Expanding The Reach of A Successful Pre-service Teacher Research Program

This project aims to serve the national need to prepare high-quality STEM teachers with first-hand experience in authentic disciplinary STEM practices that are core to scientific research, while simultaneously contributing to the understanding of what works--and for whom--in teacher-research programs. It seeks to expand the successful STEM Teacher and Researcher (STAR) Program at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo to three other institutions and to develop the ability of these institutions to operate their own versions of STAR in the future.

The pre-service teacher audience for this effort is comprised of undergraduates preparing to be STEM teachers. STAR focuses especially on those undergraduates from communities that have been historically underrepresented in these domains, and will support the participation of these students in authentic science research and structured educational workshops.

These experiences are intended to develop knowledge, skills, and perspectives that allow them to engage their future students in productive STEM learning situations, as well as to reflect upon and overcome the impact of external exclusionary messages about who does and who does not belong in STEM. Thus, this work assists the pre-service STEM teachers in developing personal productive mindsets about their own intellect and capabilities, as well as perspectives on promoting their future students’ sense of connection with STEM.

This project is a collaboration among four institutions: the California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, Southern University and A&M in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (one of the designated Historically Black Colleges and Universities), Heritage University on the Yakima Reservation in Toppenish, Washington (an Hispanic Serving Institution and Native Serving Institution), and California State University East Bay in Hayward (an Hispanic Serving Institution). Over three years, the project intends to provide 120 nine-week summer research placements to prospective STEM teachers from the partnering institutions and any Noyce project in the nation.

Through the efforts of the project team research placements are anticipated to take place in one of more than forty cooperating national labs, university research facilities (including those of the partner institutions), and other R&D settings. The project aims to conduct a series of studies using quantitative data from surveys and questionnaires, as well as qualitative data from in-depth interviews, to examine the effect that participation in the STAR Program has on the development of productive mindsets (growth mindset, belonging, identity) and their subsequent effects on pedagogical practices.

The project’s research agenda also intends to develop a new scale - the "Disciplinary Nature of STEM Scale" - to measure the different ways people think about the nature of STEM disciplines. The project’s hypotheses regarding participation in STAR leading to the participants becoming stronger in their view of STEM (compared to being taught about research rather than doing research) will be tested.

It is anticipated that such research experiences lead to the development of the kinds of productive mindsets and pedagogical approaches that research has found to benefit student achievement and ultimately reduce racial gaps in educational outcomes. This expansion of the STAR Program will undergo formative and summative evaluation to guide improvements in the program.

This Noyce Research project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts.

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.