In September 2011, the National Science Foundation funded a $3 million, five-year study at WWU, called Model of Research-based Education (MORE) for Teachers.  The purpose of the study was to examine how WWU prepares elementary teachers to teach science.  NSF’s DRK-12 program funds research projects around the country to “study the development, testing, deployment, effectiveness, and/or scale-up of innovative resources, models and tools”.  WWU’s innovative model to prepare elementary teachers to teach science includes course-work grounded in current research in education and cognitive psychology about how people learn, as well as a year-long internship.     

MORE’s research helped WWU better understand the impacts of its elementary science teacher preparation program on important beliefs, knowledge, skills, and instructional practices. MORE’s research included four studies that isolated different components of the elementary science education program at WWU, and represented the continuum for preservice teachers, from their initial science content courses through their first few years of teaching.  The four overlapping studies examined the following:

1) Impacts of the new science content sequence for elementary PSTs,
2) Effects of mentorship during the science practicum,
3) Impacts of the research-based science methods and practicum sequence, and
4) Science instruction of recent graduates from WWU’s elementary education program.

For more information explore the following documents or contact:

MORE-NSF Outcomes Report Jan 2019.pdf

MORE article.pdf

Mathew Miller, Co-Principal Investigator, email:  Mathew.Miller@wwu.edu
Dan Hanley, Co-Principal Investigator and Project Director, email: Daniel.Hanley@wwu.edu