SEARCH: An Exploratory Study of an Innovative Retooling Science Program for Elementary School Teachers

486

An Exploratory of anInnovativefor School TeachersLinda W. CrowJames P. Barufaldi

The shortages of public school teachersof science and mathematics have beenwell documented. De Roche andKujawa (1982) reported that the de-mand for science and mathematicsteachers now exceeds the present supplyby a large margin, a margin which is

projected to greatly increase in the next decade. The acute shortage of scienceand mathematics teachers is apparent in many public school classrooms whereadministrators often hire substitutes with limited science background and littleteaching experience to fill science teaching vacancies.

Recruitment of teachers among undergraduate science majors has had mar-ginal success, primarily due to the perceived low status of the teaching professionand to low teacher salaries. Beginning salaries for mathematics and scienceteachers are only 50 to 60 percent of industrial salaries for people trained in thesame academic fields, even when the salaries are adjusted for a nine-monthteaching contract ("Multiple Woes Foreseen," 1982). Since limited success hasbeen indicated in the recruitment of science teachers from more traditional popu-lations, there is a need to focus upon new groups from which to recruit addition-al science teachers. The "retooling" of elementary school teachers in sciencemay provide some relief for this shortage of science teachers.

This paper describes an innovative "retooling science program" SEARCH.This program attacked the problem of science teacher shortages by attractingparticipants from within the school district. The participants, elementary schoolteachers, were recruited from the ranks of the school district’s teachers to be ini-tially retrained through a program that included two community college earthscience courses. The recruitment process involved an initial application from in-terested elementary teachers, and then a series of meetings and interviews withthe district’s science supervisor. The potential participants were carefully

School Science and MathematicsVolume 85 (6) October 1985

Search: An Exploratory Study 487

screened on the basis of their past academic achievement, teaching performance,and their performance in an interview session. A final committee of school ad-ministrators also reviewed each applicant’s materials. Initially it was hoped thatfifty participants would be chosen, but only eighteen survived the rigorousscreening process. Due to some unforeseen problems two participants droppedout, and one did not start until the latter part of the program.The courses involved in this program were designed to meet the special needs

of the participants. All of these participants were already teaching in the district.They had some interest in science, but little actual exposure to it. SEARCH, asummer program, was created specifically to ease the shortage of earth scienceteachers. To provide a quicker solution to this problem, the SEARCH programwas designed to concentrate on this specific area of science.The district not only paid for the cost of the coursework, but also paid each

participant a bonus of $1,000 for completion of these courses. With differentialpay scales in Houston, Texas, these participants will eventually receive an extrabonus of $1,000 when placed in science teaching positions.The majority of the participants had a bachelor’s degree with specialization in

elementary education; all had at least one year of public school teaching experi-ence. The average number of years of teaching experience was 6.9. Althoughnone was a science or mathematics major (some having as few as six semester

hours of science and no coursework in mathematics), they were selected by theirschool to participate in this program because of their teaching potential and theirdistrict’s need for middle school science teachers (see Table 1). Elementary cer-tification in Texas allows teachers to teach in grades one through eight in areasof specialization. In their first area of specialization the teachers must have at

least eighteen hours; nine of these must be advanced. However, after receivingthis initial certification, a teacher may add areas of specialization by one having18 semester hours, none of which need to be advanced. These hours may be inany field of science or a combination of fields. These additional hours would al-low teachers to teach any science from grades one through eight.

TABLE 1Biographical Profile of Participants

Years ofTeachingNumber of Semester Hours

Science MathIn Science Content Content

Total District Methods Courses Courses6.9 4.9 2.2 10.5 4.4


488 Search: An Exploratory Study

Description of Courses

College guidelines required that each of these earth science courses be organizedinto the traditional lecture and laboratory format. However, only the format fol-lowed the traditional mode. Course topics�astronomy, oceanography, meterol-ogy, physical geology, and historical geology�were chosen to complement simi-lar topics found in the middle school earth science textbook presently in use. Par-ticipants were assigned readings in a college-level text containing the same topicsas the middle school textbooks. Rather than lecture, participants and teachersdiscussed topics in earth science, teaching strategies, and social issues. Field tripsto a planetarium, a night-star party, the Gulf Coast area, a local museum of nat-

ural science, and a collecting trip for mineral, rock, and fossil samples placedparticipants into the field where they could actually observe some of the naturalphenomena discussed in class. These field experiences made the class discussionsmore relevant and provided a basis for active student interest and participation.

While the lecture format was changed to a discussion with the addition of anumber of field experiences, the special needs of these elementary school teach-ers required a new laboratory format as well. The participants were first present-ed middle school earth science laboratory activities taught by practicing scienceteachers. The practicing teachers modeled the strategies that they used in theirclassrooms in the hope that this modeling process would build the confidenceand lessen the anxieties of the prospective science teachers. After a period oftime, the participants assumed the role of teacher for their peers and taught ahands-on group activity appropriate for the middle school level.

Instruments

The following three instruments were used for the purpose of describing the par-ticipants as they matriculated through the program. It was felt since the projectdrew participants from such an unusual group, that a descriptive study of theparticipants would be appropriate. Each instrument was administered to the par-ticipants at the beginning of the program, six weeks later, and then at the end ofthe eleven week program. Due to some participants entering the program late,only sixteen out of a total of eighteen were assessed.

a) Teacher Concerns Statement (TCS)

Through the work of the late Frances Fuller and the Concerns-Based AdoptionModel, an important conceptual model was developed by the Research and De-velopment Center for Teacher Education at The University of Texas. This modelsupports the contention that teachers progress not only through a sequence ofconcerns about teaching but their concerns about the new practice or innovationare also identifiable and developmental. A concern may be operationally defined



as feelings, attitudes, thoughts, ideas, or reactions an individual has related to anew practice. The TCS was selected for use in this study as a means of determin-ing the type of concerns the participants felt regarding their teaching of science.The TCS was developed by the Personal-Professional Development Systems

Division of the Research and Development Center for Teacher Education at TheUniversity of Texas at Austin. A Manual for Scoring TCS was published in 1971and contains detailed scoring instructions. The instrument consists of a singlequestion to which the subject responds in an unstructured manner. The questionis stated as follows:

When you think about your teaching, what are you concerned about? (Do not saywhat you think others are concerned about, but only what concerns you now.)Please be frank. When you are through, go back and place a check (»^) by thestatement you are most concerned about (Fuller and Case, 1972.)

The single question was modified to read, "When you think about teachingscience, what are you concerned about?" The following three categories of con-cerns have been identified:Category I�Self-oriented Concerns (non-teaching concerns).Category II�Self-benefit Concerns (concerns about role orientation, concerns

about self-adequacy as a teacher, concerns about whether the teacher is likedby his pupils, and concerns about what his/her pupils are like.) This categorycontains three stages.

Category III�Pupil-benefit Concerns (concerns about whether pupils are learn-ing what is being taught, concerns about whether the pupils’ individual learn-ing needs are being met, and concerns about improvement of the educationalsystem.) This category contains three stages.Codes are assigned to each statement written by the subject. Individual scores

are added to obtain the mean of the concerns, which becomes the subject’s con-cern score. Code numbers 0,1, and 2 correspond to stages which fall within theself-benefit concerns; code numbers 4, 5 and 6 come within the range of pupil-benefit concerns; code number 3 is considered a transitional concern. Onewould assume that experienced teachers’ concerns would come within the rangeof pupil-benefit concerns.

b) State-Trait Anxiety Inventory

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) consists of two scales, state anxiety(A-State), a transitory emotional state which can be influenced by training, andtrait anxiety (A-Trait), relatively stable individual differences in anxiety prone-ness (Spielberger, Gorsuch, and Lushene, 1970). A modified form of the STAI(A-State) was used to measure the subjects’ anxiety level related to teaching sci-ence at a particular point in time. The A-State scale consists of 20 items like "Ifeel calm," "I feel self-confident," and "I feel confused." The subject is askedto respond to each item by rating the intensity of his/her feeling. The State-Trait



Anxiety Inventory has been used extensively in the field of psychology and morerecently in the field of science education (Barufaldi, 1982; Brockley, 1982;Westerback, 1979, 1981, 1982). Reliability and validity of the instrument havebeen well documented.

c) Science Attitude Scale II.

The Shrigley Science Attitude Scale for Preservice Elementary Teachers III, a20-item Likert-type test was used for measuring the subjects’ attitudes towardscience. The reliability coefficient alpha is reported as being .90. The instru-ment’s validity was established through use with preservice elementary teachers(Shrigley, 1974).

Profile of Participants

The data generated from the TCS showed that the most intense concerns amongthe teachers are those concerns that focused upon Category II�Self-benefitConcerns. The teachers were consistently concerned about earth science compe-tency at the beginning of the program, at midpoint, and at the end of the pro-gram. Teaching tasks that characterize this category are the abilities to under-stand and explain content, to answer questions, to change strategies (Fuller, etal., 1967).Table 2 presents the results of correlated t-tests for the three successive admin-

istrations of the STAI-A State Scale. It can be noted that anxiety toward theteaching of science did not change throughout the program. The teachers main-tained a relatively high level of anxiousness toward the teaching of science.

TABLE 2Correlated t-Tests Between Three Administrations

of State Anxiety (STAI-A Scale)

FirstN

15

FirstN

15

SeconN16

Adr

AdministrationMean61.33

dAc

ninistrationMean61.33

IministrationMean56.94

SeconcN

15

ThirdN

15

ThirdN16

lAd



.ministrationMean61.13

t score.063*

t score- .042*

t score-1.235

*Not significant at .05 level.

One may note from Table 3 that the participants became significantly morepositive toward science between the first administration of the SAS and the sec-ond; the participants’ attitudes toward science also changed from the first ad-



ministration of SAS to the third administration at the end of the program.Changes in attitudes toward science were not detected between the midpoint ofthe second administration of SAS and the third administration.The participants throughout the study were consistently concerned about sub-

ject matter, earth science, competency. One may note that the participants aver-aged approximately three previous courses in science. It becomes apparent thattwo additional courses such as those offered in SEARCH did not lessen the "tra-ditional" feelings of insecurity and incompetence toward science content amongelementary teachers.The data generated from TCS showed that the most intense concern among

the participants focused on "self." The STAI (A-State) scale indicated a highlevel of anxiety toward the teaching of science among the participants through-out the program. Barufaldi (1982) found that a reduction in anxiety toward theteaching of science among inservice teachers is related to greater intensity of con-cerns focusing upon pupils. One may infer that reducing one’s anxiety towardthe teaching of science may enable the individual to focus upon pupil-benefitconcerns. These concerns are especially desirable because of their relevance forstudents taught by these teachers. These concerns may focus upon evaluation ofstudent outcomes. Perhaps designing science content courses that may lessenanxiety toward the teaching of science should be considered. Westerback (1981)found that anxiety toward science in preservice elementary teachers as measuredby the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory�STAI-A-State, could be reduced by expo-sure to science content courses.Even though the participants demonstrated a positive attitude toward science

at the end of the program, they still mainained a high level of anxiety toward theteaching of science. This may be attributed to the transition the participants, ele-mentary school teachers, would make in the near future in becoming scienceteachers of middle school students.

TABLE 3Correlated t-Tests Between Three Administrations

of Science Attitude Scale II

FirstN

15

FirstN

SecornN16


AdministrationMean

d AdministrationMean77.13

Second.N

15

Third AN

Third AN16


administrationMean

idministrationMean78.94

t score-3.69*

t score-5.73**

t score-1.39(ns)

*Significant at .01 level"^Significant at .001 level



The authors of this paper are pleased that the participants maintained a high

positive attitude toward science throughout the program. In part, this may be at-

tributed to the nature of the courses and the strategies employed. It would be

spurious though to imply that this particular program initiated this desirable ef-

fect among the participants.

Discussion

The effectiveness of this program can be initially ascertained by the success ofthe participants in mastering the content of the courses and their success in mak-ing a transition from being an elementary teacher to a middle school earth sci-ence teacher. All of the participants successfully completed these two courseswith either a final grade of an A or a B. Secondly, out of the eighteen partici-pants, fourteen were assigned as middle school science teachers. Early reportsindicate that they have been successful in making the transition from non-sciencemajor to science teacher with ease. The next step will be to determine their im-

pact upon their students. SEARCH, due to its structure, may be a powerful andsuccessful model for serious inservice teacher education in science. It is, how-ever, only a reasonable response to the reported shortage of qualified science

teachers.

References

Barufaldi, J. P. Science anxiety. Discovery. The University of Texas at Austin, Texas,Autumn, 1982,20-22.

Brockley, Barry P. The relationship between anxiety about teaching science, perceived im-portance of science and the amount of science taught by inservice elementary school sci-ence. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Texas, 1982.

DeRoche, Edward F. and Edward Kuwaja. A survey of teacher supply and demand in thewest. Phi Delta Kappan, April, 1982, 566.

Fuller, Frances, G. Pilgrim, and A. Freeland. Intensive individualization of teacher pre-paration. In SAT Yearbook Mental Health and Teacher Education, 1967.

Fuller, Frances F. and Carol Case. A Manual For Scoring the Teaching Concerns State-ment, Research and Development Center for Teacher Education. The University of Tex-as at Austin, December 1972.

Multiple woes foreseen as math teachers flee to higher-paying jobs. The Houston Post,September 20, 1982, 3A.

Shrigley, R. L. The attitude of preservice elementary teachers toward science. School Sci-ence and Mathematics, 1974, 7^,243-246.

Spielberger, C. D., R. L. Gorsuch, and R. E. Luchene. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory(STAI) Test Manual for Form X. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1970.

Westerback, M. E. The relationships among attitude toward teaching science, anxietyabout teaching science, and selected demographic information in a sample of preserviceelementary teachers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, New York University, 1979.

Westerback, M. E. Four consecutive studies on anxiety about teaching science in preserviceelementary teachers. C. W. Post Center, Long Island University, New York, 1981.Mimeographed.



Westerback, M. E. Studies on attitude toward teaching science and anxiety about teachingscience in preservice elementary teachers. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1982,79(7), 603-616.

Linda W.CrowJamesP. BarufaldiHouston Community College SystemThe University of TexasHouston, Texas77007Austin, Texas 78712

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SEARCH: An Exploratory Study of an Innovative Retooling Science Program for Elementary School Teachers