Preparing Future Secondary STEM Teachers to Integrate Authentic Experiences into their High-Needs Classrooms using Regional Real-World Contexts

该项目旨在满足国家对培养高素质的中学职前生物、化学、物理和数学教师的需求，这些教师能够将真实的情境融入课堂。真实体验的目标是模拟科学家如何思考解决问题。当学习国家采用的内容标准时，真实的体验提供了一个真实的世界背景。这些经历使学生拓宽了他们的批判性思维能力，同时加深了他们对学习期间和毕业后将遇到的地区性现实世界STEM问题的理解。对于有能力为学生创造和实施真实体验的教师来说，他们将从参与这种体验中受益。这个项目将提供两个真实的暑期体验，在那里，职前教师将与大学教职员工、研究人员和指导教师合作，开发内容和丰富教学内容的课程，以便在他们的课堂和实地经验中实施。同样，他们将制定评估，以探索课程的影响。高影响力的教学实践可以提高STEM的参与度，并建立一支强大的STEM劳动力队伍，以解决国家和全球在科学、技术、工程和数学方面的问题。作为一所公立研究型大学，佐治亚州南部大学的这个项目包括与埃文斯县特许学校系统、萨凡纳-查塔姆公立学校系统、佐治亚州南部大学植物园和STEM教育中心以及斯基德韦岛海洋扩建项目的合作伙伴关系。该项目有四个基本目标。首先，该项目旨在为六名大一和大二STEM专业的学生提供K-12实习机会，以帮助他们培养和保持对教学的兴趣。第二个目标是提供奖学金，并使十八(18)名成绩优异的本科生物、化学、数学或物理专业的学生毕业，他们有资格在各自的专业领域担任中学教师。第三个目标是将这些毕业生安置在高需求的学区，然后在他们毕业后的六年内提供指导和其他入职支持。第四，项目组将创建、实施、研究和维护一个整合的同步和异步反思性教学实践社区模式。在这个过程中，研究人员将探索除了课程安排外，专注的研讨会经验如何影响成功完成临床实践和第一年教学的准备工作。项目成果将提供对实践社区模式如何纵向影响高需求学校的项目创新和教师留任的洞察。此外，该项目还将提供在STEM中学课堂中发展和整合真实情境的战略。该项目还有可能影响职前教师教育计划的结构，如何教授课程计划策略，以及如何设计帮助职前教师培养技能和性格以在高需求学校工作的指导策略。开发的资源和项目评估结果将通过区域、州、国家和国际来源传播，包括STEM会议、同行评议出版物和各种互联网应用程序。这个Track 1：奖学金和津贴项目由罗伯特·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。

The project aims to serve the national need of preparing high-quality secondary preservice Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics teachers who can integrate authentic contexts into their classrooms. The goal of authentic experiences is to model how scientists think about solving a problem. Authentic experiences provide a real-world context when learning state-adopted content standards. These experiences engage students in broadening their critical thinking skills while furthering their understanding of regional real-world STEM issues they will encounter during their studies and after graduation. For teachers to have the ability to create and implement authentic experiences for their students, they will benefit from being engaged in such experiences. This project will provide two real-world summer experiences where preservice teachers will work with university faculty, researchers, and mentor teachers to develop content and pedagogically rich curriculum to implement in their classrooms and field experiences. Likewise, they will develop assessments to explore the impact of the curriculum. High impact teaching practices can lead to higher engagement in STEM and build a strong STEM workforce to address national and global problems in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.This project at Georgia Southern University, a public research university, includes partnerships with Evans County Charter School System, Savannah-Chatham Public School System, Georgia Southern University Botanical Garden and Center for STEM Education, and Skidaway Island Marine Extension. The project has four fundamental goals. First, the project aims to provide K-12 internships for six freshman and sophomore STEM majors to help generate and sustain their interest in teaching. A second goal is to provide scholarships and to graduate eighteen (18) high-achieving undergraduate biology, chemistry, mathematics, or physics majors who are certified to teach in their major areas at the secondary level. A third goal is to place these graduates in high-need school districts and then provide mentoring and other induction support for six years following their graduation. Fourth, the project team will create, implement, study, and maintain an integrated synchronous and asynchronous reflective teaching community of practice model. In the process, the investigators will explore how focused seminar experiences, in addition to program coursework, can impact preservice readiness to successfully complete clinical practice and first-year teaching. Project outcomes will provide insight into how a community of practice model can longitudinally impact program innovation and teacher retention in high-needs schools. In addition, the project will provide strategies for developing and integrating authentic contexts in secondary STEM classrooms. The project also has potential to impact how preservice teacher education programs are structured, how lesson planning strategies are taught, and how mentoring strategies to help preservice teachers develop skills and dispositions to work in high-needs schools are designed. Resources developed and project evaluation findings will be disseminated via regional, state, national, and international sources, including STEM conferences, peer-reviewed publications, and various internet applications. This Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends 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.