Collaborative Research: Understanding STEM Teaching through Integrated Contexts in Everyday Life

对学校问责制和教师绩效指标的日益关注导致科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）教学强调内容和程序知识，而不是批判性思维和现实世界的应用。然而，批判性思维和应用是必不可少的发展学生的功能科学素养技能。 在经济不景气的城市环境中，这一需求可能最为迫切。促进STEM参与和学习的一个策略是在STEM概念，原则和与学习者相关的STEM相关问题之间建立明确和有意义的联系。社会科学问题（SSI）可以为促进所需的参与提供一个强有力的途径。 SSI是有争议和定义不清的问题，有科学基础，但必然包括道德和伦理选择。对城市环境中经济上处于不利地位、文化上具有多样性的学生来说，特殊需求可能包括铅涂料污染、水或空气质量差或存在“食物沙漠”等。通过将当地相关的SSI与社会正义的目标相结合，该项目使用的社会正义STEM教学法（SJSP）框架旨在支持学生利用他们的科学专业知识成为变革的推动者。SJSP对教师、学生、学校和学生生活的社区都有潜在的变革性。然而，为了使SJSP有效地促进STEM学习，教师必须学会如何将STEM概念和实践融入学生环境中存在的各种现实世界的SSI中。这个合作项目旨在实施和评估一个全面的专业发展计划，为7 - 12年级的STEM教师从费城和周边地区的经济困难的学区。教师将制定将SSI纳入教学的方法，这些方法以标准为基础，以促进学生的STEM参与度。 教师的教学实践将提高学生的STEM素养，同时利用自己的知识和文化来解决复杂和具有伦理挑战性的STEM问题，从而提高学生成为变革推动者的能力。该合作研究项目涉及阿卡迪亚大学，Mercyhurst大学，LaSalle大学，Villanova大学和圣约瑟夫大学。它的目的是调查的有效性的专业发展（PD）计划的STEM教师发展他们的教学内容知识（PCK）在教学SSI和SJSP。在四年的时间里，三批25名7-12年级的教师将参加大约200小时的PD。SSI和SJSP包含真实，复杂的现实世界，基于STEM的问题，这些问题与学生及其社区所经历的不平等直接相关，学生可以通过使用基于探究的学习策略在课堂上参与。通过促进学生的参与和STEM在日常生活中的相关性的认识，教师参与本PD将促进STEM学习，特别是在历史上被STEM学科边缘化的学生中，以及来自经济弱势背景的学生。该研究计划的目的是揭示PD计划的元素，最有效地支持教师的设计和实施的研究，将科学，社会和话语元素的SSI单元的能力提高。主要使用定性方法，其他成果包括教师的PCK如何改变教学与SSI/SJSP;什么因素支持和抑制教师的能力，以促进SSI/SJSP;以及如何以正义为中心的STEM课程帮助学生发展道德和伦理推理，科学怀疑论，STEM调查/建模，和SSI话语/论证。 探索研究preK-12计划（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源，模型和工具，显着提高preK-12学生和教师对STEM科目的学习和教学。DRK-12项目中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究以及为拟议项目提供理论和经验依据的先前研究和开发工作的基础上。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。

Increased focus on school accountability and teacher performance measures have resulted in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) instruction that emphasizes content and procedural knowledge over critical thinking and real-world applications. Yet, critical thinking and application are essential in developing functional scientific literacy skills among students. This need is perhaps most pressing in economically depressed urban settings. One strategy to promote STEM engagement and learning is to make clear and meaningful connections between STEM concepts, principles, and STEM-related issues relevant to the learner. Socioscientific issues (SSI) can provide a powerful avenue for promoting the desired kinds of engagement. SSI are debatable and ill-defined problems that have a basis in science but necessarily include moral and ethical choices. SSI for economically disadvantaged, culturally diverse students in urban settings might include, for example, lead paint contamination, poor water or air quality, or the existence of “food deserts.” By integrating locally relevant SSI with the goals of social justice, the Social Justice STEM Pedagogies (SJSP) framework the project uses is intended to support students to use their scientific expertise to be agents of change. SJSP can be potentially transformative for teachers, students, schools, and the communities in which students live. For SJSP to effectively promote STEM learning, however, teachers must learn how to integrate STEM-concepts and practices into the various real-world SSI present in their students’ environment. This collaborative project is designed to implement and evaluate a comprehensive professional development plan for grades 7 –12 STEM teachers from economically disadvantaged school districts in Philadelphia and surrounding areas. Teachers will develop ways to incorporate SSI into their instruction that are grounded in standards to foster students’ STEM engagement. The instructional practices enacted by teachers will enhance students’ STEM literacy while utilizing their own knowledge and culture in solving complex and ethically challenging STEM issues, thus promoting students’ abilities to be change agents.This collaborative research project involves Arcadia University, Mercyhurst University, LaSalle University, Villanova University, and St. Joseph’s University. It is designed to investigate the effectiveness of a professional development (PD) program for STEM teachers to develop their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in teaching SSI and SJSP. Over four years, three cohorts of 25 grades 7-12 teachers will participate in about 200 hours of PD. The SSI and SJSP encompass authentic, complex real-world, STEM-based issues that are directly related to the inequities experienced by students and their communities that students can engage with in the classroom through the use of inquiry-based learning strategies. By promoting students’ engagement in and awareness of the relevance of STEM in everyday life, teacher participants in this PD will foster STEM learning, especially among students who have been historically marginalized from STEM disciplines, and who are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The research plan is designed to reveal elements of the PD program that are most effective in supporting teachers’ increased capacity to design and implement units of study that incorporate scientific, social, and discursive elements of SSI. Using predominantly qualitative methods, other outcomes include how teachers’ PCK change towards teaching with SSI/SJSP; what factors support and inhibit teacher’s abilities to promote SSI/SJSP; and how justice-centered STEM lessons help students to develop moral and ethical reasoning, scientific skepticism, STEM inquiry/modeling, and SSI discourse/argumentation. The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of STEM subjects by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.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.