How Elementary Teachers Learned to Use, and Their Resultant Satisfaction With, Their Science Curricula.

To determine methods by which elementary science teachers learn to use instructional materials, the University of South Dakota, as part of the National Science Foundation-sponsored project TAPE (Tactics for Applying Programs in Education), mailed a questionnaire to a randomly selected group of elementary science teachers in South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Data collected in the survey indicated most elementary science teachers learn about their science instructional materials as they use them. Teachers using NSF-financed elementary science curricula are more active in learning how to use their curricula than are the teachers in the non-NSF programs, frequently learning to use their curricula through college courses, workshops, independent study or textbook representatives. Also, while most elementary science teachers report satisfaction with the curriculum they are using, those teachers using NSF curricula express a significantly higher degree of satisfaction than those teachers using non-NSF curricula. (Author/CS)