Collaborative Research: Research on Integrated STEM Self-Efficacy: A Study of Elementary Preservice Teachers including Noyce Scholars

Southern Methodist University, Dallas TX

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national need of supporting the development and retention of highly effective elementary (K-6) STEM teachers. Elementary teachers are often uncomfortable teaching science, mathematics, and engineering as independent subjects, and STEM integration poses new challenges. Previous research has explored links between confidence (or self-efficacy), teacher effectiveness, and teacher retention, but self-efficacy for teaching integrated STEM (iSTEM) is largely unexplored. This project will include approximately 700 teachers who experienced ten different teacher preparation programs. It aims to identify programmatic features that support early career elementary teachers’ self-efficacy in teaching integrated STEM within high-need school districts. It will examine relationships among self-efficacy, iSTEM teaching effectiveness, and teacher retention. The findings that result from this project have the potential to inform the design of teacher education programs and may contribute to the development of more highly qualified elementary STEM teachers. This project at Southern Methodist University, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Towson University, and Indiana University Southeast includes partnerships with the University of Massachusetts - Boston, Sacred Heart University, Alcorn State University, Bridgewater State University, Montclair State University, and University of Rhode Island. Project goals include to: (1) track changes in prospective elementary teachers’ integrated STEM teaching self-efficacy as they shift from teacher preparation programs to teaching positions; (2) identify and describe key elements of teacher education that support the development of integrated STEM teaching self-efficacy among early-career teachers; (3) identify the relationships among integrated STEM teaching self-efficacy, teaching effectiveness, and teacher retention; and (4) build and support a community of elementary teachers focused on improving their STEM teaching. Grounded in self-efficacy theory, this project will use a sequential explanatory mixed methods design and include undergraduates, Master’s students, and current teachers who are within their first five years of teaching. The project’s longitudinal design, innovative focus on integrated STEM teaching self-efficacy and effectiveness, and investigation of links between integrated STEM teaching self-efficacy and teacher retention reflect its intellectual merit. Research findings will be published in research and practitioner journals and shared widely at international conferences to impact researchers, administrators, and educators beyond the immediate scope of this project. This Track 4: Noyce Research project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the effectiveness and retention of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts. 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.