Exploration of a Labs to Classrooms Teaching Fellowship Program for Career-Changing STEM Professionals

针对职业转变的 STEM 专业人员的实验室到课堂教学奖学金计划的探索

• 批准号: 2243502
• 负责人: Ryan Zonnefeld
• 金额: $ 7.5万
• 依托单位: Dordt University, Incorporated
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-06-01 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2243502&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Exploration; Labs; Classrooms; Teaching; Fellowship

This project aims to serve the national need for building capacity to prepare working professionals in science, technology, engineering, and math to transition to and succeed in teaching positions. These career changers, often employed in labs or other manufacturing positions, will become fully qualified and adequately supported STEM teachers in the Nation’s schools. The project will explore the design of an accelerated fully online Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program to provide initial teaching licenses and support for induction into the teaching profession for these career changers. As part of this Capacity Building project, avenues of access will be designed to allow working professionals the quality, flexibility, and collaboration needed for success in the redesigned online master’s degree. The project will also be responsive to the ongoing needs of busy working adults throughout the process. The expected outcomes of this capacity building exploration will identify enrollment targets, unique marketing strategies, and support structures needed to ensure development of a successful model program.This project at Dordt University (DU) explores the partnerships needed with the university’s constituencies around the country. Its focus will be on school districts and school associations in the immediate region and in areas that are part of DU’s network of 80 historically connected pockets of DU constituents around the U.S. currently seeking STEM teachers. Project goals include soliciting input from stakeholders, assessing needs for STEM teachers in constituent areas, and assessing interest among STEM graduates. Another goal is to evaluate existing graduate and undergraduate curricula regarding an adult-friendly path to initial licensure. Once this exploration demonstrates an MAT program to be promising, the outcome will be the design of a unique online master’s program for working STEM professionals. The design will include marketing, hiring, and advising plans for quickly implementing the program. The project will identify specific targets for enrollment, licensing, and first-year success rates. The format will alleviate common barriers to career changing such as a long teacher training program, the need to attend classes on campus during work hours, emergency or temporary licenses, and the lack of relevant or convenient field experiences. The envisioned online program will include best practices such as early practicum experiences, a standard licensing path, adult learning theory, induction mentorships, and a multi-faceted assessment system. The broader impact of this project rests on the assumption that it is never too late to go into teaching and that high-need and rural schools deserve and can have high quality STEM teachers. This, in turn, can lead to more STEM interest among students in those schools. This exploration phase will be evaluated on the amount of concrete data and direction provided for planning the envisioned program. This Capacity Building project is supported by the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the effectiveness and retention 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.

该项目旨在满足国家对能力建设的需求，为科学、技术、工程和数学领域的工作专业人员过渡到教学岗位并取得成功做好准备。这些转行的人通常受雇于实验室或其他制造岗位，他们将成为国家学校完全合格和得到充分支持的STEM教师。该项目将探索设计一个加速的完全在线的艺术教学硕士(MAT)计划，为这些转行的人提供初步的教师执照和进入教师职业的支持。作为这一能力建设项目的一部分，访问途径将被设计为允许工作专业人员获得成功重新设计的在线硕士学位所需的质量、灵活性和合作。该项目还将在整个过程中满足忙碌的成年人的持续需求。这一能力建设探索的预期结果将确定招生目标、独特的营销战略和支持结构，以确保开发成功的示范项目。多尔特大学(DU)的这个项目探索了与全国各地的大学支持者所需的合作伙伴关系。它的重点将是邻近地区的学区和学校协会，以及DU网络的一部分，这些地区是DU在美国各地寻找STEM教师的80个历史上有联系的DU选民网络的一部分。项目目标包括征求利益相关者的意见，评估组成地区对STEM教师的需求，以及评估STEM毕业生的兴趣。另一个目标是评估现有的研究生和本科生课程，以便于成年人获得初步许可。一旦这一探索证明了MAT计划是有前景的，结果将是为STEM工作人员设计一个独特的在线硕士计划。设计将包括营销、招聘和咨询计划，以快速实施该计划。该项目将确定招生、许可和第一年成功率的具体目标。这种形式将缓解职业转变的常见障碍，如漫长的教师培训计划，需要在工作时间在校园里上课，紧急或临时执照，以及缺乏相关或方便的现场经验。设想的在线项目将包括最佳实践，如早期实践经验、标准许可途径、成人学习理论、入门指导和多方面评估系统。该项目的更广泛影响取决于这样一种假设，即从事教学工作永远不会太晚，高需求和农村学校应该而且能够拥有高素质的STEM教师。反过来，这可能会在这些学校的学生中引发更多的STEM兴趣。这一探索阶段将根据为规划设想的方案提供的具体数据量和方向进行评估。该能力建设项目得到了罗伯特·诺伊斯教师奖学金计划(Noyce)的支持。Noyce计划支持有才华的STEM本科专业和专业人员成为有效的K-12 STEM教师，并支持经验丰富、模范的K-12教师成为高需求学区的STEM硕士教师。它还支持对高需求学区K-12 STEM教师的有效性和留住的研究。这一奖项反映了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。