Building Capacity for STEM Teachers with Cultural Responsiveness

在Robert Noyce教师奖学金项目的支持下，该能力建设项目旨在为高质量STEM教学服务。为此，它将建立能力，帮助中学数学教师参与文化响应教学实践。具体来说，该项目将修改佛罗里达大学圣彼得堡分校的STEM教师教育课程，包括文化响应教学的培训。在全国范围内，对6-12年级的数学和科学教师有很大的需求。教师短缺的问题由于需要具有文化反应能力的教师而变得更加严重，文化反应能力是指能够使教师有效地与其他文化相联系，从而更好地满足不同学习者需求的知识和技能。通过提出的课程修改，该项目有望为支持教师的发展奠定基础，这些教师对STEM内容有扎实的了解，并在有效的STEM教学技术方面拥有良好的技能。该项目是佛罗里达大学圣彼得堡分校和皮内拉斯县学校之间的合作项目，皮内拉斯县学校是佛罗里达州第七大学区，也是美国第26大学区。皮内拉斯县近一半的学生来自代表性不足的少数群体，超过一半的学生获得免费或减少的午餐。因此，皮内拉斯县学校的文化响应教学实践是至关重要的。代表性不足的少数民族学生和社会经济地位较低的学生在数学和科学方面也明显不那么成功，这一事实进一步强调了这一需求。为了满足这一需求，该项目合作伙伴关系将促进文化响应教学计划的发展，并检查该计划是否培养出能够在高需求学校任教的教师，以及谁将在他们的教学生涯中取得成功并坚持下去。由于许多其他美国学区的学生群体不同，该项目有可能改善许多其他教师培训项目。因此，该项目的目标是开发一种可以在其他地方复制的结构，以确保其他STEM教育项目可以提供有效的教师准备，包括文化响应性。Noyce计划支持有才华的STEM本科专业和专业人士成为高需求学区有效的K-12 STEM教师，并支持经验丰富的模范K-12 STEM教师成为STEM大师教师。它还支持对高需求学区K-12 STEM教师的持久性、留任性和有效性的研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, this Capacity Building project aims to serve the national interest in high-quality STEM teaching. It will do so by building the capacity to help secondary mathematics teachers engage in culturally responsive teaching practices. Specifically, this project will modify the STEM teacher education curriculum at the University of Florida St. Petersburg to include training in culturally responsive teaching. Nationally, there is a significant need for grades 6-12 mathematics and science teachers. This teacher shortage is compounded by the need for teachers who are culturally responsive, which is the knowledge and skills that enable one to relate effectively to other cultures and, thus, to better meet the needs of diverse learners. By making the proposed curriculum modifications, this project is expected to lay the foundation to support the development of teachers who have robust knowledge of STEM content and well-developed skills in effective STEM instructional techniques. This project is a partnership between the University of Florida St. Petersburg and Pinellas County Schools, the 7th largest school district in Florida and the 26th largest in the US. Nearly half of the Pinellas County students are from an underrepresented minority group and just over half receive free or reduced lunches. Consequently, the need for culturally responsive teaching practices in Pinellas County Schools is critical. This need is further underscored by the fact that underrepresented minority students and students of lower socio-economic status are also significantly less successful in mathematics and science. To address this need, the project partnership will facilitate the development of a culturally responsive teaching program and examine whether the program produces teachers who are well prepared to teach in high need schools, and who will be successful and persist in their teaching career. Because many other US school districts have diverse student populations, this project has the potential to improve many other teacher preparation programs. Thus, a goal of this project is to develop a structure that can be replicated elsewhere to ensure that other STEM education programs can provide effective teacher preparation that includes cultural responsiveness. 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.