Enabling Future Teachers to Experience Science Investigation and Engineering Design in Introductory Undergraduate STEM Classrooms

该项目旨在通过改善未来小学教师的本科STEM学习体验来服务于国家利益。未来的教师如何学习科学对他们如何教授科学有着至关重要的影响。按照《科学与工程》(NASEM，2018年)6-12年级的建议，“本科…经验需要作为未来教师的榜样，让他们作为学习者体验科学调查和工程设计。这些经验必须在本科生STEM入门课程中获得，因为这些课程可能是未来小学教师学习科学概念和方法的唯一课程。教授这些课程的STEM教员可能不会明确认同他们作为“教师教育者”的角色，而且往往没有准备好如何更好地履行这一角色。这个项目的重点是这些机构的教职员工，这些机构为全国各地的教师做准备，以及他们教授的生命科学、地球和空间科学以及物理科学的入门课程。该项目旨在吸引和支持教授本科生STEM入门课程的教师，这些课程为未来的小学教师服务。它将帮助这些教师开发、测试和实施高质量的教学材料，将调查和设计放在课程设计的中心。这些材料将促进学生的话语，并支持课堂上的公平做法。此外，与卡尔顿学院科学教育资源中心合作，开发的材料将以灵活、模块化的格式在网上免费提供。这些教材将仿照可持续未来的地球跨学科教学方法。为了实现这一目标，该项目将创建一个准则来指导教学材料的设计。然后，它将招聘和支持三个团队，每组五名教职员工，通过三年的过程进行专业发展。将开发免费、开放的教科书，供本科生使用。这些教科书将包括突出概念和科学教育标准之间关系的功能。这些材料将通过视觉学习网站免费向公众提供。为了进一步促进和支持跨学科和机构环境采用这一方法，该项目旨在为20-40名额外教师招聘和提供专业发展，以实施新材料。该项目的第二个目标是评估材料的开发过程和使用的影响。该项目将调查聘用职前教师参与科学和工程学习的影响，这些学习包括教学知识、课堂实践和对学生学习的信念。该项目还将研究教师准备计划的特点，旨在为职前教师提供有效地让小学生参与科学调查和工程设计的知识、技能和性格。为了实现这一目标，该项目将使用直接和自我报告的措施来评估未来教师对课堂调查和设计的知识和信念。它还将评估教师在促进调查和设计以及支持所有学生学习方面的进展。实现项目目标有望产生一套严格制定的符合科学标准的教学材料和文本，形成一个准备充分的教师社区，让学生在本科科学课程中参与调查和设计，更好地理解本科科学教学如何影响未来教师利用调查和设计进行教学的准备，以及对专业发展如何支持未来教师的教师有新的理解。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving undergraduate STEM learning experiences for future elementary school teachers. How future teachers learn science has a critical influence on how they teach science. As recommended in Science and Engineering for Grades 6-12 (NASEM, 2018), “Undergraduate … experiences need to serve as models for prospective teachers, in which they experience science investigation and engineering design as learners.” Access to these experiences must be in introductory undergraduate STEM courses, since these courses are likely the only ones that future elementary teachers take to learn the concepts and approaches of science. The STEM faculty who teach these courses may not identify explicitly with their role as “teacher educators” and often have little preparation in how to serve this role well. This project focuses on these faculty at institutions that prepare teachers across the country, together with the introductory courses they teach in life science, earth and space science, and physical science. This project aims to engage and support faculty who teach introductory undergraduate STEM courses that serve future elementary teachers. It will help these faculty develop, test, and implement high-quality instructional materials that put investigation and design at the center of their course design. The materials will promote student discourse and support equitable practices in the classroom. In addition, the materials developed will be freely available online in a flexible, modular format in collaboration with the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College. These teaching materials will be modeled after the Interdisciplinary Teaching about Earth for a Sustainable Future approach. To achieve this goal, the project will create a rubric to guide the design of instructional materials. It will then recruit and support three teams of five faculty members with professional development through a three-year process. Free, open textbooks will be developed for use in the undergraduate classes. These textbooks will include functionality that highlights relationships between the concepts and science education standards. These materials will be publicly available at no cost through the Visionlearning website. To further facilitate and support adoption of this approach across disciplines and institutional settings, the project aims to recruit and provide professional development for 20-40 additional instructors to implement the new materials. The second goal of the project is to assess the development process and impacts of use of the materials and. The project will investigate the influence of engaging pre-service teachers in science and engineering learning that includes content knowledge, classroom practices, and beliefs about student learning. The project will also study characteristics of teacher preparation programs that aim to provide pre-service teachers with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to effectively engage elementary students in science investigation and engineering design. To achieve this goal, the project will use direct and self-reported measures to assess future teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about investigation and design in the classroom. It will also assess the progress of faculty in facilitating investigation and design, and in supporting learning for all students. Achieving project goals is expected to result in a suite of rigorously-developed instructional materials and texts aligned to science standards, a community of faculty who are well-prepared to engage students in investigation and design in their undergraduate science courses, a better understanding of how undergraduate science instruction influences future teachers’ preparedness to teach using investigation and design, and a new understanding of how professional development can support faculty who teach future teachers. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.