing the enthusiasm of younger people into the mix would be very helpful." 'FUNDAMENTAL': Former U.S. Rep. Bill Green gives greater weight to science knowledge than to education training. Although the New York and Oakland hiring moves were brought about by a lack of qualified education majors, some see the employment of science majors as a way to strengthen science teaching. "I respect the fact that there are techniques of teaching, and it's [good] for a schoolteacher to know them, but knowledge of the subject matter seems fundamental," says Bill Green, chairman of the New York Academy of Sciences' (NYAS's) science education committee. During his tenure as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1978 to 1993, Green spent many years as the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee subcommittee that funded the National Science Foundation. The post led him to believe that few college graduates were properly equipped to teach math and science to schoolchildren. His subcommittee's response was to increase funding to NSF "to take teachers and give them courses in math and science and bring them [up to date] in those areas." Christine Musmanno, the science curriculum and technological coordinator for the New York Board of Education's Community School District 15, located in Brooklyn, cannot speak specifically about new science teachers hired in her district under the program over the past year; new hires' backgrounds are not made public. However, she notes that at the lower levels, science positions often are given, regardless of background, to "the lowest person on the totem pole-the last hired, or the only person to take the job." At the middle-school level and up, she believes, "they should be licensed science people. I can't imagine somebody getting into organic chemistry who was a history major." 'TAKING A CHANCE': NSTA’s Gerald Wheeler warns of pitfalls that face scientists without teaching skills. Not everyone is so optimistic that such programs will work. Gerald Wheeler, executive director of the Arlington, Va.- based National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), warns that school systems are "taking a chance" on a system that he believes is not a better way to teach science. Wheeler contends that "the challenge is finding experts that know" children, how they learn, and the science itself. Hiring a scientist without teaching skills "might work on the surface, for a while, but if there's an unusual situation . . . the new teacher without the education training will likely fail." Under the New York program, unlicensed teachers are hired only if they pledge to complete the education courses required for certification and to earn master's degrees within five years. NO EASY ANSWERS: Successful science education involves many things, contends NYU’s Brian Murfin. Scientists who have had no teacher training often run into trouble, observes Brian Murfin, an assistant professor in the science education program at New York University's (NYU's) School of Education. "They can come up with some very interesting insights, and they're definitely very useful as experts to validate content." However, he contends that "their knowledge in instructional techniques and their ability to communicate with students on their level" is often deficient. Even those who support the use of science majors in the classroom agree with Wheeler on the need for them to learn how to teach. Musmanno feels that researchers by training cannot simply plop themselves in front of a room full of students and expect to teach well. "For people who are good teachers, it comes from within. If they love their subject area, they're even better teachers. But I don't think you can just take people out of the field and make them teachers. . . . Just being an expert in the field is not enough." As a senior program officer at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Jan Tuomi, herself a former teacher, works on science education programs by facilitating the transfer of scientists and engineers to the classroom. "To me, the key element is some kind of support in learning about how children learn and how to manage a classroom, because teaching is not all content knowledge," she states. "Scientists often have the very best will to help, but they end up not helping very much because they don't know enough about education. To put a person in charge of a class just because they know the content seems like a risky business." NAS, through its National Research Council (NRC), is cosponsoring with the U.S. Department of Defense a program called the Defense Reinvestment Initiative (DRI). The program takes scientists and engineers who have lost their jobs because of military budget cutbacks and trains them to make the switch to the classroom (Notebook, The Scientist, Jan. 23, 1995, page 4). Tuomi considers it rewarding "when the scientists learn what an art there is to teaching, and start to respect the challenges that teachers face every day. They realize they're doing a lot more than just showing up with their syllabus." DIFFICULTY: Scientists-turned-teachers can have problems with classroom management, according to NRC’s Maureen Shiflett. According to DRI director Maureen A. Shiflett, an NRC senior program officer, 15 former defense- and aerospace-industry workers have completed a year of education training and now are teaching full-time in Los Angeles-area schools. Most are in urban areas, though a few are in the suburbs. "What they're finding is that their most difficult problem is classroom management," Shiflett observes. "They don't have trouble coming up with the lessons or with content, but they really need lots of support in classroom management." Much of the difficulty can be traced to the highly specialized work the 15 people did when they were in defense, Shiflett comments. Despite the lack of education training, "I think that this is a necessary thing. We need to bring people into the classroom that have the degrees in science and mathematics," she adds. "The other thing is that they be properly supported in that effort." Wheeler, too, would like to see a better mix of "science know-how and teaching strategies." However, he believes that people currently in school to become teachers have the advantage of exposure to the National Science Education Standards, a blueprint for what students in grades K-12 should know about science. The standards-which include teaching and assessment methods and programs at the state and school-district levels-"can have a profound impact on the effectiveness of the teaching," he says. Nevertheless, Wheeler acknowledges: "The reality is that new teachers sometimes do not get adequate content training, and we hope to see this change." Musmanno, the New York district science coordinator, cautions that there is an inherent quality of teaching that must not be ignored. "If people want to teach science, their love should be science, and they should want to teach it. I don't think you should just say that because this person is an expert, they should teach it. It's like anything else. You've got to want to teach. You really do. It has to be in you." The debate over what qualities make up the best science teachers is not likely to die down soon. As AAAS's Malcom remarks, "We've got to confront this issue. We can't really sweep it aside." And NSTA's Wheeler predicts "massive shortages right around the corner." "I expect school systems will have to do this kind of hiring and [find] many more creative ways to solve the upcoming teacher shortage," he continues. "When schools grow short on teachers, this need will make more of an impact on this practice than anything else." That leaves observers divided on whether the better strategy is to train scientists to be teachers or to train teachers in science. NYAS science education committee chairman Green opts for the former: "Maybe if you have to make a compromise, you have to start with knowledge in the subject matter." However, even those who agree with him stress the need for pedagogical training. "I had one scientist tell me once, 'I always thought if you just told somebody something, then they'd learn it,'" NAS's Tuomi recalls. "As teachers, that isn't true. Just because you 'taught' it doesn't mean [students] learned it." Perhaps, as NYU's Murfin suggests, there is room for both approaches. "Potentially the scientist who is open to learning the education side of things could be a very powerful science teacher, whereas someone who doesn't have the content background may not be able to teach in as great a depth in a certain area. But in most respects I would say that both of them qualitatively could be excellent science teachers. They would just have different strengths. "Successful science education is not just one or the other," he concludes. "We must have the involvement of the scientists, the experts, the education people, the administration, family, the media. . . . There are no clear-cut answers."

School Systems Hiring Science Majors As Teachers

Apr 13, 1997

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