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学习经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。正如6-12年级科学与工程（NASEM，2018年）所建议的那样，“本科生......经验需要作为未来教师的榜样，他们作为学习者体验科学调查和工程设计。 获得这些经验必须在介绍性本科STEM课程，因为这些课程可能是未来的小学教师学习科学的概念和方法的唯一课程。教授这些课程的STEM教师可能不会明确地认同他们作为“教师教育者”的角色，并且通常对如何很好地发挥这一作用几乎没有准备。该项目的重点是这些机构的教师，准备全国各地的教师，连同他们在生命科学，地球和空间科学，物理科学教授的入门课程。该项目旨在吸引和支持教授入门本科STEM课程的教师，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，将调查和设计置于课程设计的中心。这些材料将促进学生的讨论，并支持课堂上的公平做法。此外，开发的材料将与卡尔顿学院的科学教育资源中心合作，以灵活的模块化格式在网上免费提供。这些教材将仿照“关于地球促进可持续未来的跨学科教学”的做法。为了实现这一目标，该项目将创建一个规则来指导教学材料的设计。然后，它将通过三年的过程招募和支持三个团队的五名教师的专业发展。免费，开放的教科书将被开发用于本科课程。 这些教科书将包括强调概念与科学教育标准之间关系的功能。这些材料将通过Visionlearning网站免费公开提供。为了进一步促进和支持在各学科和机构环境中采用这一方法，该项目旨在招聘20-40名教员，并为他们提供专业发展，以实施新的材料。该项目的第二个目标是评估开发过程和使用材料的影响。该项目将调查从事职前教师在科学和工程学习，包括内容知识，课堂实践和学生学习的信念的影响。 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知识，技能和处置，以有效地让小学生参与科学调查和工程设计。为了实现这一目标，该项目将使用直接和自我报告的措施，以评估未来教师的知识和信念的调查和设计在课堂上。 它还将评估教师在促进调查和设计方面的进展，以及支持所有学生的学习。实现项目目标预计将导致一套严格开发的教学材料和文本与科学标准相一致，一个教师社区，他们准备好让学生在本科科学课程中进行调查和设计，更好地了解本科科学教学如何影响未来教师使用调查和设计进行教学的准备，以及对专业发展如何支持教授未来教师的教师的新理解。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。该奖项反映了NSF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 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.