scholarly journals Best IASL Conference 2017 Paper: Preparing Teacher Librarians to Support STEM Education

2017 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Melissa P. Johnston

A current focus in schools in the United States is STEM education, which prepares students for successful employment and post-secondary studies that require unique and more-technically advanced skills through teaching and learning in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This approach is grounded in problem solving, discovery, and exploratory learning, which requires students to actively engage in a situation in order to find its solution. Students engage in STEM learning in many different ways, with technology and digital resources playing an important role. The prominence of technology in STEM education provides leadership opportunities for teacher librarians. Yet, teacher librarians must be prepared to lead in the integration of technology to support STEM education. This report presents identified needs of teacher librarians in regards to supporting STEM education and discusses implications for better preparing pre-service teacher librarians to lead in order to address the needs of a new generation of learners.

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Fraser ◽  
Nicoli Barnes ◽  
Sue Kilpatrick ◽  
John Guenther ◽  
Georgie Nutton

Rural, regional and remote (RRR) communities and industries in Australia cannot currently produce or attract the workforce needed to survive, making skills and qualifications in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) increasingly important. Yet student engagement in STEM education in RRR schools remains low, with limited numbers of young people either moving into further STEM education post-secondary, or accessing readily available STEM-related jobs in RRR areas. Currently many rural children and young people are not exposed to, nor recognize the diverse ways in which STEM knowledge is required and used in their world. We propose that if young people are to increasingly engage with STEM and continue onto STEM-related careers, they must be able to see connections between their “school” learning of STEM and the STEM knowledge that is enacted in rural work and life. We also suggest that for this to change, there should be increased visibility of “place-based” knowledges, including Aboriginal STEM knowledges, in RRR communities to promote enhanced student engagement with STEM. In this paper we explore these ideas by drawing on Foucault and Bourdieu understandings to develop a methodological framework – the Place-based STEM- alignment Framework for the purposes of exposing alternate STEM knowledges. We argue that the nuanced and critical methodological approach applied in the development of the Place-based STEM-alignment Framework, is necessary in order to generate this analytical tool and provide data that will allow us the scope to “reset” current understandings of STEM knowledges. The framework design provides us with the methodological vehicle to identify possible reasons for the invisibility of STEM knowledge and practices in the local fabric of RRR communities and to examine enablers and/or barriers to engagement in STEM learning. The framework must be a practical tool for use in the field, one that can be used in RRR communities to engage, children and young people, in STEM, in a way that is meaningful and that aligns with their everyday experience of RRR life. Finally, the framework has to work to enable alternative perspectives to be exposed that will advance methodological considerations of STEM.


Author(s):  
Melissa P. Johnston ◽  
Lucy Santos Green ◽  
Amanda Jones ◽  
Erica Thompson

The prominence of technology in STEM education provides opportunities for teacher librarians to collaborate with teachers across multiple disciplines and embrace leadership roles through integrating digital tools for teaching and learning. This presentation will discuss work from the federally funded REALISD project which is providing professional development for K-12 teacher librarians for designing and facilitating STEM learning in their schools. Participants will learn about locating, accessing, and evaluating digital resources, along with strategies for utilizing resources to provide learning experiences in the STEM areas through both formal and informal instruction.


Author(s):  
Yeping Li ◽  
Alan H. Schoenfeld

AbstractMathematics is fundamental for many professions, especially science, technology, and engineering. Yet, mathematics is often perceived as difficult and many students leave disciplines in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as a result, closing doors to scientific, engineering, and technological careers. In this editorial, we argue that how mathematics is traditionally viewed as “given” or “fixed” for students’ expected acquisition alienates many students and needs to be problematized. We propose an alternative approach to changes in mathematics education and show how the alternative also applies to STEM education.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 954-972 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sevgi Aydin-Gunbatar ◽  
Aysegul Tarkin-Celikkiran ◽  
Elif Selcan Kutucu ◽  
Betul Ekiz-Kiran

In this study, we sought to examine the influence of a 12 week design-based elective Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) course on pre-service chemistry teachers’ content knowledge, STEM conceptions, and engineering and engineering design views. To attain the goals determined, we utilized five STEM activities starting with a daily-life problem and an iterative engineering design process to solve the problem. A chemistry test with 11 two-tier items, and interviews focusing on STEM and engineering conceptions were administered at the beginning and at the end of the course. Moreover, a reflection paper was collected after each activity. Eight junior pre-service chemistry teachers participated in the study voluntarily. Deductive and inductive data analyses were used to investigate the influence of the course on participants’ content knowledge, STEM conceptions, and engineering and engineering design views. The results revealed that the design-based STEM course helped pre-service teachers deepen their content knowledge. Additionally, most of the participants defined integrated STEM education as an acronym (n= 6) and very few mentioned the interdisciplinary dimension of STEM education superficially at the beginning (n= 3). At the end, they mentioned interdisciplinary nature as connecting at least two dimensions of STEM, and they emphasized engaging in real-world problems, designing a product or process and inquiry-based and/or problem-based learning. Regarding engineering and engineering design views, a similar development was observed. Although their views were undeveloped or underdeveloped at the beginning, they enriched their views and mentioned defining criteria, creativity and integration to science and mathematics that are characteristics of engineering and design processes. Implications for including STEM courses in pre-service teacher education programs were provided.


Author(s):  
Diane A. Matthews

Technology-based distance education is emerging as an increasingly visible feature of post-secondary education in the United States (U.S. Department of Education, 1999). Educators have the opportunity to define, design, and manage effective and robust teaching and learning systems, programs, and courses. As distance learning becomes a serious alternative to the standard classroom environment, enormous opportunities and dilemmas present themselves for the players. This chapter examines the technology used in distance education; the type of student utilizing distance education; advantages and disadvantages for the student, the instructor, and the institution in the use of distance education; and the players involved—including higher education institutions, virtual universities, states, and consortia.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (19) ◽  
pp. 2496
Author(s):  
Genaro de Gamboa ◽  
Edelmira Badillo ◽  
Digna Couso ◽  
Conxita Márquez

In this research, we explored the potential of using a research-based teaching and learning sequence to promote pupils’ engagement in practices that are coherent with those of real world mathematical and scientific activity. This STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematis) sequence was designed and implemented by pre-service teachers and science and mathematics education researchers with the aim of modeling the growth of a real population of rabbits. Results show explicit evidence of pupils’ engagement in relevant mathematical and scientific practices, as well as detailed descriptions of mathematical connections that emerged from those practices. We discuss how these practices and connections allowed the progressive construction of models, and the implications that this proposal may have for STEM task design and for the analysis of extra-mathematical connections.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-51
Author(s):  
Ong Eng Tek ◽  
Norazura Safiee ◽  
Zaharah Mat Jusoh ◽  
Sabri Md Salleh ◽  
Abdul Manas Hanafi Mohamed Noor

Given the context of rising international education standards and the aspiration of better preparing Malaysia’s children for the needs of the 21st century, the Government of Malaysia has conceptualised the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 which embodies 11 strategic and operational shifts. In Shift 1, it is emphasised that the quality of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education will be enhanced. Accordingly, this paper describes the pedagogical practice of Project-based Inquiry Learning (PIL) which promotes STEM Education among Year 1 students in the move to progress in tandem with Shift 1. Specifically, using the context of a magnet which has been stipulated in the Primary School Standard Curriculum, Year 1 students experienced the STEM Education through the STEM Pedagogy in which they raised questions upon the presentation of a relevant stimulus (Inquiry Phase), explored the ways in which a train carriage or coach could be assembled by means of recycled materials and magnets (Exploration Phase), designed a train carriage (Design Phase), and ultimately reflected on their inventions (Reflection Phase). The cognitive and affective impacts though the use of this Project-based Inquiry Learning are presented. Implications for the teaching and learning of science are discussed within the context of STEM Education.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 513-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maia Popova ◽  
Lu Shi ◽  
Jordan Harshman ◽  
Annika Kraft ◽  
Marilyne Stains

In this era of instructional transformation of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses at the postsecondary level in the United States, the focus has been on educating science faculty about evidence-based instructional practices, i.e. practices that have been empirically proven to enhance student learning outcomes. The literature on professional development at the secondary level has demonstrated a tight interconnectedness between ones’ beliefs about teaching and learning and one's instructional practices and the need to attend to faculty's beliefs when engaging them in instructional change processes. Although discipline-based education researchers have made great strides in characterizing instructional practices of STEM faculty, much less attention has been given to understanding the beliefs of STEM about teaching and learning. Knowledge of instructors’ thinking can inform faculty professional development initiatives that encourage faculty to reflect on the beliefs that drive their classroom practices. Therefore, this study characterized the interplay between beliefs and instructional practices of nineteen assistant chemistry professors. Luft and Roehrig's Teaching Beliefs Interview protocol was used to capture beliefs; classroom observations and course artifacts were collected to capture practices. Clear trends were identified between faculty's beliefs (characterized through constant-comparative analysis and cluster analysis) and practices (characterized with Blumberg's Learner-Centered Teaching Rubric). Overall, beliefs of most of the participants were somewhat aligned with their instructional practices, with the exception of one cluster of faculty who held student-centered beliefs, but received only moderate scores on the Learner-Centered Teaching Rubric.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Luis M. Dos Santos

The science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and teaching field is facing significant human resources shortages, particularly in the subject matter of environmental sciences education. The current study collected interview and focus group data and sharing from 220 pre-service and in-service second career-changing teachers in the United States about their career decision and decision-making process. The results of this study indicated that the participants believe educating the next generation is their priority of joining the education and teaching profession. Many expressed that the populations of STEM teachers with professional and industry experiences are greatly needed. The outcomes of this study provided the blueprint for researchers, school leaders, policymakers and human resources planners to reform and polish their current plans for teachers training and professional development in order to solve the workforce issues in the fields of STEM education and teaching.   Received: 29 May 2021 / Accepted: 15 July 2021 / Published: 5 September 2021


2018 ◽  
pp. 815-829
Author(s):  
Kiriko Komura

Educating the future STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) workforce is key to driving economic development worldwide in the 21st century. Institutions of higher education are challenged to grow their students' global competencies. Moreover, highly skilled and talented students need support to seek their business and industry opportunities directly connected to their graduate education. This chapter introduces a case study of interdisciplinary STEM education, known as professional science master's degrees, which has been developed and implemented in the United States for over a decade. The degree was created intentionally incorporating relevant business components customized to professional careers with the promise for increased business and industry economic development regionally, nationally, and internationally. Furthermore, this chapter was designed to help international educators and institutional leaders who seek new developments in graduate degrees in the area of STEM education align with future employment prospects.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document