There are good reasons to be concerned about academic preparation of teachers. The reports mention that teachers whose students perform demonstrably better than average have a number of common characteristics. They encourage active learning. They use appropriate assessment tools to find out how their students learn as well as how much they have learned. They know what conceptions and misconceptions students bring with them to the subject being taught, how the misconceptions can lead to student confusion, and how to help students modify their misconceptions. In short, good teachers are very important in preparing students to excel in all areas, and especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Without them, those of us at the college and university level would find our jobs much more difficult.

Keeping good teachers in the classroom is another major problem. The fact that at least 30% of new teachers leave the profession within five years (1) is a serious indictment of their preparation and the working conditions they encounter. It is only a minor consolation that well prepared teachers are less likely to leave. The dollar costs associated with this rapid turnover adversely affect the schools from which teachers depart and the programs that have to recruit and educate nearly one-third more candidates than would minimally be required. The costs to students of having inexperienced teachers who are unhappy with their working conditions are immeasurable.

To improve the preparation of teachers the reports suggest: more uniform, coherent, and rigorous curricula and licensing; accreditation procedures that hold all teacher-education programs to uniform, high standards nationwide; evaluating success of teacher-preparation programs by considering the number of their graduates whose teaching skills are high and who remain in the profession; connecting course work and teaching practice more closely; ensuring appropriate levels of funding and support for teacher-preparation programs; and using federal grants to create or expand programs that encourage graduates to work in urban and rural communities where the fraction of less effective teachers is greater.

These suggestions, mainly aimed at policymakers or administrators, are pretty far from the immediate experience of most JCE readers. What can we chemistry teachers do? Consider the report in this issue by Kruse and Roehrig. They describe performance on the Chemistry Concepts Inventory (5) by teachers who were participating in a professional development program (see graph below). For several of the 22 questions, more than half of the teachers chose incorrect responses, and in one case more than 75% answered incorrectly. Kruse and Roehrig conclude that students’ misconceptions, though more numerous, parallel those of teachers. This may mean that teachers’ misconceptions are being transferred to students. Kruse and Roehrig also discovered that teachers with a degree in chemistry or a single-subject teaching credential in chemistry held significantly fewer misconceptions than did those who were teaching chemistry but whose subject-matter background was in a different field.

All JCE subscribers have access to the Chemistry Concepts Inventory through JCE Online (5) and could use it to assess their own misconceptions. This would begin the process of correcting any misconceptions that might be passed on to students. We can also make certain that all students—especially those who are interested in teaching chemistry—are involved in more inquiry-oriented, conceptually rich learning in their chemistry courses. Those of us at the college level could help improve teacher preparation by working with students in our courses who express interest in teaching and with faculty of education. Finally, all of us can try harder to convince school boards and state agencies to require that all teachers be certified in the subjects they teach. Let’s get involved!

Literature Cited

1. Darling-Hammond, Linda. A Good Teacher in Every Classroom: Preparing the Highly Qualified Teachers Our Children Deserve; Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, 2005 (PDF, accessed Jun 2005).
2. Darling-Hammond, Linda; Bransford, John, Eds. Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What Teachers Should Learn and Be Able to Do; Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, 2005.
3. The Teaching Commission. Teaching at Risk: A Call to Action; The Teaching Commission: New York, 2005 (PDF, accessed Jun 2005).
4. Blair, Julie. Education Week 2004 23, 13.
5. Mulford, D. R.; Robinson, W. R. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 739–744. The inventory is available in the JCE Digital Library (accessed Jun 2005).