Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA 30144.
Tennessee STEM Education Center, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2022 Dec;21(4):ar63. doi: 10.1187/cbe.21-08-0220.
Teacher content knowledge has been identified as a key prerequisite to effective instruction, and current educational policies require measurement of teacher content knowledge to assess candidacy for licensure. The primary instruments used in the United States are the Praxis Subject Assessment exams, which are designed to measure the subject-specific content knowledge needed to be a teacher. The Praxis Biology Subject Assessment exam, used by 42 U.S. states in the past decade, is the most common national measure used to determine biology content knowledge for teacher certification. Demographic and performance data from examinees ( = 43,798) who took the Praxis Biology Subject Assessment from 2006 to 2015 were compared to present a much-needed picture of who is seeking certification to teach biology, how different groups of aspiring biology teachers have performed, and how demographic makeup of prospective biology teachers compares with reports in previous studies describing the composition of the biology teacher workforce. Results indicate the majority of students self-reported as White (76%), female (66%), having undergraduate grade point averages (GPAs) at or above a 3.0 (76%) and majoring in biology (45%). Additionally, the demographic data were included in a linear regression model to determine the factors that explained the most variance in performance of the examinee. The model revealed substantial differences in average performance and pass rates between examinees of different genders, races, undergraduate majors, undergraduate GPAs, and census regions. This suggests that if the examinee is a White science, technology, engineering, and mathematics major, man with a 3.5 or higher undergraduate GPA, resides in the western United States, or plans to teach in a suburban school, the examinee will on average outperform their counterparts on the exam. From our analyses, we suggest several measures for the improvement of the biology teaching workforce and establish potential issues in the teacher pipeline that may impact the quality and diversity of U.S. biology teachers.
教师的学科内容知识已被确定为有效教学的关键前提条件，目前的教育政策要求衡量教师的学科内容知识，以评估其获得许可的资格。在美国，主要使用 Praxis 学科评估考试来衡量成为教师所需的特定学科的内容知识。过去十年中，美国有 42 个州使用 Praxis 生物学学科评估考试，这是最常见的用于确定生物学教师认证的生物内容知识的国家衡量标准。对 2006 年至 2015 年期间参加 Praxis 生物学学科评估考试的考生（n = 43798）的人口统计学和表现数据进行了比较，以呈现出一幅急需的画面，即谁在寻求生物学教学认证，不同群体的有抱负的生物学教师表现如何，以及未来生物学教师的人口统计学构成与之前描述生物学教师队伍构成的研究报告相比有何不同。结果表明，大多数学生自我报告为白人（76%）、女性（66%），本科平均绩点（GPA）在 3.0 或以上（76%），主修生物学（45%）。此外，人口统计学数据被纳入线性回归模型，以确定解释考生表现差异的主要因素。该模型揭示了不同性别、种族、本科专业、本科 GPA 和普查地区的考生在平均表现和通过率方面存在显著差异。这表明，如果考生是白人的科学、技术、工程和数学专业，男性，本科 GPA 为 3.5 或更高，居住在美国西部，或者计划在郊区学校任教，那么考生在考试中的表现平均会优于他们的同龄人。从我们的分析中，我们提出了一些措施来提高生物学师资队伍，并确定了教师培养管道中可能影响美国生物学教师质量和多样性的潜在问题。
