Preconceptions & Common Goals. Unique to teacher education is the tension infused by our students’ preconceptions of what it means to be a teacher. Many dismiss education courses as meaningless or of limited value, resulting in an infertile environment for scholarly excellence. Decades of research on preservice teachers’ views of teaching inform me that the majority of my students, in addition to undervaluing teacher education courses in general, may be enrolled in my elementary science methods course because they do not like science or are science phobic. Yet, despite our different perceptions of the value of science and education courses, my students and I share a common goal—success—success for our students and success for ourselves. I am learning to use this common ground as a tool to enhance the intellectual engagement and academic quality of my classes. Through observation and personal reflection I am learning how to remove roadblocks, create cognitive dissidence, and promote discourse in order to engage students intellectually.

Teaching & Teachers.  I see teaching as a complex, amorphous activity that requires an intrinsic understanding of the teaching-learning process, a dash of intuitive imagination, and a determination to master the art. I believe that teachers should make informed instructional and curricular decisions based on an understanding of their students and the science of teaching and learning. This, in turn, requires that those who aspire to be master teachers must be reflective practitioners and researchers of their own teaching. I believe that by studying ones teaching, reflective practitioners learn how to blend teaching-learning strategies with an understanding of their students, their teaching style, and subject area content in a synergistic process similar to that used by a master chef to blend flour, salt, water, and yeast to create bread. In both instances, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and only those who invest the time and energy to study their art become masters.

Making Connections.  Throughout this portfolio, I try to blend together the myriad parts of teaching and learning, to show the strong bond between my interest in mathematics and science education and the scholarship of teaching and learning. By focusing on the connectedness of the parts, I hope to leave you with a sense of the journey I have undertaken these last few years. It has been a meaningful and transformative voyage, and I invite you to join me on this joyful, yet sometimes arduous, odyssey. And just as flour and yeast are not bread, this portfolio is only a collection of teaching “ingredients” that represent the love, frustration, and care I put into my teaching and teaching research. For a more complete, but still incomplete, representation of the wholistic learning experience that is E328, you are invited to visit my class website at www.indiana.edu/~e328long/.