Professional education reading patterns of presidential science honorees

Abstract

The 422 Presidential Science Honorees participated in a Delphi study composed of two surveys. The first survey ascertained the science education journals, general education journals, science indexes, and education indexes that preservice secondary science education majors should be familiar with in their preparation program. There was a 53.9% return rate for the first survey, but data about science and education indexes was too limited for further analysis. The second survey included the most frequently mentioned science education and general education journals and a demographic component. There was a 72.5% return rate for the second survey with 92.1% of the first respondents completing the second survey. The respondents were 36.9% female and 59.8% male. Generally, the respondents were mainly high school teachers who have a Master's degree, are actively involved in their school system's inservice education program for science, attend professional meetings, submit manuscripts for publication, more recently completed a college science course than a college education course, and read science education journals more frequently and thoroughly than general education journals. The most frequently read journals tend to be of a practical orientation. Almost 60% of the respondents read more than one-third of each issue of The Science Teacher.

Engaging Students in Earthquakes via Real-Time Data and Decisions

“…T he topic of earthquakes appears in virtually all introductory undergraduate geoscience courses. Most students entering these courses already have some knowledge of earthquakes and why they occur, but that knowledge often derives from the most recent event in the news and can therefore be biased toward the most destructive earthquakes (1). In addition, students arrive at college with misconceptions (2,3), perhaps picked up from erroneous or poorly presented media coverage.…”