Chemical Education Today edited by
Norbert J. Pienta Department of Chemistry University of Iowa Iowa City, IA 52242-1294
Memories of Kindergarten Teachers I struggled to remember the names of my children's kindergarten teachers: Mrs. C, Mrs. G, and Ms. B came to mind, yet even with help I could not remember the fourth one. The exercise occurred to me after I read a newspaper article about the value of kindergarten teachers and classmates (1). And it was really about valuation because it reported a study by some Harvard economists. It seems that professor and economist Raj Chetty and several colleagues examined information from about 12,000 children who were part of an educational experiment in Tennessee in the 1980s and who are now well into their adult lives. Some results are not so surprising. For example, some teachers were able to help students learn more than others. As in other similar studies, test results from junior or senior high school show little differences among the members of the cohort. But unlike other studies, the report of Chetty et al. finds additional effects later in adulthood. The students who learned more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college, less likely to become single parents, more likely to be saving, and were even earning more, a difference that appeared to escalate. Of course, ascribing the causes is more difficult, and these researchers do not claim to have the answers. The bottom line is that Chetty and his colleagues estimate that an outstanding kindergarten teacher is worth about $320,000 a year. I hope that my children had the teachers in that category. I'm not sure my recollections from the parent-teacher conferences will allow me to judge that, but I am cautiously optimistic that a follow-up study from the Harvard group will provide me with criteria and instructions about how to make that judgment. Of course, I got to thinking about how good of a teacher I have been over my career. Between large lecture courses and laboratories over 30 years, I estimate direct contact with at least 15,000 students. (The number is conservative but I do not want to answer that many more emails if it turns out someone has some uncomplimentary data about me.) What do I know about myself as a teacher, or for that matter, what do any of us know? I have always participated in the student evaluations, those quantitative measures of some factors related to popularity, interest, and organization superimposed on difficulty of content, average grades, class size, and other student demographics. On average, they seemed to like me. But then there are the people like the pharmacy technician at the neighborhood drugstore, who looked up at me just as I was about to tell her my name and said, “I know who you are. You're the reason I almost didn't get into pharmacy school.” I guess I could have talked more about ethics, but it is hard to justify in Orgo II.
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I did make a midcareer transition to the “dark side” to chemistry education, where I have tried to learn about and apply learning theories and research about learning to my everyday work. I found out a great deal more about teaching and learning as a Director of Iowa's Center for Teaching and by reading, including this Journal. But it seems that I could have done more. More inquiry activities in class and laboratory. More group work. More guided writing. More ConcepTests and clickers. Fewer PowerPoint slides and less reliance on colored chalk in the formative years. And because confession is good for the soul, I will admit that, at one time, electron configurations and the Knoevenagel reaction seemed so important. But how do you know when you have done enough? Those students in the first course that I taught are also 30 years further along in their lives, just like the people from the Tennessee education study. I relied on patience, discipline, and perseverance both for the students and myself, or at least I think that I did. But I do not remember anyone telling me something very important. You can learn about teaching and learn how to be a better teacher. I emulated some early mentors; however, I did not know enough about professional development of the teaching portion of my academic career. That is what colleagues and publications are all about. You can read about many topics in our Journal and talk about them with colleagues at lunch, even with people outside of chemistry. Everyone might walk away being better for those discussions. And as I perform my editor's tasks, I will keep waiting for that definitive paper that defines excellence in teaching and the way to measure it. In the meantime, here is wishing all of you the teaching impact equivalent to the $320,000 kindergarten teacher. Norbert J. Pienta Editor in Chief
Literature Cited 1. Leonhardt, D. The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers. The New York Times, July 28, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/ 2010/07/28/business/economy/28leonhardt.html?src=me&ref= homepage (accessed Aug 2010).
Norbert J. Pienta is a professor in the Department of Chemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1294; norbert-pienta@ jce.acs.org.
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r 2010 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc. pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc Vol. 87 No. 10 October 2010 10.1021/ed100827e Published on Web 09/14/2010
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Journal of Chemical Education
1001
