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We are investigating factors that influence elementary teachers’ professional learning (PL) in science and engineering. The intervention and ongoing supports are offered at a distance to participants teaching grades 3-5 in rural school districts. Overarching research objectives include examining: (1) the impacts of online science and engineering PL; (2) the effectiveness of modest supports on the sustainability of PL outcomes; and (3) the changes to teachers’ engineering instructional practices. 

Engineering Structured Poster Session: During these 75-minute concurrent sessions, up to 12 presenting projects will share information about their work related to engineering education with each other and with attendees interested in the topic. Following brief introductions, interactive poster presentation and viewing occured in two rounds, and the session concluded with facilitated discussion across all projects. 

To deliver instruction consistent with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), especially with the inclusion of engineering, teachers need a high level of self-efficacy. Professional learning can foster self-efficacy, but short-term interventions have been found to have a limited impact on teachers’ instructional practices. The present study examines survey data collected from elementary teachers who were participating in a year-long NGSS-aligned professional learning program that was extended by professional learning communities (PLCs) and other supports. Experts led a 5-day institute which modeled shifts called for by NGSS (e.g., equitable, discourse-rich, phenomena-based) and provided teachers with opportunities to experience next-generation instruction. Participants (n=150) were recruited from rural communities, so, being mindful of historic challenges with access to professional learning, the institute in summer 2023 and the PLC sessions were delivered online. Four surveys were administered during 2023-2024, including a pre-, immediate post-, and delayed post-intervention surveys that captured teachers’ self-efficacy and outcome expectations related to science and engineering teaching and learning (T-STEM). We found teachers pre-intervention responses were more favorable for science, initially, but significant growth in engineering occurred throughout the period of study. Importantly, we also found evidence that ongoing supports, like PLCs, helped to sustain professional learning outcomes. 

Teachers in rural schools have consistently faced challenges in accessing high-quality professional learning (PL). Approximately 150 rural teachers in four states received intensive, online summer PL paired with a variety of Modest Supports throughout the following school year. We used Picciano’s multi-modal online educational model in characterizing the online summer PL and to evaluate the effectiveness of the Modest Supports. End-of-year surveys and interviews with teachers asked about their experiences with and perceptions of the Modest Supports. Initial descriptive statistics and thematic analysis found that teachers reported using the collaborative Modest Supports much more frequently than others and that they were more helpful and created a sense of community within the project while also supporting their NGSS learning and implementation. 

Public agencies and other funding organizations have often defined rural in reference to “urban” and using parameters such as population density, access to cities, and distance to market areas. Using such definitions of rurality within the context of K-12 education as a way to support these systems is challenging because of the diverse geographic and socio-cultural identities of these places despite a common “rural” designation. This study aims to analyze elementary teachers’ perceptions of their school context and role within that context to better understand the diversity of what it means to be rural. Semi-structured interviews with 3rd–5th-grade teachers (n = 35) were used. Data sources also included identity and community walk slides created by these teachers. Structured interview prompts were tailored to these activities. A priori and emergent coding analyses were used to examine teachers’ conception of their rural context and their role within that context. The results show that rural, as defined by teachers, is a diverse and connected place in which diverse community assets support teachers in their instruction in unique ways. By better understanding the diversity of what it means to be rural, we begin to understand the ways in which context shapes experience and best determine how to support rural educational experiences for both teachers and students. 

Despite the intent to advance engineering education with the NGSS, teachers across all grade levels lack confidence in their engineering content knowledge and pedagogy (Hammack & Ivey, 2019). This dilemma is exacerbated by a lack of quality NGSS-aligned curricular materials that integrate science and engineering at the elementary grades— currently, only one elementary unit reviewed by Achieve has received an NGSS Design Badge that includes engineering (NextGenScience, 2020), and these materials are especially unavailable in schools serving high-needs students (Banilower, 2019). Implementation research now acknowledges that contexts and conditions can, and often do, affect the enactment of innovations and that “improving education requires processes for changing individuals, organizations, and systems” (Century & Cassata, 2016, p. 172). Due to geographic location and, often, smaller collegial networks of teachers who teach science, and engineering, rural schools encounter acute challenges in recruiting and retaining teachers (Arnold et al., 2005) and providing content-specific Professional Learning (PL) (Harmon & Smith, 2007). The goal of this NSF DRK12 multi-institution project is to longitudinally investigate the impacts, sustainability, and costs of NGSS implementation, especially in rural contexts. Our approach differs from most interventions in that it is tailored to rural educators in grades 3–5 and offers curriculum-agnostic, fully online PL that supports teachers in utilizing resources and phenomena found in their local contexts to develop and implement engaging, NGSS-aligned engineering instruction. Our intervention began with a five-day (i.e., weeklong) online PL experience in the summer of 2023 for grades 3–5 teachers in each of four western states. Examples of PL sessions provided include: (1) an overview of three-dimensional learning and phenomena-based instruction; (2) a deep dive into the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs); (3) instructional practices that encourage equitable student participation and epistemic agency; and (4) building understanding and comfort with NGSS-aligned engineering and design-based instruction for the elementary grades. The initial intensive PL experience had immediate positive impacts on grades 3–5 teachers’ attitudes and efficacy for teaching engineering. We are now exploring how modest supports influence the sustainability of these changes. Over the 2023-2024 academic year, we are providing teachers with a menu of modest supports including: three 90-minute-long online PL meetings each semester, materials for teaching a locally focused engineering design task, and access to a variety of electronic supports (e.g., Google Classroom Site, shared resources). The fall semester online meetings have focused on supporting teachers to identify connections to science and engineering in their school’s community and how to develop NGSS-aligned engineering design tasks that connect to their local communities. Teachers will be implementing their engineering lessons during December 2023 and January 2024. 

In this paper, we report on our study of the implementation of an NGSS-designed middle school curriculum and how it fits into the larger context of a district system, including how it may be impacted by other system components (e.g., district support or teacher PL), and how these, in turn, may impact NGSS instruction in the classroom. This study was part of a larger randomized controlled trial that was conducted across four school districts with seventh grade science teachers and their students. We examined the nature of curriculum use and NGSS instruction in treatment and control conditions via instructional logs and surveys.