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U.S. Campus Life

Teaching teachers

By Masako Yamada


先生たちに教える

学年度も終わりに近づいてきました。夏休みには、研究と助手の仕事に明け暮れる忙しい日常から解放される喜びに浸りたいところですが、雅子さんは今年、2週間のサマープログラムに教師として参加することになりました。教える相手はなんと高校の先生たち。いったいどんなプログラムなのでしょうか?

Now that the school year is over, I am relieved of being a teaching assistant for undergraduate classes. Graduate students in my department usually look forward to not having to teach, since it means that they can concentrate more on doing their research, and less on grading papers and preparing for labs. This is especially true during the summer, since the warm weather is so tempting . . . and yet the teaching load is twice as heavy.

However, research funding doesn't just drop out of the sky, so many students must teach to support themselves. I consider myself lucky that I have the option to teach. Typically, the workload is only about 10 to 20 hours a week, so it leaves us plenty of time to do our research. This not only covers tuition, but also provides us with a stipend. This means that graduate students can support themselves without having to take out any loans, and without having to work outside of school to make ends meet.

This summer, I'm going to teach teachers. This is an interesting thought, since many of the teachers will be older than I am. I will be part of a program that is designed to teach high school science teachers how to integrate current research concepts into their classes. One special feature is that the teachers will learn how to use computer simulations to teach chemistry concepts. Twenty to 30 high school teachers will be coming to Boston University for two weeks in order to learn these concepts.

The summer program will be treated as an official graduate-level course in the School of Education, and the students will be living in the dormitory. Since they will be covering an entire semester's material in two weeks, they will have to take classes all day. Tuition, transportation, housing and meals are all covered by a government grant, so I think it's a very tempting program. However, I agree that it might be a bit frightening for veteran high school teachers to go back to school to take such an intense course.

Many parts of the project are still in the planning stages, but one thing that I do know is that I'll be reviewing the custom-made textbook that the curriculum development team has written, checking to make sure that not only the English is correct, but the directions are clear. I'll also be testing the molecular dynamics program that has been developed especially for high school students.

It looks like I'll also be serving as a "teaching assistant" in the classes that the high school teachers are taking. In any given class, we plan on having three to five instructors, each with a different specialty. Some of the instructors are veteran high school teachers who have collaborated with our group for years to create these materials. Some are science professors with lots of experience teaching and doing research in a university setting. Some are education professors who know a lot about pedagogy. Some are graduate students who can provide welcome new perspectives, and who might even remember what it was like to be in high school.

My thesis work is based on computer simulations, so I can understand how the phenomena I see on the computer screen relates to concepts taught in chemistry textbooks. However, I've been told over and over that it's not so easy to teach teachers, many of whom may have never used computer simulations before. On the one hand, they have pride in their position as educators. On the other hand, it's not necessarily the case that they've had an extensive science education. They might be a bit confused by the research concepts, but embarrassed to admit this. The instructors of this course have to keep these issues in mind when teaching the teachers.

This is a huge collaboration with many people developing the curriculum, and many people taking the course. It's hard to determine now what would be useful. It's hard for us to know what kind of teachers will show up, and what they will find most useful. In the end, however, we must not forget our true target: high school students. The whole point of this project is to enrich science education in high schools. In order for this to happen, we have to teach the teachers in such a way that they can then teach their students. It's not an easy task.


Shukan ST: May 24, 2002

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