The challenges of working with middle school teachers*

There are multiple challenges in working with middle school teachers. Content knowledge is problematic. Basically, middle school teachers should have a master's in geology, biology, physics, and chemistry---and be able to work effectively with adolescents! Obviously, this is far from reality. Colleges of education fail to prepare teachers for the reality of the administrative-driven classroom. Inquiry is lectured about but not practiced. The granting agencies want quantitative data, but how does one provide these data? The talk will discuss these issues and some possible solutions we developed.