In 2004, California was alerted to a disturbing new problem in its public schools: a startling deficiency in the number of trained math and science teachers. Not only were Californian schools suffering in their math and science test scores, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said, but also in their lack of trained instructors in these subjects. These lagging scores – and indeed, those of students nationwide – have long worried educators and officials and spawned countless studies, re-evaluations and programs in hopes of resurrecting their fast-falling rankings. According to the governor, the lack of qualified personnel was at the forefront of this fall.
The answer Schwarzenegger and UC President Robert C. Dynes gave to this problem in June 2005’s California Teach initiative was the plan dubbed “”One Thousand Teachers, One Million Minds.”” In accordance with its title, the plan aimed to produce a total of 1,000 new math and science teachers annually from the UC system by 2010. As a result, undergraduate UC campuses have jumped to create new programs and courses for this plan – and UCSD, with its brand-new minors in mathematics education and science education, has emerged as the first to implement its changes.
The program itself is an interdisciplinary collaboration: Director Randall J. Souviney of education studies and Dean Mark Thiemens of the division of physical sciences have been instrumental in its creation and coordination. As the cross-departmental brainchild of math, science and education faculty, the program takes an accordingly altered focus.
“”This is not just about education,”” said Jeff Rimmel, professor of mathematics, associate dean of physical sciences and faculty director of UCSD’s California Teach. Indeed, the primary reason for the establishment of these minors is that it is about more than education – that to fill the gaping hole in math and science education, new teachers need more than the training offered by an education studies minor. Such a minor focuses primarily on the methodology of teaching, which Rimmel argues is far from the only concern of math and science teachers. Instead of studying teaching methods alone – or “”pedagogy”” – students who take minors in mathematics or science education apply and adapt these skills to their respective disciplines as well. Their understanding of the specific subject matter is just as important, perhaps even more so in their first two years, as their study of education itself – or as Rimmel put it, “”Students learn the pedagogy out of the content,”” and not the other way around.
Math and science education present their own unique concerns and difficulties. Teachers are often forced to teach subjects in which they do not have degrees. According to statistics provided by California Teach, almost 1,500 high school math classes and 800 science classes were taught by staff with no teaching credential at all. Biology teachers are forced to recall their math classes from long ago when asked to fill in for a math teacher who isn’t there.
Too many subjects have teacher deficits: mathematics has the most glaring shortage, followed by chemistry and physics, with biology and other natural sciences holding the dubious honor of being in the least desperate need of teachers. But even they are in a “”terrible shortfall,”” according to Thiemens.
While one of the most alarming, the lack of specific training is not the only problem facing California’s current state of math and science education. Thiemens said that using teachers to instruct many subjects and numerous students means that the classes also suffer in method, particularly in math. “”The fact is that most of the things that we’ll do [in mathematics] won’t have one answer,”” he said. But in a real math class, where a stressed chemistry teacher might teach mainly from a solution book, teaching multiple strategies can easily fall by the wayside.
Several new classes have been created specifically for the new minors, including freshman and sophomore seminars. The first of these seminars are being taught this quarter: MATH 87, CHEM 87 and EDS 39, all geared toward recruiting and educating prospective math and science teachers from the UCSD undergraduate student body.
MATH 87 and CHEM 87 (the latter’s chemistry designation is purely bureaucratic, as it addresses science education as a whole) are both seminars designed to garner interest in the program. With few classroom hours and light workloads, the seminars mean to capture the interest of tentative students who are indecisive in pursuing math and science education. The hope is that increased visibility will lead to increased interest – and the ultimate goal of the two minors is not only to improve training for math and science education, but also to expand it.
EDS 39, on the other hand, is a class for sophomores and juniors, dedicated to teaching the more practical aspects of math and science education. The course is a practicum where students spend 20 hours attending, observing and occasionally participating in classrooms across San Diego. The six to seven schools they visit are intentionally diverse: middle and high schools, continuation schools and charter schools.
The UC system is, collectively the largest public university in the country, and the focal point of “”One Thousand Teachers, One Million Minds.”” The fledgling steps of UCSD’s Science and Math Education Program are a test not just for UCSD, but for California in general. For the UC system, the fact is that whatever we do, at least according to Thiemens, “”people will pay attention to it.””
