The National Science Foundation (NSF) is undertaking a major effort to improve significantly the mathematics, technology, and science education of prospective elementary and secondary teachers. A basic premise of the Foundation’s efforts in this regard is that the mathematics, technology, and science that prospective teachers learn as part of their undergraduate education, and the manner in which the courses are presented, have a critical influence on the quality of their teaching. Knowledgeable teachers who are excited about the subjects they teach will ensure that their students in K-12 are well prepared in science and mathematics and are technologically literate. Because of the great importance of this undergraduate experience, the design and implementation of teacher preparation programs require leadership from faculty in all science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SME&T) disciplines working in partnership with their colleagues in education and teachers in the K-12 community, each providing their special expertise. The overall responsibility for the NSF teacher education effort resides within the Directorate of Education and Human Resources, with primary focus on the preparation of future teachers placed within the Division of Undergraduate Education.

In FY 97 the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) managed two major programmatic efforts in teacher preparation:

In addition to these programs, NSF also promotes national leadership through activities such as conferences, workshops and published proceedings and reports.

Collaborative projects typically involve cooperative efforts that include science, mathematics, and education faculty and their departments working in consort with school personnel and appropriate institutional administrators. Since attention to introductory science and mathematics courses is essential, the Collaboratives feature strong leadership by the faculty and departments responsible for these courses. Each year, since the inception of the program in FY 1993, NSF has funded three to four projects at a level of $500,000 to $1,000,000 per year for up to five years.

New Projects: Each of the three collaboratives newly funded in FY 97 serves a broad region of their state and includes a diverse set of two-year, four-year, and comprehensive institutions. A total of 26 institutions of higher education are involved. The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Teacher Education Collaborative (STEMTEC) involves an existing consortium of five colleges—the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges—collaborating with Springfield Technical, Holyoke, and Greenfield Community Colleges and seven local school districts. Course revision teams include science, mathematics, and education faculty as well as K-12 teachers who previously participated in NSF-sponsored teacher preparation projects. The Massachusetts Statewide Systemic Initiative (SSI) is also a participant in the Collaborative. The Oregon Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers (OCEPT) includes Portland State University, Western Oregon University, the University of Oregon, the University of Portland, Portland Community College, Pacific University, Oregon State University, Eastern Oregon University, and Central Oregon Community College. Both the Oregon State System of Higher Education and the Oregon Department of Education are participating. This project is strengthening the curriculum, courses, and field experiences for prospective teachers to reflect current research on teaching and learning and includes a strong faculty development program to introduce science and mathematics faculty to current advances in research on pedagogy. The New Mexico Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation (NMCETP) includes New Mexico State University, the University of New Mexico, Western New Mexico University, New Mexico Highlands University, Eastern New Mexico University, Northern New Mexico Community College, Dine Community College, San Juan College, and Sante Fe Community College. It includes a strong focus on support for teachers through their first years of teaching and development of an engineering related approach to a teacher preparation program.

Continuing Projects: The 13 Collaboratives initiated in FY 93 through FY 96 continued to be supported in FY 97. More than 130 institutions are involved. The projects represent a rich diversity of approaches to comprehensive change in teacher preparation, offering different models for educational reform in mathematics and the sciences. Each project differs from the others in its needs, resources, participating institutional types, population, geography, and cultural and political traditions. Eight of the projects – those from Arizona State University, California State University at Dominguez Hills, the City University of New York, Harvard University, San Jose State University, Temple University, the University of Texas at El Paso, and Virginia Commonwealth University – are urban centered; six projects – in Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Oregon – encompass institutions distributed throughout the state; and two – from northern Colorado and Massachusetts– are regional in character. All include strong leadership and participation from faculty in mathematics and science departments working collaboratively with faculty from departments of education.

The projects represent a variety of approaches. The Arizona Collaborative is designing an interdisciplinary course examining the nature of matter. The Los Angeles Collaborative is organizing its students in cohort groups and is creating strong ties across two year and four year institutions within the Los Angeles Basin. The El Paso Collaborative is closely integrating its activities with those of other systemic initiatives in its region. The City University of New York is designing materials for its courses, which reflect the urban setting of the institutions involved. Participants in the Colorado project are cooperating to integrate courses in pedagogy with mathematics and science courses. The cooperating institutions in Philadelphia are designing new courses in science and cognitive psychology for inclusion in a new five-year program leading to teacher certification. Louisiana is experimenting with ways to encourage campuses throughout the state to design programs which answer the needs of each institution but are integrated into the overall state plans for reform of mathematics and science education. Maryland is pioneering ways to use telecommunications to facilitate joint curriculum reform throughout the state and has integrated an interesting set of research laboratory and science museum internships for pre-service teachers. Montana is concentrating on introducing hands-on science courses and the Harvard calculus model throughout the state university system. The project has expanded its outreach to include seven tribal colleges within the state and many model school sites with a high population of Native Americans. The Virginia Urban Corridor Collaborative involves a cadre of outstanding K-12 teachers who enhance the in-school experiences of prospective and new teachers. The San Francisco Bay Collaborative includes curriculum reform relevant to the preparation of both elementary and secondary teachers and provides activities ranging from recruitment from underrepresented groups to support networks for new teachers. The statewide consortium of K-12 schools, two- and four-year institutions comprising the Oklahoma Teacher Education Collaborative is focusing on the early years of teaching. Engineering faculty participate in the design of general education courses for teachers.

Proposals that seek to improve the science, mathematics and technical preparation of prospective teachers are given high priority in all DUE programs. Projects with a focus on teacher preparation benefit from and add to the research base concerning student learning of SME&T. Supported projects may affect courses specifically designed for pre-service teachers or courses in which prospective teachers are part of a larger student population. The Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program supports initiatives which benefit students seeking preparation as technicians in science and engineering fields. Included are projects to prepare teachers for secondary and associate degree level technological education. Design of new courses or modification of existing courses is supported by the Course and Curriculum Development (CCD) program. The Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement (ILI) program supports the purchase of laboratory equipment and exemplary use of laboratories. Workshops and educational activities for faculty concerned with science, mathematics, engineering, and technology courses, which enroll prospective teachers, are supported by the Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement (UFE) program.

Projects supported in FY 97 feature: courses and curricula in mathematics, engineering, and the sciences; students preparing to be elementary, middle, and secondary teachers; innovative uses of technology, and recruitment of undergraduates to teaching careers. A great range of activities is represented by these projects. A CCD project at Duke University is developing a pilot program for encouraging engineering students to become certified for secondary school teaching careers. The ConCEPT project at California State University at Fullerton in collaboration with local community colleges is developing a standards-based science curriculum for pre-service teachers. At Lake Erie College (OH) prospective teachers will learn science in the context of a study of local natural resources under a new curriculum being developed by faculty from the arts and sciences in collaboration with education faculty. At CUNY Queens College, a new mathematics program called TIME 2000 integrates the psychology of learning with mathematics content and pedagogy. Symmetry provides the unifying theme for a multi-disciplinary series of courses developed for non-science majors at the University of Wisconsin as a CCD project. At the University of Alabama in Huntsville a CCD project is developing software modules to add simulation activities to the introductory statistics course. Two projects under the Institution-Wide Reform of Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology program have a teacher preparation component. Alverno College (WI) is expanding the quantitative reasoning requirement for all students through a revised curriculum that integrates quantitative reasoning and assessment activities throughout the curriculum, serving as a model for prospective teachers. The campus-wide reform initiative at the University of California-Irvine includes the development of new teacher preparation courses as part of major curricular and course revisions in mathematics, engineering, and computer science.

Of the numerous ILI projects receiving teacher preparation funding, many provide equipment that supports courses primarily enrolling pre-service teachers and include the use of technology in ways that reflect how students will use it in their future school settings. Laboratories to support such courses are being developed at Converse College (SC) (chemistry), University of Missouri (engineering), California State University at San Marcos (CA) (life sciences), Kutztown University (PA) (mathematics), and Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania (geography), among others. As part of an innovative ILI project in the geosciences at Occidental College (CA) a research vessel provides an interactive oceanographic classroom and field experiences to prospective teachers, including students in 2-year colleges. At the University of Missouri-Columbia, laboratory facilities are being upgraded to include Computer-Integrated Manufacturing technology with an interdisciplinary Integrated Systems Laboratory providing a model laboratory for preparing Technology Education teachers.

A UFE project conducted by the Mathematical Association of America is providing college faculty with the knowledge and skills to implement cooperative learning in undergraduate mathematics courses. Activities include a summer workshop and an academic year apprenticeship period with mentoring and electronic networking. A project at Towson State University pairs science faculty who have taught less than five years with more experienced science education faculty to design strategies for improving the preparation of future teachers in the sciences with an emphasis on the urban environment.

An ATE project at Jones County Junior College provides training in network technology for faculty to enable the implementation of a computer network management curriculum for technical students including prospective teachers.

Continuing Projects: The focus on teacher preparation is also evident in the large, comprehensive projects funded by DUE in FY 95 and FY 96 and continuing in FY 97. All four projects begun in FY 95 under the Systemic Changes in the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum initiative (based at Beloit College [WI], University of California at Berkeley, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and at City University of New York’s City College) include a focus on teacher preparation with activities and learning experiences designed specifically for teachers, as well as providing a model for teaching chemistry using current pedagogical techniques. An FY 96 project continuing at the University of California, Los Angeles addresses the preparation of primary and secondary science teachers by involving them as active participants in the lower division courses of the molecular science curriculum. By working with the modules, associated learning methods, and electronic delivery system that undergird the project, these students obtain a practical perspective on science teaching as well as the ability to utilize current technology to direct learning activities. All projects funded in the Mathematical Sciences and their Applications throughout the Curriculum initiative are continuing to receive partial funding for teacher preparation activities. An important component of the project spearheaded by the State University of New York at Stony Brook involves faculty reworking all aspects of the curriculum for future mathematics teachers to reflect the needs of the NCTM Standards. Similarly, the consortium project led by University of Nebraska and Oklahoma State University involves a multidisciplinary approach to mathematics with attention to the needs of pre-service teachers. At Dartmouth College (NH) sweeping interdisciplinary curriculum reform based upon the learning and applications of mathematics at all levels of the undergraduate curriculum includes attention to the needs of prospective teachers. Input is included from expert consultants and practicing teachers. The project based at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY) includes a significant teacher preparation component at two partner schools, the University of Delaware and Siena College (NY). An important component of the project at the State University of New York at Stony Brook involves faculty revising all aspects of the curriculum for future mathematics teachers to reflect the NCTM standards. Similarly, the comprehensive curricular reform project undertaken by the University of Nebraska includes attention to the needs of pre-service teachers.

Three ATE centers continuing in FY 97 include a focus on teacher preparation. An important component of the South Carolina Advanced Technological Education Center of Excellence features efforts at Clemson University and other four-year colleges to help prepare the middle and secondary school technology teachers of the future. The Maricopa Advanced Technology Education Center (MATEC), which is focusing on technician education for advanced semi-conductor engineering, is helping prepare future grades 7-12 teachers through a partnership with Arizona State University. The New Jersey Center for Advanced Technological Education involves the preparation of secondary school teachers through an articulation agreement between a new program training engineering technicians with the baccalaureate program in technology education at the College of New Jersey. The Center at Middlesex County College (NJ) is working with Trenton State College’s technology education program to prepare secondary teachers for the schools of tomorrow.

Information about Division of Undergraduate Education projects can be accessed through the Division’s Web site at http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/EHR/DUE/.

In FY 97, DUE awarded support to, or hosted, a number of dissemination activities including a workshop to resolve the issues attendant to National Visiting Committees (NVC) for large systemic projects, Shaping the Future related workshops on undergraduate education that specifically focus on teacher preparation, and publication of the recommendations of Deans of Science and of Education formulated at an American Association for the Advancement of Science conference on responsibilities for SMET teacher preparation. The workshop on the NVC was attended by representatives of the CETP National Visiting Committees. Their deliberations resulted in an informational brochure. One of the Shaping the Future related workshops was held during FY1997. The Montana STEP project hosted a regional meeting attended by delegations of faculty and administrators from nine western states (from Alaska to South Dakota) to explore the role of university science, mathematics, engineering and technology faculty in teacher preparation.

Teacher preparation is supported throughout the Directorate of Education and Human Resources. The Divisions of Elementary, Secondary, and Informal Education (ESIE), Educational Systemic Reform (ESR), and Human Resource Development (HRD) all contribute to the NSF-wide effort to improve the science, mathematics, and technology preparation of pre-kindergarten through grade 12 teachers. The Teacher Enhancement Program within ESIE includes projects linking in-service teacher education with pre-service teacher preparation programs. Projects under ESIE’s Instructional Materials Development Program develop materials and activities of use to pre-service as well as in-service teachers. With support from ESR several Statewide and Urban Systemic Initiatives are collaborating with institutions of higher education to improve teacher education. Under HRD, the Alliances for Minority Participation Pre-Service Teacher Preparation initiative (AMP-TP) seeks to increase the number of individuals from groups underrepresented in the science and mathematics workforce preparing to teach SME&T. A number of teacher preparation projects focusing on gender equity are supported by the HRD Program for Women and Girls which seeks to increase the participation of women and girls in science, engineering, and mathematics.

Included in Appendix 3 is a list of Web sites providing links to teacher preparation projects sponsored by other federal agencies.