skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Innovate to Mitigate: Teacher Role in a Student Competition
The Innovate to Mitigate (I2M) project poses challenges for secondary-school students to design feasible, innovative strategies that mitigate CO2 emissions and thus global warming. Design is informed by research on problem-based learning, pedagogy for which poses demands on teachers. This paper presents preliminary evidence about how I2M teachers supported student teams to engage in science and engineering practices.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1908117
PAR ID:
10524182
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
https://repository.isls.org//handle/1/10035
Date Published:
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1817 to 1818
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. The rapid expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) necessitates educating all students about AI. This, however, poses great challenges because most K-12 teachers have limited prior knowledge or experience of teaching AI. This exploratory study reports the design of an online professional development program aimed at preparing teachers for teaching AI in classrooms. The program includes a book club where teachers read a book about AI and learned key activities of an AI curriculum developed for middle schoolers, and a 2-week practicum where teachers co-taught the curriculum in a summer camp. The participants were 17 teachers from three school districts across the United States. Analysis of their surveys revealed an increase in teachers’ content knowledge and self-efficacy in teaching AI. Teachers reported that the book club taught them AI concepts and the practicum sharpened their teaching practices. Our findings reveal valuable insights on teacher training for the AI education field. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract Mathematics teacher education programs in the United States are charged with preparing prospective secondary teachers (PSTs) to teach reasoning and proving across grade levels and mathematical topics. Although most programs require a course on proof, PSTs often perceive it as disconnected from their future classroom practice. Our design research project developed a capstone courseMathematical Reasoning and Proving for Secondary Teachersand systematically studied its effect on PSTs’ content and pedagogical knowledge specific to proof. This paper focuses on one course module—Quantification and the Role of Examples in Proving,a topic which poses persistent difficulties to students and teachers alike. The analysis suggests that after the course, PSTs’ content and pedagogical knowledge of the role of examples in proving increased. We provide evidence from multiple data sources: pre-and post-questionnaires, PSTs’ responses to the in-class activities, their lesson plans, reflections on lesson enactment, and self-report. We discuss design principles that supported PSTs’ learning and their applicability beyond the study context. 
    more » « less
  3. Participating in discussions of classroom video can support teachers to attend to student thinking. Central to the success of these discussions is how teachers interpret the activity they are engaged in—how teachersframewhat they are doing. In asynchronous online environments, negotiating framing poses challenges, given that interactions are not in real time and often require written text. We present findings from an online course designed to support teachers to frame video discussions as making sense of student thinking. In an engineering pedagogy course designed to emphasize responsiveness to students’ thinking, we documented shifts in teachers’ framing, with teachers more frequently making sense of, rather than evaluating, student thinking later in the course. These findings show that it is possible to design an asynchronous online course to productively engage teachers in video discussions and inform theory development in online teacher education. 
    more » « less
  4. Intercultural awareness, communication and competence have become critical professional skills. Teachers at all levels need these skills to ensure that all students in their classroom have equitable access to learning, and to effectively prepare their students to engage in an increasingly diverse and multicultural world. The US Department of Education has made broader global skills for students a priority and has charged colleges,and schools to provide new learning opportunities and course work to successfully develop these skills in teachers. Similarly, Some argue that international travel is integral to teacher preparation, encouraging a sense of “otherness” and an appreciation for the role of human difference, addressing misconceptions and stereotypes, and challenging teachers’ understanding of their “professional self.” Additionally, It is well established that the US has a need for enhanced participation as well as increased racial and gender diversity in the STEM Fields, particularly engineering. Teachers are critical to inspire and motivate students to consider pursuing STEM. However, stereotypes, and bias can impact how they engage with students, and who they believe “has what it takes to be an engineer.” Enhancing the cultural competence of teachers can help mitigate the bias and stereotypes, and help ensure more equitable access for students to being inspired to pursue STEM. To address these issues, two regional universities collaborated on a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Teachers grant to provide transformative international and intercultural experiences for teachers focused on human-centered design and appropriate technology for developing countries. Integrated throughout this experience, is professional learning aimed at developing the cultural competence of the teachers, and coaching to help the teachers integrate this learning, as well as their engineering experiences into their classrooms. This paper will summarize key findings from two cohorts of participants with a focus on how this experience impacted the cultural competence of the teachers. 
    more » « less
  5. Digital safety involves protecting oneself, and one’s personal information to mitigate the risks that are inherently associated with using digital technologies. This study employed a multi-method design to explore 26 in-service and pre-service elementary teacher experiences from attending a professional development on digital safety and facilitating a digital safety immersion summer camp. Data was collected through pre- and post-test assessments, surveys, and interviews. Findings from knowledge assessments indicate no significant difference in pre- and post-test assessment. However, elementary teachers displayed high motivation, valuing the critical need for ongoing digital safety education and opportunities for collaboration and self-reflection from the survey and interviews. Teacher challenges included teaching students from different backgrounds with varied expectations and engaging the learners. This study provides recommendations for teacher professional development and has implications for designing teacher professional development on digital safety and for administrators to offer support on digital safety topics amidst the challenges the teachers discussed. 
    more » « less