Finding Better Ways to Teach Science Earns Madison's Baldwin $590K Grant

As a science teacher educator, Dr. Brian Baldwin is interested in how both prospective and practicing science teachers develop themselves, professionally, to become better educators and, ultimately, to help their students learn more about the natural world around them. 

Baldwin, an assistant professor in the New Jersey Center for Science, Technology and Mathematics at Kean University in Union, is combining his interest and effort to become a better educator with other science and math teachers across the state. He is the principal investigator for the Kean University Math and Science Partnership, for which he recently secured his second grant, in the amount of $590,000, from the New Jersey Department of Education.

“My work on this grant was certainly fueled by my interest in becoming a better science teacher,” said Baldwin, a Madison resident. “I see the teachers that we work with exhibit this same passion to become better teachers so that their students optimize their understanding of science and math. These skills enable students to think differently and critically, and to become more informed individuals in these fields and in the world.”

The focus of the project is to provide professional development opportunities for practicing math and science teachers in local school districts. As conditions of the grant, partner districts must meet certain criteria for “high-needs” according to governmental regulations. The state has stipulated that the content to be covered during the summer workshops and during the academic year professional development curriculum must match certain core standards that pose traditional difficulties for students, as measured by state standardized tests such as NJ ASK, HSPA and End Of Course exams.

In July, the group completed a two-week workshop, and Kean will be providing in-school professional development for the 75 participating teachers throughout the current academic year.

“The experience thus far has been encouraging,” said Baldwin. “And the partner districts have been terrific at recruiting teachers to participate in the program.” In fact, he had a waiting list of teachers wanting to participate this summer.

The project began in the summer of 2010 and will run through June 2013. The grant is funded per year for a total of approximately $1.7 million. The funds of the grant cover the expenses associated with providing the summer workshops as well as the professional development that takes place during the academic year. It provides stipends for the teachers, incentives for free tuition for courses at Kean and online through the American Museum of Natural History in New York. A group of Kean students also are provided with opportunities for stipends to aid in laboratory set-up, professional development and data collection and analysis for the project.

Besides the professional development aspects of the project, there are several research components of interest, principally the extent of teacher content knowledge and self-confidence changes throughout the duration of their participation in the project. To this point, Baldwin and his colleagues have completed a study, based on the summer 2010 workshop, on science teacher participants’ views of evolution and the nature of science. They have submitted a proposal to present this data at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) national conference next spring. The research team is also putting the finishing touches on a full research manuscript for journal publication this fall.