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培养STEM教师的能力需求，为高需求学区服务。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学许可。高质量的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，培养STEM教师对于实现国家科学进步目标至关重要。不幸的是，目前培训、招聘和留住STEM教育工作者的方法产生了好坏参半的结果。这个问题的一个被忽视的方面是STEM和教育项目之间的身份冲突。当STEM教师从准备阶段过渡到实践阶段时，他们可能会在这些项目的文化之间感到冲突。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。该项目的目标包括利用身份理论和专业学习社区的理论基础，建立一个学位课程，培养一个综合的STEM教师身份。这些项目目标将通过建立一个由相关利益相关者组成的专业学习社区来实现，以指导创建一个新的STEM学位计划，弥合教师准备和STEM学科之间的身份差距。专业学习社区将评估利益相关者的需求，并确定哈丁大学完成项目目标的可用能力和缺乏的能力。该项目将采用定量和定性技术，从550 - 600名STEM教师、STEM课程的高中毕业生、STEM大学教师和其他相关利益相关者那里获取和分析数据。此外，该项目将记录调查结果，为合作学区提供有关STEM教育的信息，并由外部评估人员进行评估。该项目旨在提供一个模型，用于评估使用专业学习社区推动身份整合的效力，从而加强STEM学科与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准备的实践，并有望使他们与STEM的现实变化更紧密地结合起来。该能力建设项目由罗伯特·诺伊斯教师奖学金项目（诺伊斯）支持。Noyce计划支持有才华的STEM本科专业和专业人士成为有效的K-12 STEM教师，并支持经验丰富的模范K-12教师成为高需求学区的STEM大师教师。它还支持对高需求学区K-12 STEM教师的有效性和留任率的研究。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。

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.