Building Capacity through Professional Learning Communities to Advance Identity Integration in STEM Pre-Service Teacher Preparation

该项目旨在满足国家建设能力建设的需要，培养STEM教师在高需求学区服务的能力。该项目将通过开发教育途径来实现这一目标，使STEM专业的学生能够接受培训并获得教师资格。高素质的STEM教师可以激励下一代科学家使用科学工具和方法来解决社会问题。此外，培训STEM教师对于实现国家科学进步的目标至关重要。不幸的是，目前培训、招募和留住STEM教育工作者的方法产生了好坏参半的结果。这个问题被忽视的一个方面是STEM和教育项目之间的身份冲突。STEM教师在从准备过渡到实践的过程中可能会感觉到这些项目的文化冲突。哈丁大学的这个能力建设项目包括与Searcy、Bald Knob和Riverview公立学区的合作伙伴关系。该项目的目标包括利用身份认同理论和专业学习社区的理论基础来建立一个学位课程，以培养综合的STEM教师身份。这些项目目标将通过建立相关利益攸关方的专业学习社区来实现，以指导创建新的STEM学位计划，弥合教师准备和STEM学科之间的身份差距。专业学习团体将评估利益攸关方的需求，并确定哈丁大学在完成项目目标方面的现有能力和缺乏的能力。该项目将使用定量和定性技术来获取和分析550-600名STEM教师、STEM课程的高三学生、STEM大学教职员工和其他相关利益相关者的数据。此外，该项目将记录调查结果，让合作学区了解STEM教育，并由外部评估员进行评估。该项目很好地为评估利用专业学习社区推动身份整合的效力提供了一个模式，以加强STEM学科和教师准备之间的途径。通过该项目发现的知识可以影响教师培训的实践，并有望使其与STEM的真实世界变化更接近。该能力建设项目由罗伯特·诺伊斯教师奖学金计划(NOYCE)提供支持。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。

This project aims to serve the national need of building the capacity to prepare STEM teachers to serve in high-need school districts. This project will accomplish this goal by developing education pathways that enable STEM majors to be trained and licensed to teach. High-quality STEM teachers can inspire the next generation of scientists to use scientific tools and methods to solve societal problems. Furthermore, training STEM teachers is crucial for meeting targets of national scientific advancement. Unfortunately, current approaches to training, recruiting, and retaining STEM Educators have yielded mixed results. An overlooked aspect of this problem is the conflicting identities between STEM and education programs. STEM teachers may feel conflicted between the cultures of these programs as they transition from preparation to practice.This capacity building project at Harding University includes partnerships with Searcy, Bald Knob, and Riverview Public School Districts. The project goals include leveraging the theoretical foundations of identity theory and professional learning communities to build a degree program that will nurture an integrated STEM teacher identity. These project goals will be accomplished by building a professional learning community of relevant stakeholders to guide the creation of a novel STEM degree plan that bridges the identity gap between teacher preparation and STEM disciplines. The professional learning community will assess stakeholder needs and identify available capacity and the capacity lacking at Harding University for completing the project goals. The project will employ quantitative and qualitative techniques to obtain and analyze data from 550 - 600 STEM teachers, high school seniors in STEM courses, STEM college faculty, and other relevant stakeholders. Further, the project will document the findings that inform partnering school districts about STEM Education and be evaluated by an external evaluator. This project is well-positioned to provide a model for assessing the potency of using a professional learning community to drive identity integration that strengthens the pathways between STEM disciplines and teacher preparation. The knowledge uncovered through this project can influence practices in teacher preparation and hopefully bring them into closer alignment with real-world changes in STEM. This capacity building project is supported through 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.