Over the past years,
reform in science education has become a
subject of much importance. The
National Research Council states in
their piece Inquiry and the National Science
Education Standards “For students
to understand inquiry and learn to use it
in science, their teachers need to be well-versed
in inquiry and inquiry-based methods”
(NRC, 2000, p.87). In other words, teachers
need to not only experience the steps of
inquiry, but to also develop a concurrent
understanding of the steps and how they
can be taught.
One of the most notable means of addressing
these two needs has been the National Science
Foundation’s Research Experience for
Teachers (RET) programs. While there are
many RET programs currently serving teachers,
there is a small amount of research that
looks into the effectiveness of these programs
with regards to the following: teacher knowledge,
teaching practices, and student learning
after the teacher has completed an RET experience.
This website will be used to support research
into RET programs. It is designed to support
long term, systematic research into Research
Experience for Teachers programs. It is
our hope that the resources that are found
on this site will help researchers both
at FSU and abroad to design engage in quality analyses
of the effects of RET’s on both teachers
and their classrooms.
