HR: 13:55h
AN: ED13F-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Building Effective Scientist-Teacher Partnerships: A Case Study Investigation
AU: * Walker, B A
EM: rwalker@unavco.org
AF: UNAVCO, 6350 Nautilus Dr., Boulder, CO 80301
AU: Hall, M K
EM: hall@scieds.com
AF: Science Education Solutions, 4200 W. Jemez Rd., Los Alamos, NM 87544
AU: Regens, N L
EM: nregens@geo.arizona.edu
AF: Department of Agricultural Education, The University of Arizona, Forbes Bldg., Rm. 224 1140 South Campus Drive, Tucson, AZ 85721
AB: Scientist-teacher partnerships provide opportunities for scientists to become better educators and teachers to increase their science content knowledge, but few accounts exist about how partnerships evolve and why some succeed and others fail. We investigated these questions in the context of an NSF GK-12 program that pairs graduate and undergraduate science and math students (fellows) with K-12 teachers. Using a variety of data sources, we found several patterns that were influential across the majority of partnerships. Aligned, partnership-centered goals and expectations were most conducive to productive relationships. A desire and commitment to collaborate and a willingness to communicate openly were also essential. Differences in the rigidity and intensity of the K-12 and university schedules and working with multiple teachers made collaboration difficult due to lack of planning time. Mutual investment manifested itself in several ways among partnerships including collaboration on teaching, planning, and other classroom activities, exchange of resources, and exchange of constructive feedback. Fellows and teachers were most likely to invest themselves when they perceived that their contributions were invited and appreciated in and out of the classroom. In all cases, role ambiguity was a major barrier to partnership formation. Fellows employed numerous strategies to define their roles, but working collaboratively was possible only when roles were discussed and allowed to evolve. Fellows and teachers found it difficult to communicate directly about dissatisfaction. While each partnership was unique, these major patterns influencing the success of a partnership occur in many situations and thus appear transferable. Regardless of outcome, partners felt as though they benefited significantly from this experience. Our results may be applied to similar partnership programs to improve project design and enhance the sustainability of relationships between scientists and teachers.
DE: 0830 Teacher training
DE: 0840 Evaluation and assessment
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005