Texas Leadership Initiative for Inquiry Science Teaching

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With support from the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce), this Track 3: Master Teaching Fellowships project at Rice University aims to serve the national need of developing science teacher leaders, especially in high-need schools. The project will support a five-year professional development program for elementary and secondary science teachers with master's degrees who are teaching in high-need schools in the Greater Houston area. The professional development activities will be designed and carried out through collaborations between education faculty from the University of Houston and Houston Community College, the Science Teachers Association of Texas, and Houston Independent School District. These partners will work cooperatively to provide mentoring and other experiences that will develop the teachers' leadership abilities and increase their scientific knowledge, as well as deepen their understanding of and skills in inquiry learning and culturally relevant pedagogy. As part of their professional development, the Master Teacher Fellows will design and implement an action research project that addresses a need at their school, thus enabling them to engage in education research. The project seeks to enhance teacher self-efficacy, improve teacher retention in high-need schools, and increase student engagement and achievement. To these ends, the project will create a cadre of Master Teaching Fellows who can support student success in STEM by mentoring their peers, modeling effective teaching practices, and conducting action research. It is expected that these teacher leaders will also contribute to state-wide changes in science teaching leadership. To support these outcomes, the project will engage the Fellows in interdisciplinary inquiry experiences, and provide coaching and mentoring. Groups that will be positively affected by the project include peer teachers in the Houston Independent School District, pre-service teachers enrolled at Houston Community College, and teachers across Texas involved in Science Teachers Association of Texas. Plans to disseminate project materials and results include implementing lessons in classrooms, sharing lessons with peer teachers, mentoring pre-service teachers, and presenting at local and statewide events of the Science Teachers Association of Texas. This project will bring together an exemplary team of teachers who will develop interdisciplinary curricula with societal relevance and contribute to a better understanding of teacher leadership development. The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts and experienced, exemplary K-12 STEM teachers to become STEM master teachers. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.