Wayne P. Anderson1 and Verne E. wood
University of Delaware Newark. 19711
II
The Del Mod Approach to Continuing Education for High School Teachers
In recent years considerahle attention has been devoted to improvement of chemistry teaching in secondary schools. While inservice institutes and university courses often serve as a source of improvement for a limited numher of teachers from a given geographical area, a greater impact is possible if a program provides improvement opportunities for a majority of chemistry teachers in the reeion. Furthermore. a nroeram is more likelv to he successful if the teachers are encouraged to help select activities which are to be offered. In this paper the approach used by the Del Mod System2.3 in an attempt to meet the needs of high school chemistry teachers in Delaware is described.
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Assessment of Needs
During the past two years visitations with more than 50 chemistrv teachers have been carried out in some 30 ~ u b l i c high schools. Conferences were held with the teachers and, in many cases, classes were visited. Although no attempt was made to assess the quality of the chemistry program in a given school, an overall view of teaching strategies, texts, and curricula used in the state was obtained. Also teachers were asked to describe prohlems and needs which might be solved by Del Mod activities. Thus, these visitations provided grassroots input for the project. Based on the input which was received during the visitations, a number of common needs became apparent. Foremost was a desire on the part of the teachers for additional lahoratory experience. This included use of instruments ( p H meters, spectrometers, etc.), environmental chemistry experiments, and special projects for advanced students. Experiments which could be done by students in the lahoratory were particularly desired. A second area of interest was that of new developments in curricula and methodology. Included in this category were an interest in courses for non-science oriented students and a concern ahout whether the teaching methods used in the classroom were the most effective ways of presenting principles to students. Courses which emphasized traditional subject matter strictly for the improvement of the background of the teacher were considered to be less desirablethan those which contained material which could he used in the high school classroom. A third concern involved assessment of the quality of the chemistrv courses offered. Teachers wanted to know what university chemistry departments expect of incoming students and also which topics are being emphasized by other chemistry teachers in the state. Finally teachers were interested in finding out where they could borrow equipment and where they could get broken equipment fixed. ~~~
Description of Activities
Many of the activities which have been carried out as part of this project were a direct result of the input from teachers. A few were designed prior to completion of the needs assessment and therefore represent the ideas of the project personnel. In order to provide lahoratory experience for the teachers.. a dav-lone-svmnosium - . was conducted on the tooic. . . "Instrumental Analysis for High'Schools." Our purpose was to acauaint chemistrv teachers with exoeriments which could he'performed by high school students using p H meters and visible absorption spectrometers. Following a short introduction to the theory and operation of these instruments,
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604 / Journal of ChemicalEducation
participants spent the day in the lahoratory carrying out some suggested experiments. The "hands-on" aspect of this symposium was particularly well-received, and there were many requests for additional lahoratory-oriented symposia. A university course "Environmental and Consumer Chemistry" &s developed to acquaint teachers with subject matter which could he used to embellish traditional chemistrv lessons or which could serve as the basis of a curriculum for non-science majors. In order to provide sbfficient background for teachers who might want to use the material in a second-year high school chemistry course, topics were covered in greater depth than would he appropriate for direct use with non-science majors. Topics which were covered included toxic metals, food additives, cosmetics, fossil fuels and air pollution, nuclear power, alternative sources of energy, pesticides, phosphates and eutrophication, and sewage treatment. The texts "Chemistry and the Environment" by Johnson, Netterville, Wood, and Jones4 and "Environmental Chemistry" by Manahan5 served as primary resource materials, although paperbacks and journal articles served as the hasis of most lectures. One takehome examination, one in-class examination, and a short paper on some topic related to the course provided the basis on which grades were assigned. Because of time and space limitations, no lahoratory was included as part of the course. A symposium on the topic "Acids, Bases and Chemical Reactivity" was designed to bring chemistry teachers up to date in modern acid-base theory. This topic was chosen hecause it is one which is traditionally covered in high school courses. The symposium began with a review of BronstedLowry and Lewis acid-base concepts. This was followed by an introduction to the concept of hard and soft acids and bases. The final session dealt with the application of acidbase concepts to the prediction of inorganic reaction products. Lectures were presented by two University of Delaware facultv members. Althuueh a eenerallv favorable response to tke topic was received, several paiticipants commented that the material was a t a too sophisticated level for use in their own classrooms. Two activities have heen carried out to help teachers assess the quality of their courses and to improve communication among teachers. First, a panel discussion on the topic "High School Chemistry-Fulcrum or Pinnacle" was Taken in Part from a talk presented by W. P. Anderson at the 36th Summer Conference of the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers, St. Anselm's College, Manchester, New Hampshire, August 1974. 'Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. 2The Del Mod System involves a working agreement among educational institutions, the Delaware Department of Public Instruction, and industry and is funded by N.S.F., public and private sources. Its purpose is to upgrade the quality of science teaching in elementary and secondary schools in the State of Delaware. 3Purnell,C. H., Sei. Teacher, 39 (6), 37(1972). 'Johnson, D. O., Netterville, J. T., Wood, J. L., and Janea, M. M., "Chemistry and the Environment," W. B. Saunders Co.,Philadelphia, 1973. 5Manahan, S. E., "Environmental Chemistry," Willard Grant Press, Inc., Boston, 1972.
held to discuss the possibility and desirability of coordinatine hieh . school and university chemistry courses. This discussion allowed high school tiachers u,describe the numerous ~rohlemsassociated with teaching a course which is intended to prepare students for college chemistry while a t the same time meeting the needs of students who will not take additional chemistry courses. I t also gave them the opportunity to inquire about prerequisites for general chemistry courses a t the University of Delaware. Although no concrete proposals arose from the discussion, a number of specific programs which were already in operation in some high schools were described. Thus, teachers could learn about activities a t other schools. Also the communication among teachers which occurred opened up the possibility of future discussions of mutual orohlems. A second activity involved collection of typical test questions from chemistrv teachers throuehout the state. Teachers were asked to submit a copy of each test or quiz administered durine the vear. After collecting all test questions, we hope to s& them according to topic and diff&ulty and nroduce a test item source hook. Teachers can then easily compare their questions with those submitted by other teachers in the state and in this way evaluate the scope and difficulty of their own courses. Since the author of each test auestion will not he listed, teachers will not have to fear criticism or derision by others. In addition to providing a means of assessment, this activity is viewed as serving two purposes. First, questions can he stored on a central ;omputer and a random access program used to generate tests or quizzes for use in the classroom. Second, the sourcebook can he used as the basis of a state or district in-sewice program in which curricula and testing are discussed. Such a program would further increase communication among teachers. T o date approximately 70% of the chemistry teachers in the state have contributed test questions. I t is interesting that some of the most enthusiastic participants
in this activity are teachers who had not been active previously in Del Mod programs. Conclusions The kev to the Del Mod a ~ o r o a c hto cootinuine education of high school chemist;; teachers is the gr&roots input received during the school visitations. This input has acquainted us with the needs as viewed by the teachers themselves. In this wav the eoals of the various activities which are designed can he crosely related to the needs of the teachers. We have also found that the format of a daylong symposium6 is a particularly suitable way of reaching a high percentage (-70%) of the teachers in a given county. I t should he emphasized that our approach does not solve all difficulties. Foremost is the disparity between the desire of teachers to have activities meet their immediate classroom needs and the desire of many university resource persons to present material which is beyond that which would be used in the classroom. We have attempted to minimize this difficulty by presenting a variety of activities, some of which are more directly related to the high school classroom than others. The extent to which our activities have caused real change in the classroom performance of participating teachers is also not clear. We hope t o address ourselves to this question in followup visitations. Acknowledgment Acknowledgment is made to the National Science Foundation and to E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Company for support of this project. The authors are grateful to Dr. Robert Uffelman of the University of Delaware for helpful suggestions and guidance throughout the course of this project. Assistance of John Reiher of the Delaware Department of Public Instruction is also acknowledged. %ubstitute teachers were paid from Del Mod funds.
Volume 52, Number 9, September 1975 / 605
