CONCERNS AND PERCEPTIONS OF BEGINNING SECONDARY SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHERS

This study is an exploratory research project to: (1) identify the con cerns that beginning science and mathematics teachers have about being a new teacher; and (2) identify the perceptions that these teachers h ave about the effectiveness of their preservice program in relation to their concerns. Program, in this context, is defined as pedagogy cour sework, content coursework, and undergraduate experiences relevant to teaching. The participants for this study consisted of 11 beginning (l ess than 2 years experience) secondary and middle school science (n = 8) and mathematics (n = 4; dual assignment) teachers who were involved in the Salish Project at Purdue University during the 1993-1994 schoo l year. The national Salish Project, in which Purdue University is a p articipant, is a research project designed to study secondary science and mathematics preservice programs across the nation. The primary dat a sources for the study were telephone interviews using an interview g uide. The interview guide consisted of four questions that asked about the school community, what was learned by the participants during the ir first year of teaching, advice that the participants would like to give to new teachers, and how well the preservice program prepared the m for their first year of teaching. The interview transcripts were ana lyzed using a cross-case inductive analysis based from a phenomenologi cal perspective. The new teacher concerns that emerged were: class ass ignments, curriculum development, time management, classroom managemen t, and presentation of the content. Curriculum development, class assi gnments, and presentation of content have significant implications for the secondary science and mathematics preservice program. The percept ions that emerged about the preservice program were: content course wo rk is too specific; some of the pedagogical coursework has limited use fulness; there is a need for more held experiences; and being an under graduate teaching assistant eases the transition in becoming a teacher . All four of these perceptions have implications for the improvement of a secondary science preservice program. (C) 1997 John Wiley % Sons, Inc.