Conference on STEM Teacher Preparation at Liberal Arts Institutions

Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr PA

Investigators

Abstract

The Consortium for Excellence in Teacher Preparation, a coalition of liberal arts colleges and universities from the northeast with small teacher preparation programs, is sponsoring a three day conference on STEM Teacher Preparation at Liberal Arts Institutions to be held at Bryn Mawr College. The primary focus of the conference is on ways to increase the number of STEM graduates from liberal arts institutions who go into teaching, while also examining a wider range of issues related to STEM teacher preparation. The conference addresses the issue: Maximizing the Contribution of Liberal Arts Institutions to Strengthening the STEM Teacher Preparation Pipeline. Liberal arts institutions prepare a relatively small number of STEM teachers, but the teachers they do prepare have strong content knowledge, tend to take on leadership roles in their schools and thereby have the potential to make a disproportionately large impact on the schools in which they teach. By building a network focused on STEM teacher preparation among liberal arts institutions, the conference has the potential to significantly strengthen the contribution of these institutions to the national effort to produce more high quality math and science teachers.