Do Highly Science Qualified Teachers Provide High Quality Science Instruction? Evidence from the Boston Science Partnership
Using adherence to the 5E model as the definition of high quality science instruction, our data suggest that certification or teacher qualifications may be necessary, but they are not sufficient to guarantee instruction in which teachers touch on each component of the 5E model during every class session. If teachers' qualifications were predictors of such instruction, our analyses would have shown that greater numbers of Cert-3 teachers were observed enacting all components of the district pedagogy, but that was not the case. Instead, we found that regardless of certification, experience, or grade level, all teachers emphasized explain-related activities and varying but far fewer numbers of teachers were observed spending any instructional time on the remaining components.
Although we did not find that certification or experience was associated with increasing numbers of teachers enacting all components of district pedagogy, we did find that more experienced teachers spent less instructional time on lecturing and managing student behavior and greater amounts of enacting district pedagogy than their less experienced colleagues. In addition, we found that grade level was associated with both the amount of time spent on district pedagogy as well as the number of teachers who covered the components of it more evenly. Although middle school teachers spent more time on district pedagogy, more of them continued to focus their time on explain-related activities in comparison to high school teachers who, overall spent less time on district pedagogy but more of them covered more components of the 5E model.
Finally, of the 37 teachers interviewed and observed, 17 of them were teaching science subjects for which they had no certification; however our observations found no discernable patterns that differentiated the instruction of those with more and those with less content knowledge.
