The purpose of this study was to better understand the nature of the contribution of the mentor teacher and the methods instructor in the development of professional knowledge of pre-service teachers (PSTs) to teach elementary science. The PSTs' conceptions of teaching science were also explored to see if there were changes in their ideas about teaching science and what influenced these changes during the methods semester of a field-based elementary teacher preparation program. Specifically, this study examined the perceptions of the PSTs regarding the nature of mentorship that they received for the teaching of elementary science. Participants were 144 PSTs from five field-based elementary methods sites, their mentor teachers, and their methods instructor from a university program in a large urban area. Of interest in this study was examining the extent to which PSTs actually observed science teaching in their mentor teachers' classrooms during the methods semester. Analysis of an end-of-semester survey revealed that more than one-third of the PSTs never observed their mentor elementary teachers teach science. On an encouraging note, 62% of PSTs who observed at least some science teaching reported that they perceived their teachers as modeling inquiry science teaching strategies. Regarding the perceived quality of mentor support for learning to teach science, more than 90% of PSTs reported that they felt supported by mentor teachers in their growth of science teaching even if the mentor teachers did not incorporate science lessons into their school day. In addition, half of the PSTs' conceptions of teaching science changed over the methods semester, with the methods course and the elementary classroom as the two most influential factors.

This study explores the influence of mentor teachers in the meanings and practices that two elementary preservice teachers adopted about eliciting and using student ideas, while learning to teach science in the university science methods course and in the field placement classroom. Prior research on teacher development has shown that the high-leverage practice of eliciting and using student ideas can support preservice teachers in thinking about common problems of practice. I used four core problems of practice to examine the meanings and practices that preservice teachers adopted in eliciting and using student ideas as they planned, enacted and reflected on methods course assignments in the field placement classroom. Using sociocultural and situative perspectives on learning, I identified two factors that influenced the sense that preservice teachers constructed and the practices that they adopted about eliciting and using student ideas. These factors were mentor teacher's perspectives on learning and goals for student learning. I also examined three mechanisms by which mentor teacher's perspectives and goals influenced preservice teacher meanings and practices about eliciting and using student ideas in instruction, including mentor teacher's classroom practice, the nature and foci of mentor teacher and preservice teacher conversations and mentor teacher's use of preservice teachers' ideas in their conversations about instruction. The results suggest that preservice teachers come to make sense of and use student ideas in their instruction in ways that closely align with those of their mentors. They also indicate that preservice teachers' integration of experiences from different learning-to-teach contexts in making sense of student ideas may be related to the degree of alignment between mentor teachers' perspectives and goals and the perspectives and goals of the science methods course.

Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / This dissertation focuses on how the MAT program in Earth Science at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH MAT), a one-of-a-kind, museum-based urban teacher residency, conceptualized and enacted the project of learning to teach science for urban school contexts. The AMNH MAT is situated within the two nested contexts. The first context is its emergence as one of a number of new, state-approved graduate schools of education that offer teacher preparation, endorse teachers for certification, and grant master’s degrees but are not part of or connected to universities. The larger study of which this case study is part termed this phenomenon “new graduate schools of education,” or nGSEs. The second context is the program’s mission of preparing teachers for urban schools, a goal that is shared by other teacher preparation programs within the domain of nGSEs. This descriptive, interpretive case study analysis poses two major questions: How and to what extent does the American Museum of Natural History infuse its long-standing beliefs about science learning and public service into a teacher preparation program? How and to what extent does the museum conceptualize and enact science teacher preparation for the specific context of urban high needs public secondary schools? Analysis of multiple data sources revealed that theAMNH’s mission of disseminating science knowledge in service of a more science-literate public was instantiated in a teacher preparation program that centralized and continually reinforced a vision of preparing science teachers but had a less central and more limited approach to preparing urban teachers. This case study analysis of an innovative teacher preparation program in one of our nation’s largest cities has important implications for urban science teacher education research and practice. First, the AMNH MAT’s model of science teacher preparation offered two key features that are useful for the field. The first feature was its coherence around the developmentof a science teacher identity that included deep science content knowledge and a commitment to bringing informal science teaching and learning practices into schools. The second model feature was the MAT program’s required four-residency structure, which essentially reinvented the “field” in teacher preparation fieldwork. At the same time, the project of learning to teach at the AMNH MAT, like that of many other urban teacher preparation programs, revealed the difficulties and dilemmas involved in preparing teachers for urban contexts, particularly the responsibility of developing a new generation of antiracist educators. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

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