Page 99 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

Systematic Support for STEM Pre-Service Teachers

K-12 STEM learning experience. The rationale of building the professional development model upon
the four pillars is to allow pre-service teachers to experience and gain knowledge about authentic STEM
learning before providing it to their future students.

THE AUTHENTIC AND SUSTAINABLE FOUR-PILLAR STEM PD MODEL

The four-pillar STEM professional development model proposed in this chapter is authentic and sustain-
able in the sense that this model intends to provide STEM pre-service teachers with resources, knowledge,
and authentic experiences that would enable them, after entering the teaching profession, to give their
students authentic STEM learning experience and to make sustainable contributions to K-12 STEM
education. This professional development model was developed based on the authors’ experience in
Project Engage funded by the U.S. Department of Education. This section, after giving a brief overview
of Project Engage, focuses on the authentic and sustainable four-pillar STEM professional development
model introducing the theoretical underpinnings of the model and illustrating the professional develop-
ment learning activities in the model using those learning activities from Project Engage.

Project Engage

Project Engage is a three-year grant (2011-2014) funded by the U.S. Department of Education at the
University of West Alabama (UWA). UWA enrolls 21% of its student body in STEM degree programs,
of which half are minority students. Primarily, Project Engage was designed and implemented for the
purpose of increasing the retention rates of minority STEM undergraduates between their freshman and
sophomore years through intensive academic and personal mentoring, and exposure to opportunities
inherent in STEM fields. A second purpose of Project Engage is to increase graduation rates of minor-
ity STEM undergraduates through their continued participation in project activities during the second
year and beyond.
Project Engage participants were all freshmen students pursuing STEM majors including pre-service
teachers in STEM education. These STEM pre-service teachers were similar to other participants of
Project Engage: lacking educational preparation and experiences in STEM, lacking motivation in STEM,
and having limited access to STEM professional role-models. In Project Engage, the STEM pre-service
teachers participated in STEM-enhanced curricula, received strategically-designed mentoring, partici-
pated in guided STEM career exploration, engaged in early, ongoing STEM inquiry, interacted with
fellow cohort members, STEM faculty, and STEM experts currently employed in various STEM-related
disciplines while receiving on-going encouragement and support resulting in graduation from UWA.
Based on experience working with the STEM pre-service teachers in Project Engage, the authors of this
chapter developed the four-pillar STEM professional development model.

Theoretical Underpinnings of the Four-Pillar STEM
Professional Development Model

The four-pillars in the STEM professional development model proposed in this chapter reflect the new
STEM professional development paradigm of cultivating STEM teachers’ ability to create authentic
STEM learning experiences along with enhancing their STEM content knowledge and their PCK in

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