Inquiry-Based Teaching
An inquiry-oriented approach to teacher preparation underscored the curriculum of the Alternative Certification Programs at GSU.
I became involved in an Alternative Certification Program (ACT) for secondary mathematics, foreign language and science teachers at Georgia State University after returning from a visiting professorship at the University of Vermont, and as a visiting scholar at the Far West Lab (now WestEd) in San Francisco, In 1989 we received funding from the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, which supported a three-year program consisting of an eight-week summer institute followed by a one-year internship in a Georgia public school. The curriculum that we developed called for content pedagogy courses in mathematics, foreign language and science, a course in special education, and course on principles of teaching. Nearly 100 students were certified through this program from 1989 - 1992.
For the summer institute, the program designed for the science majors was a reconnaissance of field of science teaching organized a constructivist community of practice. We took an inquiry-oriented approach which fostered a constructivist environment in which prospective teachers used inquiry strategies to learn pedagogical skills, explored the nature of student learning in the context of schools, and reflected on their own learning. The institute was experiential in nature, and involved these future teachers, each of whom held a degree in science or engineering, in reflective discussions, hands-on, minds-on activities, creative lesson design, cooperative learning, and micro-teaching. The Alternative Certification Institute would serve as the basis and lead to an outline for the content of the book Minds on Science, which would be the precursor for The Art of Teaching Science.