- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 2140288
- First Name Matt
- Last Name Beekman
- Registration Faculty/Administrator/Other
- Discipline Chemistry, Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Geosciences, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, STEM Education (general)
- Role Co-PI
- Presenters
Lesley Anderson (Teacher Research Consultants, LLC), Matt Beekman (California Polytechnic State University), Sanlyn Buxner (University of Arizona), Emily Dilger (Ignited), Catherine Good (Baruch College), Larry Horvath (San Francisco State University), Nancy Stauch (California Polytechnic State University), Meghan Strazicich (Ignited), Stamatis Vokos (California Polytechnic State University), Kaylene Wakeman (California Polytechnic State University)
Need
This project is piloting a new model for a community of practice, which will serve as a regional network for Noyce and non-Noyce science teachers, with the long-term goal to positively impact retention of teachers in high-need school districts. Moreover, our past research (Bakerman, et al., 2020) found that while teacher participation in the STEM Teacher and Researcher (STAR) Program was effective in promoting productive mindsets (e.g., more hardy growth and belonging mindsets), the belonging mindsets waned over time. Thus, developing a community to help sustain these mindsets after fellows leave STAR and enter the teaching profession is crucial.
Research Questions
Math Teacher Circles (MTC) brings together teachers and professional mathematicians in a workshop setting to collaboratively investigate non-routine, mathematically rich content, doing mathematics as mathematicians do. Research suggests that MTCs foster hardy growth and belonging mindsets, reinforce identities as mathematicians, and shift beliefs about the nature of math as a domain (Donaldson et al., 2014, in preparation; Milless, Godbole, Donaldson, & Good, 2020; Silverstein, 2014; White & Donaldson, 2011). For example, participants came to see math as researchers do (as a creative process of discovering relationships and patterns) rather than the way traditional school-based math is taught (as a series of steps and rules to follow to arrive at a solution). Importantly, participation in MTCs affected teachers’ pedagogical practices (such as normalizing mistake-making in math and implementing learning goals rather than performance goals in the classroom) (Milless, et al., 2020). We hypothesize that participation in the Constellations pilot will lead to similar benefits as found for participation in Math Teacher Circles (MTC). Research subjects will include STAR participants, STAR and Ignited alums, and Noyce scholars who will either be invited to participate in Constellations (n ≈ 18) or will proceed with their regular teaching with no involvement in Constellations (n ≈ 18). We aim to measure the impact of participation in Constellations on growth mindset about science intelligence, sense of belonging to science, identification with science, disciplinary nature of science, and endorsement of pedagogical practice such as normalizing mistake-making in science and implementing learning goals rather than performance goals in the classroom. Because we predict that Constellations has the potential to attenuate teacher burnout, we will include measures of teaching efficacy, burnout, and intentions to remain in the teaching profession.Because this is a pilot project, we are limited to a small sample size, and thus, the analysis in this stage of the work is exploratory in nature with the aim to inform program design for a larger expansion of Constellations in the future.
Approach
As described above, we predict that offering a program similar to MTC but for science teacher-researchers can lead to similar benefits as observed for MTC participants, both for mindsets, identities as scientists, disciplinary conceptions of science, and classroom pedagogy, and may increase the retention of high-quality K-12 STEM teachers.In our initial pilot of Constellations, we are recruiting at least 12 science teachers from the pools of current Ignited or STEM Teacher and Researcher (STAR) participants, STAR or Ignited alums from their long history and extensive networks, and Noyce scholars, currently teaching in high needs districts. A portion of the pilot cohort is engaging in a co-planned three-day summer retreat to co-design the details of the academic year support, which is planned as 6 once-per-month face-to-face all-day meetings supplemented with virtual video check-ins. The design principles include:- A focus on factors impacting retention that teachers can control- Honoring teachers’ professional time- Investing time to contribute to real world science via “community science”- Learning together in transdisciplinary settings- Personalized coaching for the different disciplines of science – Centering diversity- Encouraging Constellation participants’ initiatives by funding evidence-based mini-grants – Planning for regional scalability, including recruiting a small number of preservice elementary teachers from STAR expansion partner sites, e.g., Southern U., to conduct teacher research in STAR.
Outcomes
This project is expected to support teacher retention, increase teacher effectiveness, and improve STEM teacher satisfaction.
Broader Impacts
We expect that the pilot has the potential to be scaled up using a multi-spoke propagation model, whereby individual teacher leaders (e.g., STAR, Ignited, and Noyce alumni) from geographically dispersed locations are brought together in-person for Constellation work, and then return to their local communities to act as nucleation agents, initiating and facilitating new Constellations. Local control of professional development activities, based on local needs and contextually-relevant resources, co-designed by passionate participants, yet facilitated from central hubs such as STAR and Ignited, has the potential to make significant inroads in the retention of high-quality teachers in high needs settings. There is also the goal to expand Constellations to include relevant disciplines in STEM.
