Online Deliberate Practice to Develop Questioning and Discussion Techniques of Undergraduate STEM Students Who Plan to Become Teachers

University Of West Florida, Pensacola FL

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest in excellent STEM education by creating a practice-based online learning experience for future STEM teachers. Many STEM teachers enter the classroom with limited experience asking effective questions and facilitating productive STEM class discussions. This project will develop online experiences to help future STEM teachers develop valuable teaching, questioning, and discussion skills before beginning classroom field experiences. Teacher skills have been correlated with teacher turnover, job satisfaction, and student outcomes. Thus, improving teaching skills has the potential to increase persistence in teaching careers. To foster teaching skill development, the online learning experiences in a simulated classroom will provide repeated opportunities for STEM undergraduate students to practice teaching skills. This approach includes deliberate practice within simulations, timely peer and mentor feedback, and guided self-reflection. All feedback will be based on the Danielson (2013) rubric allowing transferability of findings to other settings and providing information that is independent of the experts providing the feedback. Anticipated project outcomes include the development of effective practice-based teacher education learning experiences, replication of online instructional activities, and preparation of future teachers to ask effective questions and encourage stimulating STEM discussions. This project engages undergraduate preservice STEM students through the online instructional platforms, Mursion™ and Canvas™. Canvas™ provides a comprehensive learning management system that will enable the undergraduate pre-service teachers to engage in deliberate practice. For example, they can record their actions, post the recording, receive feedback, and use the feedback to improve their actions. Mursion™ provides a simulated classroom environment using avatar students. Through these virtual platforms, the future teachers can engage in repeated practice to develop skills in creating and posing specific questions to elicit evidence of STEM student understanding. Using a mixed-methods research design, the project has potential to advance: (1) practice-based undergraduate preservice STEM teacher preparation; (2) the use of online platforms to create synchronous and asynchronous STEM teacher skill practice opportunities; and (3) an infrastructure to develop questioning and discussion techniques that could be replicated for other important teaching skills. Results of this project will be disseminated through professional avenues (i.e. national and local conferences and peer-reviewed journals), the NSF video showcase, and a project website. This project will benefit the STEM education community by providing online, replicable practice-based approaches that can be used for teacher preparation. This project’s practice-based teacher preparation approach, practice-based instructional activities, and online infrastructure will be replicable by other teacher preparation programs. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. 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.