Teacher Training and STEM Student Outcome: Linking Teacher Intervention to Students’ Success in STEM Middle and High School Classes

Engineers and scientist utilize the principles and theories of science and mathematics to design, test, and manufacture products that are important to the future of a nation’s citizenry. With the exception of biological sciences, however, the percentage of college students seeking degrees in math, science and engineering disciplines has been declining for the past two decades. Furthermore, fewer potential engineering majors are completing rigorous college preparatory programs and graduating in the top quarter of their high schools. This shortfall has raised concerns among leaders in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, (STEM) fields. To meet the changing demands of the nation’s science and engineering labor force, recognition of the importance of pre-college education intervention and implementation of challenging curricula that captures and sustains middle and high school students’ achievement and interest in science and “pre-engineering” content is critical. Current research reveals that one of the most important determinants of what students learn is the expertise and pedagogy of the teacher. Accordingly, our research is focused on improving teacher quality and resulting middle and high school student learning in STEM via formation, nurturance and sustaining an important targeted school-university urban educational partnership. Our university has partnered with large urban school districts to plan, deliver and sustain a targeted inservice teacher professional development and a middle and high school STEM curriculum intervention. The partnership goals are to assist inservice middle and high school science teachers in: (1) designing and implementing integrated science and engineering curricula and (2) development of instructional methods and strategies that enable teachers to effectively (a) teach challenging content and research skills in middle and high school as demanded by state/national science standards; (b) generate knowledge and transform practice in high school STEM education, (c) cultivate a world-class STEM workforce, (d) expand students’ scientific literacy, and (e) promote research that advances the frontiers of knowledge in STEM middle and high school education. Introduction Engineers and scientist utilize the principles and theories of science and mathematics to design, test, and manufacture products that are important to the future of a nation’s citizenry. With the exception of biological sciences, however, the percentage of college students seeking degrees in math, science and engineering disciplines has been declining for the past two decades. Furthermore, fewer potential engineering majors are completing rigorous college preparatory programs and graduating in the top quarter of their high schools. This shortfall has raised concerns among leaders in STEM fields. To meet the changing demands of the nation’s science and engineering labor force, recognition of the importance of pre-college education intervention and implementation of challenging curricula that captures and sustains middle and high school students’ achievement and interest in science and “pre-engineering” is critical. Current research reveals that one of the most important determinants of what students learn is the expertise and pedagogical approach of their teacher. Accordingly, our research is focused on improving teacher quality and resulting middle and high school student learning in STEM via formation, nurturance and sustaining an important targeted school-university urban educational partnership. Our university has partnered with a large urban school district to plan, deliver and sustain a targeted inservice teacher professional development and a middle and high school STEM curriculum intervention. Teacher Intervention Through our university partnership with local urban public middle and high schools, we engaged in a targeted recruitment of mid career teachers in the sciences. The project’s leadership team has worked with teams of two teachers who were placed, based on research interest, in an engineering laboratory that is conducting research using societally relevant engineering technologies. The teacher intervention was intense in that it included a five week program of lab experience and pedagogical practices. Accordingly, due to the nature and intensity of the teacher intervention and follow-up with their students a small group of teachers was targeted for this intervention. Organizationally, each two-teacher teams were matched with a Ph.D. student in university engineering laboratory, for direct daily interaction, and for facilitating bi-directional expertise transfer between the teachers and the Ph.D. student mentors. To facilitate this teacher-lab matching process, the teachers participating in the program were sent pointers to web sites summarizing the participating research projects one month before the start of the program. The 5-week summer program commenced with a 2-day teacher orientation. Besides working together in the labs, the teachers and Ph.D. students mentors met weekly to review, network, compare experiences, address issues, and to engage in collaborative lesson study and curriculum planning. Weekly time was allotted for helping the teachers to develop best practice pedagogy towards teaching science in their respective schools, under the supervision of a curriculum team from the University’s school of education. The teachers had weekly meetings for planning how their research experiences was translated into curriculum modules which introduce their students to societally relevant engineering and relate lesson plans and activities to state and national science and math standards using a lesson study approach. Lesson study, according to James Stigler (2005), refers to a professional development process whereby teachers closely examine their lessons with a focus on addressing student need via data-driven decision making, creating powerful and relevant curricula and reformed designed lesson creation. Lesson study goes beyond collaboration to co-planning and observing actual lessons with a focus on student thinking. In the lesson study model, teachers learn together. Participants plan, observe, and refine "research lessons" designed to make real their long-term goals for student learning and development. A key, concrete component of lesson study is the observing and teaching of lessons, which are improved collaboratively. This compels teachers to examine their own Plan