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ABSTRACT Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) programs are a burgeoning approach to engage teachers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) research that they can translate into their K‐12 classrooms. Despite an increase in studies of RETs, there is a need for comparison of RET and non‐RET teachers' student outcomes. This mixed methods, quasi‐experimental comparison study, using a revised third‐generation activity theory framework, investigates how an RET program for preservice and early career STEM teachers impacted participating teachers and their students up to 8 years after RET participation. Specifically, we conducted a matched comparison of student achievement data from students of nine RET teachers versus many non‐RET comparison teachers within the same districts (n = 830–1132 students). We also investigated student and teacher perceptions of classroom practices through surveys (n = 576 students) and interviews (15 teacher interviews). Omnibus tests revealed no statistically significant differences by treatment in math or science achievement. However, students of the RET teachers reported stronger perceptions of STEM career awareness, greater value for learning STEM subjects, and a greater propensity to persist in STEM course tasks (three of the five constructs measured). This was consistent with teacher interview responses in which RET teachers spoke about STEM career awareness in a broader context for understanding the value of STEM in society, and also discussed struggles in research and attempts to bring this mindset to their students, which may have resulted in greater student engagement in their courses. Implications for teacher education and for supporting science and engineering practices in STEM classrooms are discussed along with recommendations for further research on the impacts of RET programs guided by a revised third‐generation activity theory framework informed by this work.
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Lessons learned from evaluating three virtual Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) programs using common instruments and protocols
Due to the COVID-19 crisis preventing face-to-face interaction, three National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded centers employed a virtual/remote format for their summer Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Programs, reaching K-12 STEM teachers across the country. Teachers participated virtually from four different states by joining engineering research teams from four different universities in three different RET programs. Lab experiences depended on the nature of the research and institution-specific guidelines for in-lab efforts, resulting in some teachers conducting lab experiments with materials sent directly to their homes, some completing their experience fully online, and some completing portions of lab work in person on campus. Each teacher developed an engineering lesson plan based on the corresponding center’s research to be implemented either in person or virtually during the 2020-2021 academic school year. Research posters, created with support from graduate student and faculty mentors, were presented to industry partners, education partners, center members, and the NSF. Support for the teachers as they implement lessons, present posters, and disseminate their developed curricula, has continued throughout the year. Common survey and interview/focus group protocols, previously designed specifically for measuring the impact of engineering education programs, were adapted and used to separately evaluate each of the three virtual programs. Strengths and suggested areas of improvement will be explored and discussed to inform future use of the common evaluation instruments. Additionally, preliminary results, highlighting general successes and challenges of shifting RET programming to a virtual/remote format across the three centers, will be discussed.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2023275
- PAR ID:
- 10436641
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Review directory American Society for Engineering Education
- ISSN:
- 0092-4326
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Introduction Despite years of research and practice, there remains a need to broaden participation in engineering. The NSF-funded research study [PROGRAM] addresses this issue by providing engineering curricula and professional development for high school teachers. [PROGRAM] also engages in building and maintaining a Community of Practice (CoP). The CoP model allows for strategic partnerships to create lasting connections between high schools and various community partners. Community partners include stakeholders such as school counselors, school administrators, district officials, parents, university liaisons, community liaisons, and industry representatives that cultivate a local ecosystem to support students and teachers in this pre-college engineering education initiative. Since the roles and responsibilities of community partners vary, this paper focuses on one type of partner: university liaisons. Within the CoP, university liaisons voluntarily commit their knowledge and expertise to support high school teachers during professional development and curriculum implementation. Each liaison typically supports up to two high schools. Liaisons also engage with each other via Slack, an online communication platform. Objective Our paper examines how university liaisons engage with the CoP in [PROGRAM]. The goals of this study are to: 1) Capture aspects that are currently viewed as exciting or challenging for university liaisons, and 2) Understand ways in which [PROGAM] could facilitate further involvement of these university liaisons in the CoP. Methods After obtaining IRB approval, we conducted virtual focus groups with five liaisons from distinct universities who work with eight [PROGAM] schools. Two focus groups averaged 60 minutes long; liaisons discussed their relationships with their partner high schools, resources through [PROGRAM], and education and outreach at their universities. The semi-structured format of the focus groups allowed liaisons to respond to each other and elaborate on their thoughts in a casual atmosphere. The focus groups were recorded and two coders are currently analyzing the transcripts. Results Analysis is ongoing. Initial findings suggest that university liaisons enjoy the experience of engaging with high school teachers and students, especially when they can bring students to campus and share their institutions’ engineering programs. As a proposed program change, liaisons are interested in more structure to the CoP. For example, high school teachers currently meet virtually as small groups for scheduled check-ins; university liaisons expressed interest in a similar monthly meeting to discuss their experiences and share resources and recommendations with other liaisons. Conclusions This paper evaluated the perceived experience of university liaisons in a CoP within [PROGRAM]. Findings provide direction on the best way to support current and future liaisons. These results may also be applicable to other programs that aim to cultivate lasting relationships between K-12 educators and postsecondary institutions.more » « less
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A new Research Experience for Teachers (RET) site was established in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University (NDSU) with funding from the National Science Foundation Division of Engineering Education and Centers (NSF Award #1953102). The site focused on civil engineering instruction around the theme of mitigating natural disasters for secondary education (6th to 12th grade) teachers. Eight local teachers and one pre-service teacher (who comprised the first cohort) were provided with a six-week long authentic research experience during the summer, which they translated into a hands-on curriculum for their classrooms during the 2021-2022 academic year. Partnerships were developed between the host institution, area teachers and local partners from civil engineering industries. This paper will summarize the lessons learned by the authors as well as the effectiveness of the program activities to accomplish two objectives: (1) provide a deeper understanding of civil engineering and (2) develop better abilities among secondary education teachers to prepare future science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) leaders. Several strengths were identified by the authors as they reflected on the summer activities including the successes in creating strong connections between the teachers, faculty members and graduate students, and the industry partners as well as the agility of the core research team to overcome unexpected challenges. However, the reflections also revealed several areas for improvement that would increase the accessibility of the site to underserved and/or underrepresented teacher populations, better utilize the resources available and in general, improve the quality of the program and curriculum developed by the teachers. Included within this paper are suggestions that the authors would make to improve current and future RET sites. All of the teachers agreed or strongly agreed that their participation in the RET program increased their knowledge of STEM topics and specifically, civil engineering topics. The participants agreed to varying extents that they will use the information they learned from the program to teach their students and will implement the new strategies they gained to promote increased student learning about STEM topics. Furthermore, the feedback that they provided corroborated some of the same changes the authors plan to implement.more » « less
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A new Research Experience for Teachers (RET) site was established in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University (NDSU) with funding from the National Science Foundation Division of Engineering Education and Centers (NSF Award #1953102). The site focused on civil engineering instruction around the theme of mitigating natural disasters for secondary education (6th to 12th grade) teachers. Eight local teachers and one pre-service teacher (who comprised the first cohort) were provided with a six-week long authentic research experience during the summer, which they translated into a hands-on curriculum for their classrooms during the 2021-2022 academic year. Partnerships were developed between the host institution, area teachers and local partners from civil engineering industries. This paper will summarize the lessons learned by the authors as well as the effectiveness of the program activities to accomplish two objectives: (1) provide a deeper understanding of civil engineering and (2) develop better abilities among secondary education teachers to prepare future science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) leaders. Several strengths were identified by the authors as they reflected on the summer activities including the successes in creating strong connections between the teachers, faculty members and graduate students, and the industry partners as well as the agility of the core research team to overcome unexpected challenges. However, the reflections also revealed several areas for improvement that would increase the accessibility of the site to underserved and/or underrepresented teacher populations, better utilize the resources available and in general, improve the quality of the program and curriculum developed by the teachers. Included within this paper are suggestions that the authors would make to improve current and future RET sites. All of the teachers agreed or strongly agreed that their participation in the RET program increased their knowledge of STEM topics and specifically, civil engineering topics. The participants agreed to varying extents that they will use the information they learned from the program to teach their students and will implement the new strategies they gained to promote increased student learning about STEM topics. Furthermore, the feedback that they provided corroborated some of the same changes the authors plan to implement.more » « less
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null (Ed.)Research Experience for Teachers (RET) programs are National Science Foundation (NSF) funded programs designed to provide K- 12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) teachers with immersive, hands-on research experiences at Universities around the country. The NSF RET in nanotechnology encourages teachers to translate cutting-edge research into culturally relevant Project-Based Learning (PjBL) and engineering curriculum. Traditionally, the evaluation of RET programs focuses on the growth and development of teacher self-efficacy, engineering content knowledge gains, or classroom implementation of developed curriculum materials. However, reported methods for evaluating the impact of RETs on their female, minority student populations' high school graduation and undergraduate STEM major rates are limited. This study's objective was to compare RET high school student graduation rates and undergraduate STEM major rates across gender, race, and ethnicity to a comparison sample to determine the RET program's long-term impact on students' likelihood of pursuing STEM careers. The approach of collecting and analyzing the Texas Education Research Center Database (EdRC) data is a novel methodology for assessing RET programs' effectiveness on students. The EdRC is a repository of K-12 student data from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Higher Education data from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). This joint database contains demographic, course registration, graduation, standardized testing, and college major, among others, for all students that attended a K-12 public school in Texas and any college in Texas, public or private. The RET program participants at Rice University (2010 – 2018) taught numerous students, a sample size of 11,240 students. A propensity score matching generated the student comparison group within the database. Students' school campus, gender, race/ethnic status, and English proficiency status were applied to produce a graduation comparison sample size of 11,240 students of Non-RET participants. Linking the TEA database to the THECB database resulted in college STEM participants and comparison sample sizes of 4,029 students. The project team conducted a logistic regression using RET status to predict high school graduation rates as a whole and by individual variables: gender, Asian American, Black, Caucasian, and Latinx students. All models were significant at p less than 0.05, with models in favor of students RET teachers. The project team conducted a logistic regression using RET status to predict student STEM undergraduate major rates as a whole and by individual variables: Gender, Asian American, Black, Caucasian, and Latinx students. African American and Caucasian models were significant at p less than 0.05; Gender, Asian American, and Latinx models were marginally significant (0.05 less than p greater than 0.1), where RET students had higher STEM major rates than matched controls. The findings demonstrate that RET programs have a long-term positive impact on the students' high school graduation rates and undergraduate STEM major rates. As teachers who participate in the RET programs are more likely to conduct courses using PjBL strategies and incorporate real-world engineering practices, female and minority students are more likely to benefit from these practices and seek careers utilizing these skills.more » « less
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