UTeach is leading teacher-prep program

KXAN (Austin) - President Barack Obama announced the expansion of his "Educate to Innovate" campaign in January 2009.

"Our future depends on reaffirming America's role as the world's engine of scientific discovery and technological innovation, and that leadership tomorrow depends on how we educate our students today, especially in math, science, technology and engineering," Obama said.

As a collaboration between the University of Texas’ College of Natural Sciences and Education, UTeach is one of the country’s leading math and science teacher-preparation programs, enabling students to earn a separate math or science degree while also getting their teaching certificate.

Obama recognized this specific program for its innovative approach in July 2009.

“It's a tremendous honor [to hear President Obama speak about the UTeach program],” program director, Michael Marder said. “Many people have worked very hard for the success of UTeach and it is gratifying to receive appreciative words from the highest levels.”

UTeach students develop their skills by teaching in local classrooms three times per semester during the first three years of the program.

“I had a difficult student who was never motivated because he would always get frustrated in understanding the concepts,” said William Kiker, UTeach math major. “One day the student was really frustrated, so I took him out into the hall and asked him what was going on. He said that it was too much to handle and that he couldn’t focus. I told him to never give up, keep trying, and keep asking questions.”

Kiker paused -- his smile, almost audible.

“The next time I came in, he was the most attentive student in class.,” said Kiker. “He was asking questions and participating. It was really cool to see that I had an impact.”

Andrew Perrone, a physics major who is currently enrolled in UTeach, has trouble deciding on the most gratifying moment he has experienced so far as a physics teacher.

“It’s hard to pick a single moment,” said Perrone. “What affected me the most is the time that I spent in a physics classroom last semester. I was able to observe the students … and it made me want to step in basically and try to inspire, and energize, and excite the students.”

Kiker believes he has also benefited from UTeach’s unique collaboration between the Colleges of Natural Science and Education.

“Sometimes I’ll make connections or pick up ideas from my own math teachers,” he said. “I wouldn’t be thinking of all those things if I wasn’t in the teacher certification program at the same time.”

Since the program’s inception at UT in 1997, 19 different universities have duplicated the UTeach program, with 13 of them starting their programs during the 2008–09 academic year, according to the university’s Web site.

“We have carefully studied the ingredients of our success, and created a way for other universities to replicate it,” Marder said.

UTeach associate director Dimple Malik Flesner said that the impressive statistics coming out of UT’s program led to the University of Florida to duplicate it.

“Essentially, we wanted to graduate more qualified math and science teachers and improve education for our own children in Florida,” Flesner said.

According to the program’s Web site, over 500 students are currently enrolled in UTeach. Between 60 and 80 new science and mathematics students graduate from this program every year. Of these graduates, 92 percent become teachers and after five years, 82 percent of these teachers are still in the classroom.

“We spend most of our time on strategies and theories of learning to really engage and motivate and facilitate understanding in all of our students,” Perrone said. “We want students not just to sit there passively and memorize, we want them to be engaged learners that form questions and seek out answers to those questions, with our guidance now and in the future, without guidance,”

UTeach senior Kristi Hardy also believes that the master teachers in the College of Education are great role models for aspiring teachers.

“Those teachers are a huge part of UTeach,” Hardy said. “They all are very knowledgeable about the content they’re teaching and they’re really caring and kind and want us to get the best experience possible.”

Currently, Texas contends with an alarming shortage of qualified secondary math and science teachers, according to a 2009 UT College of Education study. It said schools with high numbers of poor and low-achieving students have the least qualified math and science teachers, and a near majority of prospective math and science teachers do not reveal strong content knowledge their fields.

UTeach student Lauryn Atwood said the nominal teacher salary is a potential reason for this shortage.

“I think being a science or a math teacher is not appealing to a lot of people because you don’t get paid very much, and so really the people who want to be math and science teachers have to really have [their] heart in it,” Atwood said.

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