 Teaching
Scholar Partnerships
The Teaching Scholar Partnerships (TSP) program assisted colleges and
universities to strengthen mathematics, science, and technology education
in the nation's elementary and secondary classrooms. The centerpiece of
this program was the involvement of undergraduate mathematics, science,
and technology students in enhancing instruction in school classrooms.
These students, with the guidance of both K-12 teachers and college mathematics
and science faculty members, were the Teaching Scholars and received annual
stipends. CIC awarded $30,000 each to ten institutions
that were working in partnership with K-12 schools over a two-year period.
The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) collaborated with the American
Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and the Independent Colleges
Office (ICO) in this effort. Each of these national institutions selected
up to ten institutions (AACC: 10; ICO: 8), and project meetings included
representatives from all 28 of these colleges and universities. The overall
program was guided by three broad goals: to enrich and strengthen the
learning experience of K-12 students in mathematics and science; to encourage
undergraduate students in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology
to consider K-12 mathematics and science teaching as a career option;
and to generate national attention to the critical contribution that collaborative
K-16 partnerships make to ensure the vitality of local schools.
Funder: National Science Foundation
Program Status: The project began in July 2001 and was completed
in June 2003. The summary paper, Teaching
Scholar Partnerships: A Fresh Approach to College/School Collaborations,
was published in September 2004. A printed copy of the paper may be ordered
from CIC (free of charge) or an electronic copy (PDF format) may be
viewed
here. (In order to view properly, the minimum
software requirement is version 4.0. Adobe Acrobat, available for free
from the Adobe
Web site.)
Independent Newsletter Article
Summer 2002: Students
Say New CIC Project Helped Them Choose Careers in Teaching
Participating Institutions
Carroll College's Teaching Scholars were paired: one student was
a mathematics or science major with a declared interest in high school
teaching while the other was a math or science major who had not decided
on a career route. They worked together with a college professor and a
high school teacher to develop and deliver inquiry-based learning experiences.
Central Methodist College's Teaching Scholars assisted in instruction
in K-12 classrooms of the local public school district. They designed
and conducted laboratory activities, and helped design new high school
science facilities.
Drury University used its undergraduate Teaching Scholars to strengthen
its already strong partnerships with center-city K-12 schools by creating
collaborative research projects involving middle and high school students,
their mathematics and science teachers, Teaching Scholars, and Drury faculty
members.
Millikin University Teaching Scholars planed, developed, and implemented
an enriched curriculum of lessons and activities that emphasized a hands-on,
inquiry approach. They worked with K-12 teachers and students in a city
school district with unusually grave needs.
Teaching Scholars at North Central College worked with K-4 school
teachers in suburban and inter-city school districts of Chicago in developing
appropriate inquiry-based mathematics and science activities for students
in these grades and was actively involved in classroom instruction using
these materials.
Science teachers in the schools with which Pfeiffer University
was collaborating identified those concepts that they found most difficult
to teach and that students had the most difficulty learning. Teaching
Scholars worked with the teachers and college faculty to develop materials
and approaches to address these concepts and participated with the teachers
in the use of these new approaches in the classroom.
St. Edward's University Teaching Scholars worked in pairs with
middle school science teachers and students in three school districts.
They participated in the planning, coordination, and facilitation of hands-on
activities designed to enhance classroom learning opportunities by introducing
additional materials and experiences. They sought to use this program
as a pilot for an innovative model for an alternate K-12 math/science
teacher certification process.
The Teaching Scholars at St. Joseph's College worked with their
professors and with middle and high school mathematics teachers to develop
and implement activity-based instruction in which students observed mathematical
phenomena, analyzed and mathematically modeled what they observed, and
wrote about their results.
West Virginia Wesleyan College divided its Teaching Scholars into
three two-student teams, one each in math, biology, and chemistry. Each
team, assisted by a faculty member and a high school teacher, designed
interactive classroom instructional units and presented them in the public
school classrooms of three school districts.
Widener University science majors who served as Teaching Scholars
were trained to use the Full Option Science Study (FOSS) inquiry-based
materials. They then helped in the training of science teachers in the
local school district and instructed K-8 students in the local school
district.
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Teaching
Scholar Partnerships
