- Year 2023
- NSF Noyce Award # 2050336
- First Name Corin
- Last Name Slown
- Discipline STEM Education (general)
- Co-PI(s)
Dennis Kombe and Joanne Lieberman, CSUMB; Sara Decelle, Cabrillo College; Mary Rayappan, Hartnell College; Jaye Luke, Monterey Peninsula College
- Presenters
Corin Slown
Need
a) A qualified and adaptive science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) national workforce requires qualified and innovative STEM teachers. b) The Rural Integrated STEM Education Ready (RISE Ready) Program addresses the urgent need for qualified and adaptive STEM teachers. To improve the next generation of STEM students’ achievement and engagement, the RISE Ready Program will recruit, prepare, and support community college and lower division underrepresented minority (URM) STEM students to serve in rural, high need local education agencies as Middle School and High School highly qualified STEM teachers. c) Transforming early experiences of future teachers from the local region will develop qualified STEM educators capable of investing in the next generation of scientists in rural districts and communities. This project targets early teaching and learning experiences for community college and lower division undergraduates.
Research Questions
What critical features (such as onset, duration, and frequency) of early teaching and learning experiences that should be included in the design of STEM teacher preparation?
Approach
a) Transformative Learning (TL) expands students’ perspectives of their relationship with self, others, and community (Mezirow, 1997). Support and assistance for beginning teachers, especially advising and mentoring, have a positive impact on three sets of outcomes: teacher commitment and retention, teacher instructional practices, and student achievement. Opportunities for reflection and metacognition improve learning, and feedback on “21st century” skills promotes a holistic view of the emerging STEM teacher. The Student Transformative Learning Record (STLR) and protocols for reflection and mentoring around high leverage practices in teaching (King and Wimmer, 2020), along with the TSTEM survey (Friday Institute, 2018) provide a mixed methods approach including both quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Outcomes
a) Over 50 students have generated 250 reflections regarding early teaching and learning experiences. Findings include several emerging themes from qualitative coding and inferential as well as descriptive statistics from the TSTEM survey. b) Key deliverables include the first cohort of graduates from the credential program (7 students), the next cohort entering the credential program (8 students). c) We are currently recruiting and selecting the third cohort.
Broader Impacts
a) California enrolled 5.8 million students in K-12 public schools. Over half (54.2%) of those students are Hispanic. Data indicate that in California, only 20% of the teachers are Hispanic and only 35% in total are URM (CDE, 2023). b) We will benefit Hispanic rural California communities by recruiting, preparing, and supporting 30 new math and science minority teachers in their early careers. The majority of school districts in California’s Central Coast region are classified as rural and serve primarily Hispanic and socioeconomically disadvantaged (SED) students. By diversifying the demographics of STEM teachers in Central California, these highly qualified STEM teachers will serve as STEM leaders for over 20,000 K-12 students per year in their communities. With a projected 8.8% growth in STEM jobs between 2018 and 2028 (ICES, 2020), ensuring students have access to quality STEM education in rural communities is critical. c) Continue to collaborate with regional partners around developing pathways to STEM teaching.
