- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 1851631
- First Name Mohammad
- Last Name Uddin
- Registration Faculty/Administrator/Other
- Discipline Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics
- Role Co-PI
- Presenters
Mohammad Moin Uddin, East Tennessee State University
Need
There is a critical shortage of STEM teachers in high-need fields, especially in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, in the southern Appalachian region. This Noyce Track 1 Teacher Recruiting program at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) was designed to alleviate this need and is currently in its third year. The program has three parts: 1) a summer teaching internship program for undergraduate STEM majors designed to recruit students into the teaching profession, 2) scholarships and mentoring for a Masters of Arts in Teaching program, and 3) a mentoring program and continuing professional development for newly minted teachers to retain them as teachers.
Research Questions
Does participation in a classroom management workshop before a teaching internship and mentoring by experienced teachers reduce anxiety among STEM majors about their ability to manage a classroom?
Approach
We use reflection essays written by the interns, interviews, and a survey developed by the American Physical Society (Marder et al. 2017) to investigate how intern attitude towards teaching changes over the internship.
Outcomes
With training and mentoring by experienced teachers, interns gain confidence in their classroom management skills and their effectiveness as teachers. The interns also gain an appreciation of the rewards of teaching. Afterwards, Interns are more likely to consider a career in teaching (Uddin et al. 2022, see video). https://youtu.be/u-tTkP5c4f4Uddin, M., Smith, B., and Kirkby, C. (2022). “East Tennessee Noyce STEM Teacher Preparation Program”, American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN, June 26-29.
Broader Impacts
The proposed program will help address the critical shortage of STEM educators in high-need fields in the southern Appalachian region and will create a group of teachers who are able to inspire future generations of teachers and scientists. The recruitment, training, and retention strategies outlined in this proposal will build a strong network and develop partnerships which will support the long-term goal ofsending more highly-qualified STEM teachers into high-need schools. Regular presentations on the Noyce program to the STEM Teacher Recruitment Advisory Board will build support for the program, which will help in maintaining the components of the program after the Noyce grant has ended. The results of this program will be disseminated via publications and conference presentations.
