Teacher Self-Improvement “Data-driven schools” have long served as a vision for educational reformers, with teachers positioned at the forefront of student data collection and use (Noyce, Perda, & Traver, 2000). However, in the United States, the reality of instruction in public schools does not match the rhetoric. Recent educational reforms across levels of government have […]
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The ADAPTATIONS blog advances research toward and replication of what works in the STEM education of preservice teachers in high-need school districts through programs’ sharing of evidence-based innovations to encourage adaption by other programs and move forward collective evolution of effective STEM teacher preparation.
Is This “TRE” for Me? A Review of the Literature on Teacher Research Experiences and Impact on K-12 STEM Classrooms
As today’s world continues to be shaped by science and technology, there is a pressing need to improve public understanding of what constitutes “science” (National Research Council [NRC], 2012). Despite decades of recommendations to involve learners in scientific activities that model authentic science, K–12 teachers still struggle to integrate scientific practices across their curricula (Capps […]
What Do Preservice Science Teachers Understand about Principles of Effective Teaching for Diverse Learners?
A Collaborative Study of Teacher Preparation The Science and Mathematics Teacher Research Initiative (SMTRI, referred to as “symmetry”) is rather unique in that it is a multi-university collaboration to collectively study science and mathematics teacher education. Studies of teacher education are often small in scale and consist of case studies of individual courses (Sleeter, 2014). […]
Four Things You Need to Know about STEM and Education for 2020
This story also ran on Forbes.com. If 2018 was the year that teachers walked out, scientists and teachers ran for office in unprecedented numbers, and the news was filled with a steady stream of reports on the value of a STEM degree, and 2019 was the year that the public’s respect for teachers grew, walkouts […]
How Can Pre-service STEM Teachers Enact Project-Based Learning for Authentic Community Engagement?
Preparing Community Teachers A “Community Teacher” is a conceptual framework for preparing exemplary urban teachers (Murrell, 2000) and highlights the “multicultural competence” teachers need to have. A significant part of this work entails teachers’ reflections on their own identities with the aim of centering the students’ culture and practices in teaching and learning. We began […]
