Narrative to Teacher Hierarchy of Needs
Erin E. Peters
The current research on developing ways to teach the nature of science in the classroom mainly focuses on the cognitive frameworks of pre-service teachers and how their ideas are enacted in classroom instruction. Much of this research shows that pre-service teachers do not have sophisticated cognitive frameworks. Perhaps this group of teachers has more urgent needs to be fulfilled before they can concentrate on higher level construction of knowledge by their students. I would like to focus my research on in-service teachers that have 5 or more years of experience because teachers new to the classroom must focus their efforts on concerns other than student understanding of process and content. The above pyramid is based on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, but it focuses on teacher classroom needs rather than psychological needs. I have based the ideas on this pyramid on my 14 years of experience as a classroom teacher and on other teacher’s experiences from my work as a cooperating teacher and as a mentor. As the focus of my research will be on the highest points of the pyramid, I need to find participants for my research who have fulfilled the lower needs on the hierarchy.