Concerns and perceptions of beginning secondary science and mathematics teachers

✍ Scribed by Paul E. Adams; Gerald H. Krockover

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 119 KB
• Volume: 81
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0097-0352
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1098-237x(199701)81:1<29::aid-sce2>3.0.co;2-3

✦ Synopsis

This study is an exploratory research project to: (1) identify the concerns that beginning science and mathematics teachers have about being a new teacher; and (2) identify the perceptions that these teachers have about the effectiveness of their preservice program in relation to their concerns. Program, in this context, is defined as pedagogy coursework, content coursework, and undergraduate experiences relevant to teaching. The participants for this study consisted of 11 beginning (less than 2 years experience) secondary and middle school science (n = 8) and mathematics (n ϭ 4; dual assignment) teachers who were involved in the Salish Project at Purdue University during the 1993 -1994 school year. The national Salish Project, in which Purdue University is a participant, is a research project designed to study secondary science and mathematics preservice programs across the nation. The primary data sources for the study were telephone interviews using an interview guide. The interview guide consisted of four questions that asked about the school community, what was learned by the participants during their first year of teaching, advice that the participants would like to give to new teachers, and how well the preservice program prepared them for their first year of teaching. The interview transcripts were analyzed using a cross-case inductive analysis based from a phenomenological perspective. The new teacher concerns that emerged were: class assignments, curriculum development, time management, classroom management, and presentation of the content. Curriculum development, class assignments, and presentation of content have significant implications for the secondary science and mathematics preservice program. The perceptions that emerged about the preservice program were: content course work is too