Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 505-3-.29 - Science Education Program
(1)
Purpose. This rule states
field-specific content standards for approving programs that prepare
individuals to teach broad field science and/or the science specialties of life
sciences, chemistry, earth space science, and physics in grades 6-12, and
supplements requirements in Rule
505-3-.01 REQUIREMENTS AND STANDARDS
FOR APPROVING PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION UNITS AND EDUCATOR PREPARATION PROGRAMS
and in GaPSC Rule
505-3-.03 FOUNDATIONS OF READING,
LITERACY, AND LANGUAGE.
(2)
Requirements.
(a) A
GaPSC-approved educator preparation provider shall offer an educator
preparation program described in program planning forms, catalogs, and syllabi
addressing the following standards, which are adapted from the National Science
Teaching Association/Association for Science Teacher Education standards (2020)
and A Framework for K-12 Science Education - Practices, Crosscutting Concepts,
and Core Ideas (2012).
1.
Content
Knowledge. Effective teachers of science understand and articulate
the knowledge and practices of contemporary science and engineering. They
connect important disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science
and engineering practices for their fields of certification. Preservice
teachers will:
(i) Use and apply the major
concepts, principles, theories, laws, and interrelationships of their fields of
licensure and supporting fields. Explain the nature of science and the cultural
norms and values inherent to the current and historical development of
scientific knowledge; and
(ii)
Demonstrate knowledge of how to implement science standards, learning
progressions, and sequencing of science content for teaching their
certification level to 6-12 students.
2.
Content Pedagogy.
Effective teachers of science plan learning units of study and fair, culturally
responsive opportunities for all students based upon their understandings of
how students learn and develop science knowledge, skills, and habits of mind.
Effective teachers engage students in the use of science and engineering
practices and crosscutting concepts to develop deep understandings of the core
disciplinary ideas in their instructional planning. Preservice teachers will:
(i) Use science standards and a variety of
appropriate, student-centered, and culturally relevant science
disciplinary-based instructional approaches that follow safety procedures and
incorporate science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and
crosscutting concepts;
(ii)
Incorporate appropriate differentiation strategies, wherein all students
develop conceptual knowledge and an understanding of the nature of science.
Lessons should engage students in applying science practices, clarifying
relationships, and identifying natural patterns from phenomena and empirical
experiences;
(iii) Use engineering
practices in support of science learning wherein all students design,
construct, test and optimize possible solutions to a problem;
(iv) Align instruction and assessment
strategies to support instructional decision making that identifies and
addresses student misunderstandings, prior knowledge, and naïve conceptions;
and
(v) Integrate science-specific
technologies to support all students' conceptual understanding and application
of science and engineering.
3.
Learning
Environments. Effective teachers of science are able to plan for
engaging all students in science learning by identifying appropriate learning
goals that are consistent with knowledge of how students learn science and are
aligned with standards. Plans reflect the selection of phenomena appropriate to
the social context of the classroom and community, and safety considerations,
to engage students in the nature of science and science and engineering
practices. Effective teachers create an impartial, multicultural, and social
justice-learning environment to achieve these goals. Preservice teachers will:
(i) Plan a variety of lessons based on
science standards that employ strategies that demonstrate their knowledge and
understanding of how to select appropriate teaching and motivating learning
activities that foster a supportive, welcoming, fair, and impartial learning
environment;
(ii) Plan learning
experiences for all students in a variety of environments (e.g., the
laboratory, field, virtual, and community) within their fields of
certification;
(iii) Plan lessons
in which all students have a variety of opportunities to obtain information,
evaluate, communicate, investigate, collaborate, learn from mistakes, and
defend their own explanations of phenomena, observations, and data. This
includes the proposal and defense of potential solutions to real-world,
authentic, scientific and engineering problems; and
(iv) Plan and implement instruction
incorporating universal technologies that support and enhance virtual learning
either in person or digitally to include all students in investigation and
application of science content, engineering practices, and crosscutting
concepts.
4.
Safety. Effective teachers of science demonstrate
biological, chemical, and physical safety protocols in their classrooms and
workspace. They also implement ethical treatment of living organisms and
maintain equipment and chemicals as relevant to their fields of certification.
Preservice teachers will:
(i) Implement
activities appropriate for the abilities of all students that demonstrate safe
techniques for the procurement, preparation, use, storage, dispensing,
supervision, and disposal of all chemicals/materials/equipment used within
their fields of certification;
(ii)
Demonstrate an ability to: recognize hazardous situations including
overcrowding; implement emergency procedures; maintain safety equipment;
provide adequate student instruction and supervision; and follow policies and
procedures that comply with established state and national guidelines,
appropriate legal state and national safety standards (e.g., Occupational
Safety and Health Administration, National Fire Protection Association,
Environmental Protection Agency), and best professional practices (e.g.,
National Science Teaching Association, Georgia Science Teachers Association,
National Science Education Leadership Association). This includes awareness of
personal liability, duty of care as it relates to students (face-to-face and
remote), fellow staff, and visitors to the classroom;
(iii) Demonstrate ethical decision-making
with respect to safe and humane treatment of all living organisms in and out of
the classroom, and comply with the legal restrictions and best professional
practices on the collection, care, and use of living organisms as relevant to
their fields of certification; and
(iv) Demonstrate an awareness of safety
implications associated with remote learning. This includes awareness of
personal responsibility for instructing students on safety precautions for
remote learning.
5.
Impact on Student Learning. Effective teachers of
science provide evidence that students have learned and can apply disciplinary
core ideas, crosscutting concepts and science and engineering practices as a
result of instruction. Effective teachers analyze learning gains for individual
students, the class as a whole, and subgroups of students disaggregated by
demographic categories, and use these to inform planning and teaching.
Preservice teachers will:
(i) Design and
implement differentiated and balanced assessments that allow all students to
demonstrate their knowledge and ability to apply, synthesize, evaluate, and
communicate their understanding of disciplinary knowledge, nature of science,
science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts in practical,
authentic, and real-world situations;
(ii) Collect, organize, analyze, evaluate and
reflect on a variety of formative and summative evidence and use those data to
inform future planning and teaching; and
(iii) Analyze science-specific assessment
data based upon student demographics, categorizing the levels of learner
knowledge, and reflect on results for subsequent lesson plans.
6.
Professional
Knowledge and Skills. Effective teachers of science strive to
continuously improve their knowledge of both science content and pedagogy,
including approaches for ensuring fairness and access for all students in
science. Teachers will also possess a deeper understanding of how to apply
science and engineering practices for their discipline. They identify with and
conduct themselves as part of the science education community. Preservice
teachers will:
(i) Engage in critical
reflection on their own science teaching to continually improve their
instructional effectiveness;
(ii)
Participate in professional learning opportunities to deepen their science
content knowledge, and knowledge of science and engineering practices;
and
(iii) Participate in
professional learning opportunities to expand their science-specific
pedagogical knowledge.
7.
Commitment to Three-dimensional Learning. Effective
teachers of 6-12 science and engineering should focus on a limited number of
disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts that are designed so that
students continually build on and revise their knowledge and abilities over
multiple years while supporting the integration of such knowledge and abilities
with the practices needed to engage in scientific inquiry and engineering
design. There are three major dimensions, Scientific and Engineering Practices,
Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts. All three dimensions need
to be integrated into standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
Preservice teachers will:
(i) Emphasize
science and engineering practices in their planning and implementation of
lessons and units for all science students.
(I) Asking questions (for science) and
defining problems (for engineering);
(II) Developing and using models;
(III) Planning and carrying out
investigations;
(IV) Analyzing and
interpreting data;
(V) Using
mathematics and computational thinking;
(VI) Constructing explanations (for science)
and designing solutions (for engineering);
(VII) Engaging in argument from evidence;
and
(VIII) Obtaining, evaluating,
and communicating information.
(ii) Focus deeply on a limited number of
Disciplinary Core Ideas within each major category of science disciplines.
(I) Life Sciences
I. From Molecules to Organisms: Structures
and processes
A. Cell structure and
function
B. Growth and development
of organisms
C. Organization for
matter and energy flow in organisms
D. Information processing
II. Ecosystems: Interactions,
Energy, and Dynamics
A. Interdependent
relationships in ecosystems
B.
Cycles of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems
C. Ecosystem dynamics, functioning, and
resilience
D. Social interactions
and group behavior
III.
Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
A. Inheritance of traits
B. Variation of traits
IV. Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity
A. Evidence of common ancestry and
diversity
B. Natural
selection
C. Adaptation
D. Biodiversity and humans
(II) Chemistry
I. Matter and Its Interaction
A. Structure and properties of
matter
B. Chemical
reactions
C. Nuclear
processes
D. Atomic
bonding
E. Solutions
II. Energy
A. Kinetic molecular theory
B. Conservation of energy and energy
transfer
C. Electromagnetic
radiation
(III)
Earth Space Science
I. Earth's Place in the
Universe
A. The universe and its
stars
B. Earth and the solar
system
C. History of planet
Earth
II. Earth's Systems
A. Earth materials and systems
B. Plate tectonics and large system
interactions
C. The roles of water
in Earth's surface processes
D.
Weather and climate
E.
Bio-geology
III. Earth
and Human Activity
A. Natural
resources
B. Natural
hazards
C. Human impacts on Earth
systems
D. Global climate
change
(IV)
Physics
I. Matter and Its Interactions
A. Nuclear processes
II. Motion and Stability: Forces and
Interactions
A. Forces and motion
B. Types of interactions
C. Stability and instability in physical
systems
III. Energy
A. Work-energy theorem
B. Conservation of energy and energy
transfer
C. Relationship between
energy and forces
D. Energy in
chemical processes and everyday life
IV. Waves and their applications in
technologies for information transfer
A. Wave
properties
B. Electromagnetic and
mechanical waves
C. Information
technologies and instrumentation
(iii) Consistently bear in mind crosscutting
concepts as a means to provide linkages between science disciplines across
multiple grades.
(I) Patterns
(II) Cause and effect: Mechanism and
explanation
(III) Scale,
proportion, and quantity
(IV)
Systems and system models
(V)
Energy and matter: Flows, cycles, and conservation
(VI) Structure and function
(VII) Stability and change
(b)
Single-field Program Requirements. The program shall require a major or
equivalent in one of the science areas listed in paragraph 7(ii). A major or
equivalent is defined as a minimum of twenty-one (21) semester hours of content
coursework that addresses the appropriate content area standards.
(c) Dual-field Program Requirements. The
program shall require a major or equivalent in two of the content areas listed
in paragraph 7 (ii). A major or equivalent is defined as a minimum of
twenty-one (21) semester hours of content coursework that addresses the
appropriate content area standards.
(d) Broad Field Program Requirements. The
program shall require a major or equivalent in one of the science content areas
listed in paragraph 7 (ii) and at least two additional areas of concentration
listed in (ii). A major or equivalent is defined as a minimum of twenty-one
(21) semester hours of content coursework that addresses the appropriate
content area standards. An area of concentration is defined as a minimum of
fifteen (15) semester hours of content coursework that address the appropriate
content area standards listed in 7 (ii).
(e) The program shall prepare candidates who
meet the Secondary (6-12) standards for the teaching of reading as specified in
GaPSC Rule
505-3-.03 FOUNDATIONS OF READING,
LITERACY, AND LANGUAGE (paragraph (3) (e)).
Notes
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