"What we're doing is almost invisible to the next generation of teachers, although past graduates note the positive changes," Scharmann said.
Over the past seven years, the secondary education program has undergone comprehensive changes with instruction, scheduling and the student teaching process. Classes were shifted and modified to include more classroom time earlier in a student's college curriculum.
"Students are given in-classroom experience early and often to assist them in making better career decisions," Scharmann said.
He compared the changes in secondary education to the internship experience offered to medical students. Previously, secondary education majors did not interact in a classroom setting until their final semester of the program. Scharmann called this system inadequate. Now, K-State students have the chance to gain real-time classroom experience with secondary students as early as their sophomore year of college.
The changes were possible due to a strong partnership between K-State faculty and secondary education teachers in local school districts. Familiarity with the classroom setting enables student teachers to make substantive contributions from the outset of their student teaching, Scharmann said.
"Professional development occurs on both levels – that's been a key piece to this program's success. The other key piece, with the assistance of the provost's office, became the tendency to recognize and reward different types of scholarship. Previously, academic research was the primary type of scholarship. By expanding a view of research, the scholarship of teaching is rewarded as well," Scharmann said.
Scharmann said he knew the model worked well when teachers from area schools wanted more K-State student teachers than the program could accommodate.
A complete integration of campus-based instruction and real classroom experience does not occur very easily with secondary education programs, Scharmann said. Most area elementary schools have a strong professional development relationship with K-State, but for a true partnership between secondary schools and universities to take place, there must be greater coordination between individual subject areas of the secondary schools and their university counterparts.
"A true partnership says, 'what can we do to help each other?' We have begun a true partnership here," Scharmann said.
One of the main benefits of the changes to secondary education has been that student teachers are no longer viewed as students in secondary classrooms.
"They're seen more as actual teachers now," Scharmann said.
Student input also has helped improve the program.
"We have incorporated student suggestions," Scharmann said. "Our students are constantly pushing the bar for the program."
The changes to K-State's secondary education program, primarily science secondary education, are detailed in the paper, "Science Education at KSU: A Dynamic Professional Development School Partnership." Scharmann authored the paper with Tish Simpson, a science teacher at Manhattan High School; Drusilla Clarke, department of secondary education at K-State and retired science teacher at Manhattan High School; and Gail Shroyer, coordinator of professional development schools in the College of Education at K-State. The paper was presented at the 2003 annual meeting of the Association for the Education of Teachers of Science, Jan. 30-Feb.1 in St. Louis, Mo.