Page 97 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

Systematic Support for STEM Pre-Service Teachers

Table 1. Authenticity model (Strobel et al., 2013)

Categories Description/Key Definition Curricula Features
1. Contains a real-world professional environment 1. Provide input from diverse stakeholders
2. Provides everyday experience 2. Be a complex problems solving context and
Contextual
3. Resemble social challenges or social interactions interdisciplinary context
Authenticity
4. Align school and professional outcomes 3. Provide situations of collaboration, access to tools and
resources, and ownership
1. Students are engaged in tasks similar to professionals 1. Contain ill-structured problems, no pre-specifications
Task 2. Reflect or develop professional skills for students 2. Contain open-ended creative activities.
Authenticity 3. Challenge students in decision-making in practical 3. Promote disciplined inquiry
contexts 4. Ask students to interpret ambiguous data
1. Actions in cultural practices 1. Professional community standards in relative area
Impact 2. Social events, issues or impact 2. Project results influence people outside of school
Authenticity 3. Students’ role as effective citizens 3. Minorities’ experiences in the role of engineers or
4. Students as collaborators of industry scientists
1. Produce knowledge with values in students’ lives and 1. Problematizing the subject matter
studies beyond simply proving their competence 2. Perceive relations between the practices and the use of
Personal/Value 2. Integrate everyday life experience, personal interests, value in them
Authenticity professional target and cultural values 3. Pursue personal goals and have personal choice
3. Develop a sense of identity and sense of confidence 4. Be engaged in personal construction of new knowledge
in learning task-environments

STEM by promoting their self-efficacy beliefs about STEM and by allowing them to see the relevance
of STEM through personal experience. Underpinning this emphasis are learning theories regarding
self-efficacy beliefs and motivational effects of relevance. Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy beliefs
as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given
attainments” (p. 3).
The terms mastery experience (also known as enactive experience) and vicarious experience (also
known as modeling) were identified by Bandura (1986, 1988) as two important sources of perceived
self-efficacy. While mastery experiences are real and direct experiences that increase one’s self-efficacy
by allowing the individual to experience performance successes, vicarious experiences are indirect expe-
riences that are able to increase one’s self-efficacy beliefs by allowing the individual to observe similar
others experiencing performance successes (Bandura, 1988). The authentic STEM learning experience
defined in this chapter will give K-12 students both mastery experience and vicarious experience with
STEM respectively through hands-on projects solving real world problems and through personal experi-
ence of exploring STEM facilities and interacting with STEM professionals, and consequently increase
K-12 students’ self-efficacy beliefs about STEM. Informal learning through enriched STEM experiences
can create authentic learning experiences for pre-service teachers. Huang, Lee & Lim’s research (2012)
proposed “when a pedagogy of experimentation exists in schools, learning becomes more authentic be-
cause students can anchor learning within rich contexts” (p.1087). In addition, as suggested by Keller’s
ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction) motivational theory and ARCS model of
motivational design (Keller, 1988, 2004; Keller & Suzuki, 1988), relevance is a key component to intrin-
sically motivate student learning. The authentic K-12 STEM learning experience allows students to see
the relevance of learning STEM through personal experience of real world STEM applications and their
impact and the perceived relevance will serve as a trigger to arouse students’ motivation to learn STEM.
Centering on the above four aspects of the authentic K-12 STEM learning experience, the authors of
this chapter proposed the authentic and sustainable four-pillar STEM professional development model.
As illustrated in Figure 1, the four-pillars of the model are targeting the four aspects of the authentic

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