Improving the STEM Preparation of K-5 Pre-service Teachers through a Project-based, Interdisciplinary Approach

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The elementary teacher workforce is predominantly female and white, even though the K-12 student population is becoming increasingly diverse. Research shows elementary teachers take few college courses in physics, chemistry, and engineering, and only one third have had coursework in all the areas of science they will teach. Furthermore, elementary teachers do not feel well-prepared to engage students in the practices of science, or provide science instruction based on students' ideas, or to incorporate students' cultural backgrounds into science instruction. To address these issues, this project aims to serve the national interest by diversifying the elementary teaching workforce and preparing elementary science teachers to teach across the breadth of science disciplines that are addressed in elementary science. Moreover, the project seeks to connect scientific questions to underlying socio-economic issues that can motivate student learning and take advantage of students' cultural ways of knowing. Towards these ends this project aims to co-design a two-quarter undergraduate course sequence that engages prospective elementary school teachers in a project-based course of study featuring interdisciplinary science content. The course sequence will incorporate contemporary issues, science and engineering practices, and the ethics ("should we"? vs "can we"?) of science, all situated within the economic, social, and political contexts in which science and science decision-making always live. The project foregrounds content that highlights the ways in which science has been used as both a means of oppression of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) and as a tool for advancement. The design of the two-quarter sequence will satisfy both elementary certification science content prerequisites and general "natural world" graduation requirements for undergraduates at the University of Washington Bothell (UWB). An online version of the course of study for any undergraduate student and prospective elementary certification students and a version of the courses for community colleges are also intended. Ultimately, the project expects to produce a generalizable model for use in other contexts.A team of learning scientists specializing in equity-focused science education and science faculty from across life, physical, and earth sciences are collaborating to co-design four learning modules (two 5-week modules each quarter) for undergraduate students. The project uses a mixed methods (surveys, exit tickets, interviews, observations) approach for understanding student and faculty learning, as well as a longitudinal study of pre-service teachers from an initial cohort into their first year of teaching. Design-Based Research, wherein a project engages in iterative cycles of design, implementation, research, and re-design, is being used in this study. The project expects to engage 35 students in the first iteration of the study, and then 70 students for two years in the two-quarter sequence after the course sequence is redesigned. Of those 70 students, approximately 50 will become elementary pre-service teachers who will enter UWB’s elementary teacher certification program. Seventy students per year are expected to take the online courses and 35 practicing teachers per year are intended to participate in the summer summits. In addition to the materials developed through this project, the principal investigators will research three questions. (1) What shifts in science content learning, identities, and understandings of science/science pedagogy occur in undergraduate pre-service teachers as a result of the new course sequence? (2) What shifts in science pedagogy occur in university faculty as a result of engaging in the co-design of the courses? (3) What are essential design principles and practices of this model of co-design and implementation that can be disseminated to wider audiences and contexts? 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. The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship (Noyce) Program is providing co-funding for this IUSE: EHR project to support the project's pre-service teacher preparation goals, which are well-aligned with Noyce Program goals.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.