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August 15, 2002

Training the Teachers

By Judy Salpeter

Nurturing Math and Science Teachers in Texas

Like many states, Texas faces teacher shortages that could reach massive proportions in the coming years. Recognizing a particularly dire need for high school math and science teachers, the University of Texas launched the UTeach program four years ago. A collaboration involving the College of Natural Sciences, the College of Education, and the Austin Independent School District, UTeach has an ambitious goal: "to recruit, prepare, and support the next generation of math and science teachers for the state of Texas."

UTeach Strategies for Success Recruit promising students early in their undergraduate careers A bachelor's degree and teaching credential attainable in four years Program focus on scholarly investigation and practical, ongoing, field-based experience with mentor teachers and college faculty Integrating technology in meaningful learning contexts, rather than isolated courses Strong partnerships with the local school district and community educational service providers

An important part of this goal is to increase both the number and diversity of students seeking teacher certification. As UTeach co-director Michael Marder puts it, "We seek highly qualified teaching candidates who represent the full range of Texas communities and who are interested in returning to those communities to serve them." More than 30 percent of UTeach students are minorities-a significantly larger percentage than in the university as a whole. To attract a socioeconomically diverse student body, UTeach offers its two introductory field-based courses tuition-free and partners with local organizations such as school-based tutoring programs and museums to offer paid internships to teachers-in-training.

Candidate recruitment begins early at the University of Texas, with promising students from the natural sciences encouraged to apply as early as their freshman year. Admission is based on academic achievement as well as an expressed interest in teaching. Within the first month of the program's required introductory STEP 1 course, students begin spending time in Austin's public school classrooms. As Dr. Marder explains, "This gives [students] an opportunity to learn quickly how they feel about teaching. Most of them love it right away. The few that don't, find out early that they don't belong in this program."

By design, there is not a single UTeach course that focuses specifically on technology; instead, technology-based tools are integrated throughout the program. For example, in the STEP 1 and STEP 2 introductory courses, students use online assessment tools to determine their own learning styles and are expected to communicate with their professors electronically, hand in assignments via e-mail, post lesson plans in online discussion areas, and incorporate technology into lessons they teach in a school setting. At the end of a course on project-based learning, students post their lessons to the Web and create a class CD so that fellow educators have access to a library of projects. In their required research seminars, UTeach students use spreadsheets, graphing calculators, and statistical software to analyze data.

Technology competencies are emphasized in virtually every UTeach course, and students demonstrate their mastery of integration in the print- and video-based portfolios they submit for review to a team consisting of UT faculty, Austin ISD teachers, and school administrators. As an additional part of the formal student teaching evaluation process, faculty supervisors and mentor teachers observe preservice candidates teaching technology-based lessons and incorporate this information into their overall assessment.

Austin schoolteachers who mentor UTeach students also receive help and guidance from the university as a result of the partnership. Through a PT3 grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the College of Education provides training and technology resources for the Austin Independent School District faculty, so mentor teachers are provided valuable training that, in turn, helps them model pedagogically sound uses of technology for future educators.

Preparing for the future in Virginia

Where do students interested in becoming educational technology specialists, policy makers, and mentors for future educators go to hone their skills? The University of Virginia's Center for Technology and Teacher Education within the Curry School of Education is one place.

The Curry School's Center for Technology and Teacher Education consists of faculty members from across the disciplines who join together for the purposes of developing educational technologies for K-12 teachers, preparing the next generation of educational technology leaders, and contributing to the formation of educational technology policy.

The Center for Technology and Teacher Education: Strategies for Success A small, highly selective specialization program designed to train high-level administrators, educators, and policy makers Cross-disciplinary approach to technology integration, with problem-solution framework used as an indicator of when and where to use technology in teaching Focus on collaboration and modeling effective uses of communication technologies-campus-wide, within the local community and its schools, and on the national level Professional development opportunities for graduate students to take part in educational technology policy making at a national level

Each year a small group of students, mostly experienced elementary or secondary school teachers working toward doctoral degrees in education through the Curry School, are chosen to become Center fellows, a role that is designed to prepare them to take their place as technology leaders in K-12 schools or as faculty members at colleges of education.

Fellows focus primarily on technology use in content-area specialties. As Center co-director Glen Bull puts it, "The content always comes first. While it might seem obvious that technology should be introduced in a meaningful context, this is rarely done. In our courses, students start with real problems and use the technology tools as needed to solve those problems."

Center faculty enrich existing doctoral-level coursework by offering a range of technology-rich, subject-specific pedagogy courses. Specialized topics include seminars on distance learning and collaborative technologies, a course on educational technology policy, courses in using technology in the math and science classroom, and a curriculum class in which students work collaboratively to explore ways content-specific applications of technology-such as simulations, graphing calculators, and voice synthesis-might impact learning.

Supervised semester-long courses allow the graduate fellows to work intensively in K-12 settings on topics of their own choosing. They can initiate entirely new projects or become involved in ongoing ones such as a research study, led by Center co-director Joe Garofalo, on the potential impact of handheld devices in middle school classrooms. Doctoral candidates also serve as technology instructors and mentors for other Center students-a relationship that often continues after the graduate fellows have earned their degrees.

Collaboration is central to the Center's approach. This includes cross-departmental courses, interdisciplinary collaborations among students, and several distance learning offerings involving partner institutions Iowa State University and the University of Florida. Dr. Bull emphasizes that the Center's distance learning courses pair strong professors at both universities for true collaboration-rather than using a model in which one professor delivers all the instruction to students at both sites. Technologies used to enable these collaborative efforts include Web-based videoconferencing, student e-mail exchanges, and real-time chat room discussions.

The Center has a strong commitment to innovation and contributing to the formation of state and national policy. It has hosted a number of conferences and technology leadership summits, and faculty members have played an active role in national task forces focused on the role of technology in teacher education. Little wonder that Curry continues to be an award-winning program.

Judy Salpeter is program chair for Technology & Learning Events and consulting editor for T&L.

Read about the third award-winning program in our profile of Ohio State's multidisciplinary approach to teacher training, and find Web resources on innovative preservice programs at techLEARNING.com.

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