Stimulating Research and Innovation in STEM Teacher Education

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Several recent frameworks and standards groups, including the National Research Council (NRC) and the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (CBMS), have called for a change in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teacher education and professional development, as well as for changes in teacher certification. As we seek to change teacher preparation, we will need to build the research base. The 2010 NRC report Preparing Teachers: Building Evidence for Sound Policy indicates that there is a consensus on the knowledge and skills that STEM teachers need but more research is needed to reach a consensus on what constitutes effective STEM teacher preparation. This project will provide resources, tools, and a community for current and prospective researchers who seek to expand the research base on STEM teacher preparation; and the over 300 teacher education programs that are pursuing evidence-based changes in STEM teacher education. This project will include grantees of the NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program and other STEM preservice education research grantees funded by the NSF and U.S. Department of Education. Internal and external evaluation of the project will examine changes in NSF Noyce teacher education and other programs, including changes in (a) who is doing research about teacher education and (b) innovations in STEM teacher education, including changes in curriculum, courses, student assessment, teaching approaches, teacher field experiences, teacher support and mentoring, teacher induction, teacher leadership development, changes in degree requirements, faculty development, licensure requirements, and changes in collaboration with local education agencies and two-year colleges.The project will include activities directed toward developing 1) a research agenda for best practices in STEM teacher preservice education, and 2) a blueprint for innovation in STEM teacher preservice education. Activities supporting the development of a research agenda to help build effective STEM teacher preservice education and leadership development programs will include identifying what we know from current research and what we want to know. The community-driven process for developing this research agenda will include: (a) assembling and convening a working group of preservice educators, education researchers, staff in key professional societies, and others; (b) commissioning papers; (c) conducting a literature search and producing an annotated online bibliography; (d) surveying teacher preservice programs; (e) producing a preliminary report; (f) hosting a summit with the working group and teacher education program leaders and others; and (g) producing a final report. Activities supporting the development of a blueprint for innovation in STEM teacher preservice education and leadership development programs will include: (a) assembling and convening a cross-disciplinary working group of preservice educators, education researchers, staff from key education and professional societies, and others; (b) collecting and summarizing information on existing undergraduate education core concepts and competencies related to STEM majors and non-majors, including teacher education students; (c) co-hosting six regional meetings to get input from college and university STEM faculty and students, local and state education agencies, and others; (d) developing a preliminary report; (e) hosting two national summits with the working group, teacher education programs, and all key stakeholders; and (f) producing a final report and web-related tool(s).