- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 2150649
- First Name Doug
- Last Name Larkin
- Registration Faculty/Administrator/Other
- Discipline STEM Education (general)
- Role Principal Investigator (PI)
- Presenters
Doug Larkin
Need
This project addresses the continuing shortage of qualified STEM teachers in New Jersey, where 42% of school districts have at least one school that qualifies as high-need. Second, we seek to diversify the population of STEM teachers by recruiting Scholars both from MSU’s diverse undergraduate population as well as through a partnership with Bergen Community College. Third, this project will generate knowledge about how to better facilitate the process of supporting students as they transfer between 2-year and 4-year institutions in NJ. Finally, this project will provide further opportunity to develop sustainable models of support for the induction of STEM teachers in high-need schools by drawing upon the findings of a previous MSU Noyce Track 4 Research grant (NSF #1758282) focused on mentoring and induction to support this effort.
Research Questions
1.) What supports encourage a sense of community among Noyce Scholars and help them develop as burgeoning teachers? 2.) In what ways can we facilitate the transfer process from BCC to MSU, especially for prospective STEM teachers?
Approach
Our project is based on the principles below: 1.) Fieldwork works best when students have the opportunity to process their learning outside the immediate moment, and understand the theoretical and philosophical basis for different actions in the classroom (Darling-Hammond & Oakes, 2019). This permits prospective teachers to work on the two most persistent problems in teacher education as noted by Hammerness et al. (2005): the problem of enactment (knowing what to do but not knowing how to do it) and the problem of complexity (managing the competing demands on teachers’ attention and necessity to act). Each semester of the teacher education sequence includes both coursework and fieldwork, with specific attention paid to applying new knowledge in the field, and using field experiences to leverage teacher candidate learning of key concepts in teacher education. 2.) Facilitating the continued growth in one’s content area is an important task. Attending to well-known principles of human learning (Bransford et al., 1999; National Academies of Sciences, 2018) not only helps novice teachers continue their own learning, but models strategies that are likely to serve them well with their own students. Each Noyce Scholar will earn a Bachelor’s degree in their subject area, and be supported by the program in preparing for the required content knowledge tests for state certification. Further, field placements will support their content learning through the apprenticeship model of the MSU teacher education program. Induction support during the first year of teaching after graduation will help them continue to grow as STEM teachers. 3.) Attention to equity, human diversity, and justice must be a central aspect of mathematics and science teaching if the outcomes are to push back against inequitable education outcomes. There is also increasing recognition that science and mathematics cannot be positioned as neutral, ahistorical, or separate from human systems of social organization and knowledge generation (Bang et al., 2018; Gutstein, 2006; Kimmerer, 2013; Kokka, 2020). The MSU teacher education program is explicitly aligned to issues of equity, diversity, and justice. Further, as an HSI we also attend to equity, diversity, and justice institutionally, and work to make sure that prospective teachers from MSU who may come from historically marginalized backgrounds are supported in navigating barriers to their success (Carver-Thomas, 2018). 4.) A central task in STEM teacher preparation is to scaffold the learning of teacher candidates by providing them with tools and practices for their teaching, as well as a firm understanding of the standards (e.g. NCTM, NGSS) in each field. The MSU teacher education program is explicitly aligned to disciplinary standards, and students will be instructed on how to incorporate these standards into their planning, instruction, and assessment. High-leverage and core practices will be an essential aspect of their third teacher education semester, in the seminar and methods classes.
Outcomes
Goal 1: Recruit 30 high-quality prospective STEM teachers with strong academic backgrounds in STEM disciplines who reflect the demographic diversity of the state. We have recruited 15 prospective STEM teachers. Goal 2: Prepare high-quality science and mathematics teachers for high-need school districts. We have graduated 6 Noyce Scholars, all of whom are or will be working in local high-need schools. Goal 3: Improve the quality and retention of new science and mathematics teachers in high-need school districts. All Noyce Scholars who graduate last year are returning to their schools next year. Goal 4: Create a clear pathway from community college to STEM Teacher Education. We are developing an advising tool to clearly communicate a proposed sequence of courses for STEM majors at BCC. We have also collected data from current transfer students at MSU to determine further supports to develop.
Broader Impacts
The broader impacts of this proposal derive from its stated purpose to recruit, prepare, and retain 30 high-quality STEM teachers for high-need districts. By recruiting a diverse population of teacher candidates, providing a high-quality preparation program, and ensuring that graduates are hired and supported in their initial years of teaching, this project has the potential to positively impact the science and mathematics education of thousands of students in NJ. This proposal broadens participation to underrepresented groups in STEM by preparing teachers who will strengthen the teaching and learning of secondary STEM in schools that serve large numbers of minority students and students of low socioeconomic backgrounds. A direct benefit to society will be the production of well-qualified STEM subject teachers who understand the contexts of high-need schools. Further, one of the products of this grant will be the publications of models that support community college students who are prospective STEM teachers to transfer to a four-year institution and teacher certification program.
