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1. We Strive: Enhancing Implementation of Socioscientific Issues in STEM Classrooms Through Professional Development

   Johnson, J.; Macalalag, A.; Mathers-Lowery, B; Ialacci, G. (October 2022, Pennsylvania teacher educator)

   This study explores the experiences of two teachers participating in professional development workshops focused on supporting implementation of SocioScientific Issues (SSI) and aspects of social justice into STEM classrooms. SSI are ill-defined problems, with a basis in science, but necessarily include moral and ethical decisions that cannot be resolved through science alone. These debatable issues can enhance learning of STEM by engaging students in real-world and authentic problems. The USTRIVE project was developed to foster STEM learning through integrated professional development workshops and the development of professional learning communities to support teachers in the use of SSI and incorporation of aspects of social justice in their STEM classrooms. Two research questions were investigated: (a) To what extent did teachers implement SSI into their lesson planning during the project and (b) In what ways did teachers’ designed lessons change from the beginning of the workshop? 

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2. We Strive: Initial Explorations of STEM Teachers’ Successes and Challenges in Implementing Socioscientific Issues.

   Johnson, J. (October 2022, Pennsylvania teacher educator)

   This study explores the experiences of two teachers participating in professional development workshops focused on supporting implementation of SocioScientific Issues (SSI) and aspects of social justice into STEM classrooms. SSI are ill-defined problems, with a basis in science, but necessarily include moral and ethical decisions that cannot be resolved through science alone. These debatable issues can enhance learning of STEM by engaging students in real-world and authentic problems. The USTRIVE project was developed to foster STEM learning through integrated professional development workshops and the development of professional learning communities to support teachers in the use of SSI and incorporation of aspects of social justice in their STEM classrooms. Two research questions were investigated: (a) To what extent did teachers implement SSI into their lesson planning during the project and (b) In what ways did teachers’ designed lessons change from the beginning of the workshop? 

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3. Introducing the PrimeD Framework: Teacher Practice and Professional Development through Shulman’s View of Professionalism

   https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14091032  

   Saderholm, Jon; Ronau, Robert N; Rakes, Christopher R; Bush, Sarah B; Mohr-Schroeder, Margaret J (September 2024, Education Sciences)

   This paper clarifies and expands the definition of teacher professional practice, grounded in the commonplaces of professionalism outlined by Lee Shulman. We present the Professional Development: Research, Implementation, and Evaluation (PrimeD) framework as a lens for transforming professional development into a practice that engages teachers as professionals. This discussion explores teachers’ roles in both their classrooms and the profession. The inclusion of PrimeD evaluation and research in the development and practice of mathematics teachers addresses Shulman’s professionalism commonplaces. PrimeD was tested as a lens for professionalism in mathematics teacher education programs at four universities. In the study, teachers collaborated as professionals on developing and testing novel ways to approach mathematics lessons. In general, teachers’ efforts to conduct structured experimentation in their lessons were disconnected from traditional views of the role of a teacher. As a result, teachers who did develop and test lesson trials in this PD program did not frequently continue experimentation. Typically, teachers wanted to collaborate on testing classroom activities but did not have resources to do so (e.g., time, collaborative planning). Systemic changes are needed to promote sustainable change, allowing teachers to collaborate and share the results of classroom research. 

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4. Board 417: Understanding the Implementation of the STEM-ID Curricula in Middle School Engineering Classrooms (Fundamental)

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--47006  

   Gale, Jessica; Alemdar, Meltem; Moore, Roxanne (June 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   Despite recent progress in the adoption of engineering at the K-12 level, the scarcity of high-quality engineering curricula remains a challenge. With support from a previous NSF grant, our research team iteratively developed the three-year middle school engineering curricula, STEM-ID. Through a series of contextualized challenges, the 18-week STEM-ID curricula incorporate foundational mathematics and science skills and practices and advanced manufacturing tools such as computer aided design (CAD) and 3D printing, while introducing engineering concepts like pneumatics, aeronautics, and robotics. Our current project, supported by an NSF DRK-12 grant, seeks to examine the effectiveness of STEM-ID when implemented in diverse schools within a large school district in the southeastern United States. This paper will present early findings of the project’s implementation research conducted over two school years with a total of ten engineering teachers in nine schools. Guided by the Innovation Implementation framework (Century & Cassata, 2014), our implementation research triangulates observation, interview, and survey data to describe overall implementation of STEM-ID as well as implementation of six critical components of the curricula: engaging students in the engineering design process (EDP), math-science integration, collaborative group work, contextualized challenges, utilization of advanced manufacturing technology, and utilization of curriculum materials. Implementation data provide clear evidence that each of the critical components of STEM-ID were evident as the curricula were enacted in participating schools. Our data indicate strong implementation of four critical components (utilization of materials, math-science integration, collaborative group work, and contextualized challenges) across teachers. Engaging students in the EDP and advanced-manufacturing technology were implemented, to varying degrees, by all but two teachers. As expected, implementation of critical components mirrored overall implementation patterns, with teachers who completed more of the curricula tending to implement the critical components more fully than those who did not complete the curricula. In addition to tracking implementation of critical components, the project is also interested in understanding contextual factors that influence enactment of the curricula, including characteristics of the STEM-ID curricula, teachers, and organizations (school and district). Interview and observation data suggest a number of teacher characteristics that may account for variations in implementation including teachers’ organization and time management skills, self-efficacy, and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Notably, prior teaching experience did not consistently translate into higher completion rates, emphasizing the need for targeted support regardless of teachers' backgrounds. This research contributes valuable insights into the challenges and successes of implementing engineering curricula in diverse educational settings. 

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5. Designing and enacting lessons to promote students’ epistemic agency in middle school biology classrooms

   Akçil-Okan, Ö.; Tekkumru-Kisa, M.; Southerland, S. A. (January 2023, Annual Meeting of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching)

   Reform-based instruction that fosters all students’ intellectual engagement and sensemaking is possible. However, it is not yet prevalent across many science classrooms. To gain more insight into how to design and enact science instruction supporting students’ intellectual engagement, this investigation centered on understanding how to design and implement science lessons for promoting students’ intellectual engagement as epistemic agents who shape knowledge building happening in the classroom. We examined a middle school science teacher's design and implementation of four lessons that she did as part of a PD focused on fostering productive science talk in science classrooms. Our analysis revealed that her efforts in fostering opportunities for students’ epistemic agency were evident in both her lesson design and implementation. Her responsiveness to students’ thinking/intellectual engagement throughout the lesson implementations via principled improvisations supported opportunities for students’ epistemic agency. Her efforts allow us to understand how the design and implementation of science lessons with the focus of opening space and maintaining this space by being responsive to students’ thinking are critical for fostering students’ epistemic agency. These findings can provide implications for professional development efforts that seek to develop teachers’ capacity for reform-based instruction in science classrooms. 

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