- Year 2018
- NSF Noyce Award # 1557387
- First Name Helen
- Last Name Meyer
- Discipline Other: Education
- Presenters
Helen Meyer
, University of Cincinnati
, helen.meyer@uc.edu
Need
This project is a partnership the multiple stakeholders serving students and teachers in a high needs urban school district. The project focuses on building a high quality STEM teaching force that does not stop at after a new teachers first years of teaching, rather it considers what are the next steps for teachers from the beginning of their pre-service education through becoming adjunct university educators. This project fills a gap in the teacher education literature by exploring how to retain and continue to develop STEM teachers with 10, 20 or more years of classroom teaching experience.
Goals
We recruited 18 highly experience masters STEM teachers from one urban school district to transform the teacher education and development system. The key activities of the program include:
1. Preparing STEM teachers to be certified to teach their AP or College Credit STEM courses in their schools.
2. Transform the University based STEM methods and clinical experiences to prepare new teachers for high needs, urban schools.
3. To develop materials and resources to prepare mid-career teachers to be effective mentors for new STEM teachers.
Approach
We are using a participatory action research approach for the program development aspects. This includes our expert teachers working in teams with university faculty and district leaders to research, design, implement, evaluation and refine program materials.
Outcomes
At this point in our project we have formed work teams. Within the work teams we have conducted research to understand what is currently available and conducted a needs assessment of the current system. We are constructing a common framework across the different work groups to support the curriculum and resource design.
Broader Impacts
This project can change the relationships between university teacher preparation programs and local school districts, by gathering and using the knowledge within the system to better prepare and develop STEM teachers over an entire teaching career.
