Preparing Elementary Pre-service Teachers to Support STEM Success for English Learners

This project aims to serve the national interest by improving elementary STEM teaching and learning. To this end, it will create and study a science education program intended to better prepare elementary pre-service teachers. The project will focus on developing the pre-service teachers’ STEM and teaching content knowledge and teaching skills, particularly for teaching students who are English learners.

The project will do so through a strategic partnership between the University’s Elementary and Early Childhood Education Department and the Department of Defense STARBASE program at Hanscom Air Force Base to create and two three-credit courses and a field experience for preservice teachers. The first course will on teaching physical science, technology, and engineering, with integrated mathematics, using the Department of Defense STARBASE curriculum.

STARBASE is a STEM enrichment program for school districts with large populations of economically disadvantaged students. This specialized STEM content course will be designed so that pre-service teachers integrate their understanding of science concepts with teaching models advocated by science education research. The course will be co-taught by a Bridgewater State University science educator and STARBASE teachers, who teach the same science concepts to elementary students throughout the year.

The second course will be designed to provide pre-service teachers with knowledge, skills, and best practices to assist English learners' success in learning science. It will include sheltered instruction strategies consistent with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education guidelines. Physical science and technology concepts from the STARBASE curriculum will be used in teaching the pre-service teachers about useful instructional strategies to support the success of English learners.

Both the content course and the engaging English learners course require fieldwork. These requirements will be met by placing the pre-service teachers as assistants at one of the one-week STARBASE for English learners’ summer programs.

This project’s research study aims to advance understanding of connections among motivation and pedagogical content knowledge development for pre-service teachers. It seeks to add to research findings associated with affecting pre-service teachers’ interest, engagement, self-efficacy, and outcome expectancy for student success in science. It will follow design-based research methodologies in combination with a quasi-experimental design with nonequivalent groups.

The preservice teachers in the project’s set of courses and field experience will be compared to a sample of pre-service teaching taking the traditional on-campus physical science content course and course on instruction for English learners. This project intends to provide the pre-service teachers with opportunities to learn pedagogical strategies for and work directly with English learners.

A potential outcome is enabling children who are English language learners to experience success in learning science from an early age. Such success may offer entire communities of learners a pathway to educational programs and careers that were once inaccessible. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students.

This is an Engaged Student Learning Level 1 early stage research project focused on undergraduate pre-service teachers. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.