Pedagogy

The session will feature the experiences, outcomes, and materials from two engineering-oriented DR K-12 projects. The two projects, INFUSE and INSPIRES, use different approaches to teacher professional development with the goal of preparing science teachers to infuse or integrate engineering into their classrooms. They have both developed a unique set of materials designed to impact science and technology outcomes (working on a combination of curriculum development, professional development, and research).

Often the most we know about our colleagues’ on-the-ground support of teachers is what we read in the methods sections of research articles, or what has been reified many times over in their published teacher learning materials. We rarely get to see, much less experience, one another’s approaches to supporting teachers. This session will open up the black-box of our work with teachers for discussion and scrutiny.

Over the past five years, research teams at Western Washington University and North Carolina State University have each conducted longitudinal studies to examine elementary teacher development in mathematics and science. Specifically, they have investigated the development of pre-service/novice teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and instructional practices during teacher preparation and into their initial years of teaching. 

Over a period of five years the SmartGraphs project developed HTML5 software for teaching and learning STEM subjects that make use of line graphs and scatter plots. SmartGraphs activities help students understand the “story” represented by a graph. The project created dozens of activities for algebra, physical science, and other STEM subjects, as well as an authoring system allowing non-computer-programmers to create and disseminate free online activities.

The original version of the Mathematical Quality and Equity (MQE) video codes (Goffney, 2010; LMT, 2010) were developed as a section of the Mathematical Quality and Instruction observational instrument developed by the Learning Mathematics for Teaching Project at the University of Michigan.