- Year 2018
- NSF Noyce Award # 1660781
- First Name Tara
- Last Name O'Neill
- Discipline Other: STEM, STEM
- Co-PI(s)
Kirsten Mawyer, University of Hawaii Manoa, kmawyer@hawaii.edu
- Presenters
Kirsten Mawyer, University of Hawaii Manoa, kmawyer@hawaii.edu
Need
(A)The state of Hawaii is experiencing a major K-12 teacher shortage and is in dire need of teachers licensed to teach secondary STEM content areas. Currently, undergraduate students who major in STEM fields encounter numerous obstacles in seeking licensure including:Current undergraduate education degree pathways require students to drop their STEM major in order to switch to an education major. This discourages students who are passionate about their STEM field from pursuing a becoming a teacher. The College of Education at University of Hawaii Monoa (UHM), in conjunction with faculty across colleges in the UH System and with outside experts, will work collaboratively to create pathways for undergraduates majoring across STEM fields (in mathematics, science, and engineering) to pursue a double major with secondary education. (B) The goal of this cross-college initiative is to increase the number of licensed, highly effective secondary STEM educators in the state of Hawaii.
Goals
(A) The goal of this cross-college initiative is to increase the number of licensed, highly effective secondary STEM educators in the state of Hawaii. (B) The goal of our Noyce capacity grant is overcome these obstacles by leveraging underutilized infrastructure to: (1) Design course sequences allowing STEM and education double majors; (2) Design new courses to introduce teaching to students early in their college careers thus enabling them to concurrently complete STEM degrees and College of Education coursework; and (3) Develop recruitment plans involving awareness-raising, advising, scholarships, and articulation agreements with UH system community colleges.
Approach
(C) We established an 12 person advisory committee members consisting of University of M?noa faculty across colleges in the UH System and with outside experts. The members of the advisory committee met eight times over the 2017-2018 school year. (A) As a group we looked at existing programs to identify pathways to undergraduate BS and BA degrees, degree requirements, and coursework in various STEM disciplines. We examined existing Teacher Education Council (TEC) program sheets that outline STEM major requirements for secondary science BEd degrees. In the spring we worked with a consultant from the UC Boulder LA Program to explore strategies for designing an integrated double major. In the final meetings the committee used findings from fall meetings to develop an action plan of the work that needs to be done and a timeline for developing a Noyce Track 1 grant proposal.
Outcomes
(A) As a result of assembling the advisory committee we were able to establish meaningful relationships, across the UHM system, that will serve as the foundation for future development of pathways for undergraduates majoring across STEM fields to pursue a double major with secondary education. (B) We laid the groundwork to work with the Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics Departments in the next phase of developing double major pathways. Also, we identified an opportunity to collaborate with these departments in partnership with the UC Boulder to develop the LA program. This partnership can serve as an introduction to teaching for these students and lead to an increase in undergraduates pursuing a double major with secondary education. We drafted a memorandum of agreement for an AA stem education degree and revised TEC program sheets. (C) Our next step is to use findings from this capacity grant to writing Noyce Track 1 grant proposal.
Broader Impacts
(A) Immediate positive impacts of the work completed this year by the advisory committee have been community building and collaboration across colleges at UHM. Historically, there has been little communication between STEM departments or colleges and the College of Education. This long standing absence of institutional supports and pathways for concurrent degrees is particularly striking given the fact that the university trains the greatest number of teachers in the state. (B) The collaborations and partnerships we’ve established have the potential long-term impacts upon education in Hawai?i are significant, including the possibility of increasing the licensure of new STEM teachers by 25%. (C) Members of the advisory committee shared a report of the findings from the capacity grant with their respective colleges, programs and organizations.
