PREPARING KOREAN EARTH SCIENCE TEACHERS USING THE IOWA CHAUTAUQUA MODEL

The Iowa Korean Teacher Workshop (IKTW) was conceived as an extension of the Iowa Chautauqua Program (ICP), which has proven a successful staff development model in the U.S. for assisting in-service teachers in changing their instructional strategies. This in-service project for Korean science teachers has been funded since 1995 as an international project sponsored by the Korean Ministry of Education, partly in response to the Sixth National Science Curriculum in Korea which now includes "Integrated Science" as a compulsory subject in the high schools. A total of 323 Korean science teachers including 150 Earth Science teachers who participated in IKTW are now lead teachers in Korea. The unique features of the IKTW, which are identical to ones of the ICP, include: (1) STS (Science, Technology, Society) /Constructivist approach in science teaching and learning; (2) collaboration between scientists and science educators including science teachers; and (3) continuous communication and on-going action research.

Teachers participating in the workshop experience a diversity of STS/Constructivist classrooms, which could serve as an empirical resource to improve their earth science classrooms. In addition, the teachers are exposed to scientific explorations with scientists from various fields of research. These researchers contribute to incorporating scientific content and methods as well as scientific ways of thinking into teaching modules, which are the major products of the workshop. Earth Science teaching sessions serve to introduce inquiry-based approaches to common topics (e.g. earth materials, tectonics, stratigraphy, earthquakes, volcanoes) with the goal of encouraging similar approaches within the specific conditions of participants' school environments.

After the workshop teachers are involved in follow-up studies or action research. Evaluation of the results of this workshop is accomplished largely by voluntary response to sets of questions concerned with teaching philosophy and approach. Of special interest is how these are influenced by the new Korean National Curriculum. Such classroom reform efforts as applications of the developed modules, action research with the central staffs, and exchange of curriculum materials and information are considered as evidence to the success of the IKTW.