The authors describe how a STEM education descriptive framework was used to design and enact a year-long professional development with eight middle and secondary teachers at non-STEM focused schools in Southeast USA. They examined the professional development impact on teacher content knowledge, self-efficacy, and practice using pre- and post-test scores on a content exam, pre- and post-test scores on a self-efficacy instrument, and self-reported STEM integration efforts.
Educating Effective Science Teachers: Preparing and Following Teachers into the Field
This chapter presents findings from several investigations connected to the preparation of secondary-level science teachers, comparing two secondary science teacher preparation programs (undergraduate and graduate) at a large Midwestern university. The different program designs resulted in a greater use of reform-based science instructional practices by graduate level candidates with science degrees.
Models are a “Metaphor in Your Brain”: How Potential and Preservice Teachers Understand the Science and Engineering Practice of Modeling
This research study explored beginning secondary science teachers' understandings of the science and engineering practice of developing and using models. The team conducted interviews and used grade-level competencies outlined in the NGSS to analyze the beginning teachers' understandings.
Pedagogical Language Knowledge: An Investigation of a Science Teacher Candidate’s Student Teaching Strengths and Struggles
The authors report the results of a case study designed to follow a teacher candidate's development and use of pedagogical language knowledge and the integration of science and language learning in a linguistically diverse classroom.
An Integrated Model for STEM Teacher Preparation: The Value of a Teaching Cooperative Educational Experience
This article describes and evaluates an intensive, integrated model for teacher preparation, specifically, a preservice STEM teacher education model which incorporates science or mathematics content with pedagogical content knowledge in an early, intensive classroom immersion program based entirely in a local school.
