{"id":86732,"date":"2024-05-30T04:00:24","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T08:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/?p=86732"},"modified":"2024-07-02T08:33:01","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T12:33:01","slug":"utoledo-educator-leads-2-3m-initiative-to-keep-high-quality-science-teachers-in-classrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/05_30_2024\/utoledo-educator-leads-2-3m-initiative-to-keep-high-quality-science-teachers-in-classrooms","title":{"rendered":"UToledo Educator Leads $2.3M Initiative to Keep High-Quality Science Teachers in Classrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Education can be a challenging vocation.<\/p>\n

School districts often struggle to recruit and retain high-quality teachers, who cite job satisfaction and burnout as key reasons they leave the classroom.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.

Dr. Natasha Johnson, center, assistant professor in the Department of Education, is leading a $2.3 million initiative to support sixth through 12th grade science teachers in high need districts in Ohio and Kentucky, funded by the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Scholarship Program. Her collaborators include Dr. Jonathan Bossenbroek,\u00a0 professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences, left, and Dr. Kevin Czajkowski, professor in the Department of Geography and Planning.<\/p><\/div>\n

Dr. Natasha Johnson can relate to the challenges facing today\u2019s teachers, with roughly two decades of classroom experience in metro Atlanta preceding her transition to The University of Toledo\u2019s Judith Herb College of Education in 2020.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why she\u2019s passionate about a $2.3 million initiative she\u2019s heading to support sixth through 12th grade science teachers in high-need districts in Ohio and Kentucky, funded by the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Scholarship Program.<\/p>\n

Johnson and her collaborators are currently recruiting a cohort of 20 master teaching fellows, who by the fall will be immersed in research-based teacher and leadership professional development designed to develop mastery of the knowledge, skills and dispositions necessary to lead from their classrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pour a lot of energy into training new teachers, which is necessary and important, but it\u2019s also critical that we think about how to retain veteran teachers who have a track record of success in the classroom,\u201d said Johnson, an assistant professor in the Department of Teacher Education. \u201cThis initiative is designed to equip and empower teachers to continue making a difference for their students year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Robert Noyce Scholarship Program provides funding to institutions of higher education to provide scholarships, stipends and programmatic support aimed at recruiting and retaining teachers specializing in science, technology, engineering and math. Johnson\u2019s proposal addresses retention among a category of teacher that research indicates is at particular risk of attrition: middle and high school teachers of specialized subjects who are employed by high-need districts.<\/p>\n

Johnson and her co-principal investigators \u2014 Dr. Kim Zeidler-Watters, executive director of the Partnership Institute for Math and Science Education Reform based in Lexington, Kentucky, and UToledo\u2019s Dr. Jonathan Bossenbroek, professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences, and Dr. Kevin Czajkowski, a professor in the Department of Geography and Planning \u2014 are specifically recruiting middle and high school science teachers with at least five years of experience in urban and rural districts in Ohio and Kentucky.<\/p>\n

Urban and rural districts often face additional barriers to teacher recruitment and retention due to the unique challenges of the environment. Master teaching fellows will explore similarities and differences in their experiences in urban and rural districts over the five-year period of the initiative, which is designed to cultivate teacher persistence by mitigating factors that lead to teacher turnover. Using a community of practice model, fellows will have the opportunity to engage with each other and with mentors in monthly meetings and summer programming, as well as classroom observations and exchanges, virtual study groups and micro-courses in areas like leadership development, cultural competence and national board professional teaching standards.<\/p>\n

Video analysis also will be integrated throughout the initiative as a tool to deepen fellows\u2019 knowledge of the content and methodology of the Next Generation Science Standards\/Three Dimensional Learning Model, which align with state science standards in Ohio and Kentucky.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne barrier we see is that we\u2019re asking teachers to teach in ways they weren\u2019t taught,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThe Next Generation Science Standards really emphasizes the importance of hands-on, interactive learning. But for generations we taught science as a transmission of knowledge: lectures, readings, things like that. Through this initiative we want to give teachers the tools to make the necessary shifts in their instructional practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellows also will participate in excursions, exploring their local landscapes and attractions as potential informal classrooms where they can engage and excite students.<\/p>\n

Each master teaching fellow will receive an annual stipend of $13,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an exciting project for Dr. Johnson and the Judith Herb College of Education,\u201d said Dr. Rebecca Schneider, professor and senior associate dean of the college. \u201cOur students in urban and rural settings deserve highly qualified teachers. Through this project, Dr. Johnson will develop teachers as experts in teaching science and as leaders who will make a difference for students and fellow teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson is excited to start interviewing candidates in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s a labor of love,\u201d she said, reflecting on her own years in a science classroom. \u201cWhen I left high school for higher education, I knew I wanted to continue to help students. I\u2019m excited to do that by supporting the teachers who will educate and inspire them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The initiative by Dr. Natasha Johnson, assistant professor in the Department of Education, is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Scholarship Program and will support junior high and high school science teachers in high-need districts in Ohio and Kentucky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":908,"featured_media":86733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,60,53,39,1,3,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86732"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86737,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86732\/revisions\/86737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}