Teachers as Designers: Facilitating Pedagogical Change for STEM Learning

• In Event: 14.030 - STEM Professional Development in Teacher Education: University Partnerships, Teacher Collaboration, and Improved Assessments

Abstract

This research shares findings from a three-year NSF grant on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning that aimed to develop teachers as designers of authentic STEM learning experiences. Crucial to this effort was a university-developed professional development model that situates the work within local knowledge and develops distributed leadership for sustainable change. Guided by design-based implementation research, the study focused on problems in practice, embraced an iterative design process, developed learning and implementation approaches through systematic inquiry, and built capacity for sustainable school change. This report considers the impact of the grant intervention on teachers’ growing practice in STEM through an analysis of extensive field notes from the prolonged engagement.

Authors

• Ellen B. Meier, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Caron M. Mineo, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Jessica Yusaitis-Pike, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Dawn M. Horton, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Seth A. McCall, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Rita Sanchez, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Alexandra Thomas, Teachers College, Columbia University