- Year 2022
- NSF Noyce Award # 1758507
- First Name Ann
- Last Name Cavallo
- Discipline Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Geosciences, Mathematics, Physics
- Co-PI(s)
Greg Hale, Ramon Lopez, James Alvarez, Carter Tiernan
Need
The collaborative team at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) has managed and conducted research and evaluation on the impacts of four Robert Noyce Scholarship programs. In the poster we will share successes, challenges, and lessons learned on recruiting, preparing, inducting, and continually supporting Noyce Scholars in our urban, high-need school districts. The results of our work will inform the Noyce community and exchange effective practices for maintaining a successful Noyce program.
Goals
1.What are the critical elements to support the successful implementation of the Noyce program?2.With critical elements in place, what have been the outcomes in recruiting, preparing, inducting, and supporting Noyce Scholars in high-need urban school districts?3.What challenges emerged during implementation of the Noyce Scholarship program and how were challenges overcome?4.What successful practices were implemented and maintained through Noyce Scholarship program, and how have they impacted STEM education?5.What future work and research is needed to inform the field of STEM education and provide continued support for our teachers?
Approach
This poster will present our recruitment, preparation, induction, and continued support strategies for the Robert Noyce Scholarship program at UTA. We will discuss successes and challenges, and present results of our evaluation and research programs. Methods for collecting data include maintaining a database on Scholars that tracks demographic information, such as year of graduation/program completion, STEM subject area, GPA upon graduation, along with the schools, districts, and high-need data where Scholars are teaching. In our research program we administer surveys and gather open-ended information from our Noyce Scholars and possible shifts on math and science teaching self-efficacy, primary teaching practices as inquiry based versus didactic, and views of the nature of science and mathematics at three points in time: pre-program, mid-program (at graduation), and post-program (after teaching at least 1 year). Our team also collects program evaluation data from Scholars, and school-based Mentor Teacher evaluations of the Noyce Scholars in their first years of teaching. Results of our work to date will be presented, as well as implications to Noyce Scholarship programs and the STEM education community.
Outcomes
The findings from our work on the Robert Noyce program embedded in our STEM teacher education program demonstrated a 3-5-fold increase in recruitment through graduation of STEM teachers. In addition, our collaborative team and lessons learned have helped us build a successful induction program as reported by Scholars and school-based Mentor Teachers, with an over 85% retention rate of Scholars in high need school districts. Our research program measuring self-efficacy toward teaching, primary teaching procedures (as inquiry versus didactic), and views of the nature of science and math as being evidence-based and using reasoning and problem solving rather than opinion, shows increases from pre-program to mid-program (upon graduation); and moderate decreases from graduation to classroom teaching. Our team is in the process of exploring and examining the shifts in these variables, especially after classroom teaching, and will present our approaches. The information we gain from sharing our work will help guide our continued research. Additionally, findings to date shared with other Noyce leaders will provide insights and support for new and ongoing Noyce programs who may potentially replicate successful aspects of our work.
Broader Impacts
Broader impacts of our project are the nearly 200 Noyce Scholars who have graduated and are teaching in high need schools positively impacting the STEM education of tens of thousands of economically disadvantaged students each year. Findings from our research on teacher recruitment, preparation, induction, and the ongoing support we provide will be shared with other programs to inform their practices. Research and evaluation results on self-efficacy, teaching practices, and views of science and mathematics provides insight into some key positive outcomes of STEM teacher education programs, and how these outcomes may be impacted upon classroom teaching. The presentation will address possible explanations and present directions for continued and future research on the connections and/or possible gaps between teacher education programs and classroom teaching.
