Growing into Teacher-Researchers: Using Mindsets to Frame Research for Noyce Scholars and PIs as a Component of Teacher Preparation

California Polytechnic State University Foundation, San Luis Obispo CA

Investigators

Abstract

As STEM professionals, STEM teachers need to continue to grow their content knowledge and research skill set. Research experiences for undergraduates and for teachers have been shown to advance understanding of the nature of STEM disciplines, the processes of scientific research, and to assist in retention within the STEM disciplines and within the STEM teaching field. Moreover, STEM teachers who participate in research experiences are better prepared to incorporate the professional practices of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in their classrooms, impacting positively several thousands of precollege students. This project, supported by the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program, will leverage the STEM Teacher and Researcher Program (STAR), led by California Polytechnic State University, to place a cohort of thirty-two (total of 64) Noyce Scholars in immersive, mentored summer research experiences at national laboratories, universities, and research & development centers, in the Summer 2018 and 2019, respectively. The Noyce Scholars will join other STAR Fellows as they work with researchers in conducting original research while also participating in concurrent workshops. One type of workshop is designed to assist the Noyce STAR Fellows in incorporating the practices of working scientists, engineers, and mathematicians into their classroom teaching. A second project-specific workshop will provide Noyce STAR Fellows with opportunities to become familiar with educational research results on mindsets about intelligence and belonging. The Fellows will examine research on how perspectives of whether intelligence is innate or malleable can impact the ways in which individuals deal with personal and academic challenges, as well as how such views may help or obstruct whether or not they feel they belong in STEM disciplines. The project will also test the effectiveness of strategies and tools in helping teacher-researchers interpret their own struggles in research in terms of healthy mindsets for intelligence and deepen their sense of belonging in STEM. Results from this investigation will help to inform improvements in teacher-researcher programs and their role in teacher preparation efforts. In addition to providing Noyce Scholars with research experiences in research laboratories and professional development workshops, this project will conduct an educational research study focused on three research questions. First: What are STAR Fellows' prior implicit beliefs about intelligence, including their own and that of their students? Second: To what extent does framing summer STAR workshops with the view that belonging in the research community is largely determined by effort, as opposed to achievement, ameliorate Fellows' sense of unproductive struggle during the summer research experience? Third: To what extent does framing summer STAR workshops with the view that intelligence is malleable change the types of feedback that Fellows would provide struggling students? Researchers have documented that problematic teacher beliefs have a negative impact on their pedagogical choices. This project's proposed research on beliefs about intelligence and belonging in STEM for this population of students in the teacher professional continuum will contribute to the knowledge base on research experiences for teachers. In addition, it will inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of more effective research immersion programs for teachers and students. Attention to conceptual understanding is inadequate by itself to stem the tide of underrepresentation in STEM. Non-cognitive issues in STEM learning and belonging, especially in the context of research experiences, have not been addressed by educational research to the depth they deserve. This project will contribute to filling this gap in the research literature. 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.