UMass Lowell Graduate to be Honored for Research

12/15/2020

Contacts for media: Christine Gillette, 978-758-4664 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu and Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu

LOWELL, Mass. – A UMass Lowell graduate who studied how prepared elementary-school teachers are to provide science instruction is being honored for her research by a professional organization dedicated to improving education.

Karin Loach, an eighth-grade science teacher in Auburn, will be presented with the Best Graduate Paper Award for 2020 from the Eastern Educational Research Association at its virtual conference in February. The organization of education practitioners shares best approaches to improve formal and informal education at all levels.

An Oxford resident, Loach completed the study as part of her work toward her doctoral degree in education at UMass Lowell, which she received in May. With her second degree from the university, she became a “double River Hawk,” having earned a UMass Lowell master’s degree in curriculum and instruction for science education in 2011.

“I was surprised and honored when I heard about winning this award. I am grateful to the UMass Lowell professors, particularly my dissertation committee, for their kind guidance throughout my doctoral journey,” Loach said. That group included College of Education faculty members Eliza Bobek and Iman Chahine.

Loach’s dissertation examined how prepared elementary-school teachers thought they were to teach science to students who would soon be moving on to middle school. She struck upon the idea for the research after Massachusetts updated its K-12 curriculum for science in 2016. After it did so, she began hearing about some teachers who felt unprepared to teach the updated material. That led her to wonder about how well incoming middle-school students understood basic scientific concepts and methods.

In her research, Loach studied third-, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers to learn how confident they were in teaching science and achieving the state’s student learning goals.

“Elementary-school teachers would say they weren’t comfortable teaching science and then students would come to the middle school, and I wondered if they were prepared, because there are so many different science education models at the elementary-school level,” Loach said. “I wanted to know what was going on and if the teachers’ confidence and effectiveness in science education could be improved.”

Previous research has shown that teachers’ confidence in their effectiveness correlates to student learning.

Loach’s results found that most of the teachers she studied lacked confidence in their ability to teach science but that being part of a teaching team improved their self-assurance slightly. Only two of the teachers in her study had ever taken a professional development course in science education.

Loach would like that to change; she’d also like teachers to receive more hands-on experience in the kinds of experiments and lessons they will conduct with their students, she said.

Loach’s work has taken on even more urgency amid the COVID-19 pandemic. So far this year, Auburn Middle School students have been taught via a hybrid model of online and in-person classes, she said. She has conducted many experiments and demonstrations for class remotely, but she worries about how primary and middle-school science teachers are managing. If there are no hands-on educational activities taking place, that could hurt students, she said

Loach’s time as a UMass Lowell student taught her new ways to approach science education that she can use in her classroom, she said. Now that she has her doctorate, she plans to remain a middle-school science teacher but is also looking to teach part time at the college level. She is also considering the possibility of working as a curriculum specialist so that she can improve STEM education within a school or school district.

UMass Lowell is a national research university offering its more than 18,000 students bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, humanities, sciences and social sciences. UMass Lowell delivers high-quality educational programs and personal attention from leading faculty and staff, all of which prepare graduates to be leaders in their communities and around the globe. www.uml.edu