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Elementary‐level teachers often express the need for assistance and support in teaching integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) lessons. Many lack content knowledge in these disciplines, and many also report a lack of adequate opportunities to teach these subjects during their preservice programs or their in‐service careers. We addressed this need by offering online professional development (PD) opportunities in integrated STEM, using model lessons that are anchored in the BSCS 5E instructional model, also known as the learning cycle. Our broader goal is to establish a professional learning community for both preservice and in‐service elementary teachers focused on integrated STEM education. We based our design and implementation of an engineering‐focused PD sequence on research literature, integrating STEM content areas and emphasizing key factors for maximizing impact, such as active learning, content focus, coherence, duration, and participant engagement. In this article, we outline the structure and describe the activities we conducted over the summer, which included elements of collaboration, interaction, and reflection. Our team also chose to incorporate picture books featuring international STEM role models, like Zaha Hadid, in the book titled The World is not a Rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid by Jeannette Winter. The insights gained from this iteration of the PD will inform the planning of future online PD offerings for elementary teachers. 

Elementary teachers often feel underprepared to teach integrated STEM (iSTEM) and describe their preservice teacher preparation as ineffective. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which semester-long STEM methods courses influenced elementary preservice teachers’ (PSTs) iSTEM teaching self-efficacy and identify how the sources of self-efficacy influenced their beliefs and confidence in teaching iSTEM. Participants included 131 PSTs at a large midwestern research-intensive public university in the United States. Quantitative data sources included the Self-Efficacy for Teaching Integrated STEM instrument administered as a pre-and post-test. The qualitative data collection included two semi-structured interviews with 10 selected participants. Findings suggest that PSTs experienced growth in iSTEM teaching self-efficacy through their STEM methods coursework. Sources that emerged as contributors toward enhanced confidence to teach iSTEM were enactive mastery, emotional arousal, vicarious experiences, and verbal persuasions. The implications for preservice teacher preparation programs and future research on iSTEM teaching self-efficacy are discussed. 

Online professional development (PD) can reach teachers from widespread areas. Here, we describe PD activities that are part of a project focused on integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (iSTEM) teaching self-efficacy and effectiveness among early-career elementary teachers. Toward our objective of building a community of elementary teachers focused on improving their iSTEM teaching, we are conducting online PD institutes over four summers. These PD institutes are designed using Desimone’s five critical features of effective PD: content focus, active learning, coherence, duration, and collective participation. Our institutes engage teachers in an initial synchronous online session, which is followed by independent work time to put their learning into practice. It concludes with a final synchronous online session where teachers share their asynchronous work, receive feedback, and identify the next steps in enacting their learning in the classroom. Below we describe the first year’s PD activities. 

Online professional development (PD) can reach teachers from widespread areas. Here, we describe PD activities that are part of a project focused on integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (iSTEM) teaching self-efficacy and effectiveness among early-career elementary teachers. Toward our objective of building a community of elementary teachers focused on improving their iSTEM teaching, we are conducting online PD institutes over four summers. These PD institutes are designed using Desimone’s five critical features of effective PD: content focus, active learning, coherence, duration, and collective participation. Our institutes engage teachers in an initial synchronous online session, which is followed by independent work time to put their learning into practice. It concludes with a final synchronous online session where teachers share their asynchronous work, receive feedback, and identify the next steps in enacting their learning in the classroom. Below we describe the first year’s PD activities.