Promoting STEM Teaching and Learning Through an After-School Teaching Practicum

• In Event: Making Museums an Integral Part of Formal Teaching and Learning

Abstract

If improving STEM education is an important objective for an increasingly technical and science-dependent society, then we must recognize that learning is not bound to the classroom. Science museums, aquariums, after-school programs, and other media and Out of School Time (OST) projects are just a few places where youth may develop an interest in and deeper understanding of science, math, or engineering.
This investigation examines one model of collaboration between university and community, aimed to tap into out-of-school resources and foster elementary teacher confidence and expertise in STEM instruction. Examining the success of partnerships such as this involves both assessing outcomes of those participating (pre-service teachers) as well as the process of developing the collaboration itself. Within a Communities of Practice perspective (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998), successful collaboration would involve some sort of alignment or awareness of goals, activities, and tools that make up each of the collaborators. The objectives of this project involve identifying elements that are critical to developing the community-university partnership as well as evidence that such collaboration is able to improve pre-service teacher perspectives and practices related to STEM teaching.
A combination of collaborator interviews and teacher questionnaires were used to better understand the impacts of pre-service teacher interactions with the local after-school program. Over the course of three weeks, these future elementary-level teachers enrolled in a science teaching methods class, had the opportunity to present a short unit of science- and engineering-related lessons to small groups of afterschool students.
Early findings from the project suggest that pre-service teachers who worked in the afterschool program as part of the methods class reported being less anxious about teaching science (p=.006), and less likely to express concerns about the time needed to prepare effective science lessons(p=.004), compared to their colleagues enrolled in a similar methods class without afterschool engagement. Qualitative analysis of open-ended questions also revealed that nearly 2/3 of these future teachers cited working in the afterschool program (despite the challenges of meeting off campus) as the most useful aspect of this methods class.
Findings also pointed to the existing structure and flexibility of the afterschool program as a key factor in the success of this initial collaboration. The individual program leaders and the site coordinator, were willing and able to make modifications to their daily routines of homework-recreation-enrichment in order to accommodate the three university visits. The teaching practicum slid into this schedule with little difficulty, and neither staff nor students indicated a sense of disruption. Staff concerns revolved mostly around responsibilities for child safety, as evidenced by tension developing when the pre-service teachers decided to take students to different places on the school yard—places where the program leaders could not keep track of the students.
While only the first of several cases of collaboration to be investigated, findings point to the benefits of such a project when there is a minimal adjustment of practice within each side, coupled with flexibility within both communities (e.g. both instructor and afterschool team).

Author

• James F. Kisiel, California State University - Long Beach