WWW-based Graduate Postcertification Teacher Training in Chemistry

Last entry under chemistry

There is dissatisfaction with the level of high school chemistry teacher content knowledge in the US.

Offering a chemistry major to preservice teachers doesn’t help. IF a teacher has the equivalent of a major, they most likely will take an ‘industrial’ job. The starting salary differential usually is something like $12K US in the US.

There is a concept used in instruction called pedagogical content knowledge. This deals with not just ordinary content knowledge, but also knowledge of how to teach that.

For example, it would involve knowing good experiments or demonstrations to illustrate a point, or common student misconceptions and strategies for overcoming them.

Main Themes of This Project

1. Many schools are participating. If you represent a college with a graduate program, and you support teachers, you, too, can participate.

For the first three years, no cost to the teacher.

After that, teachers will get a large bill, say $200 US, which will be forgiven if they complete the course in a predetermined time. Actually, they will be billed. We’ll find a company to sponsor the project and, when the teachers complete on time, they’ll receive a scholarship in the amount of the bill.

There are no serving costs for the administering school.

2. Nine courses are available, and there is a curriculum for each.

3. Much of the testing is automatic.

A teacher finds a mentor in a participating program. The mentor logs on, and, together with the teacher, they set objectives and testing formats. The formats determine how much essay reading will be involved.

The teachers receive some materials — but delivering Web materials is not what we are about.

They receive tests. Repeatable tests. The tests provide immediate feedback. Records are made of automatically gradable materials. Essays are e-mailed to graders.

Examples: