Inquiring into Environmental STEM: Striving for an Engaging Inquiry-Based E-STEM Experience for Pre-Service Teachers (original) (raw)
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While there have been numerous initiatives to promote and recruit students into postsecondary studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) around the world, traditional programs of studies for both K to 12 school and teacher education still lack an integrative approach to these disciplines. Addressing this concern, the Werklund School of Education of the University of Calgary started to offer a course in STEM education for the undergraduate Bachelor of Education program. The purpose of this article is to document the first iterations of this course. We draw from narratives of four instructors, including the coordinator of the course, and administrators who were actively involved in creation and approval of the course. We describe the course and its connection to the philosophy of the program, examine the context in which this course was conceived—including both national and provincial policy—and address some challenges and possibilities experienced by administr...
11th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation [ICERI] Proceedings 2018. Seville, Spain: IATED Digital Library , 2018
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Issues in Teacher Education, 2017
The acronym STEM is a ubiquitous term for seemingly anything in—or related to—the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and the current dominant educational STEM discourse in teacher education is often organized around questions of how to integrate math and science into the other content areas or vice versa. The purpose of this essay is to pose a different question: How can an ecological model for subject inquiry become the organizing focus for an integrated ecological inquiry? In this article, we provide a glimpse of where we are currently in our thinking and writing as we put theory to work in teacher education.
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Issues in Teacher Education, 2017
The acronym STEM is a ubiquitous term for seemingly anything in—or related to—the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and the current dominant educational STEM discourse in teacher education is often organized around questions of how to integrate math and science into the other content areas or vice versa. The purpose of this essay is to pose a different question: How can an ecological model for subject inquiry become the organizing focus for an integrated ecological inquiry? In this article, we provide a glimpse of where we are currently in our thinking and writing as we put theory to work in teacher education. For the past few years, we have been working on a number of exciting endeavors in teacher education, ranging from theoretical explorations to more practitioner-based projects that attempt to outline how PK-12 educators might utilize ecocritical frameworks in their Common Core State Standards (CCSS) aligned lesson plans. However, in our efforts to dev...
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Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 2010
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STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education has been gaining increasing nationwide attention. While the STEM movement has ambitious goals for k-12 education, a lack of shared understanding exists of what STEM is as well as how to implement STEM in the elementary classroom. This study investigates how seven elementary teachers in three STEM academy schools conceptualize and implement STEM in their classrooms. Teacher interviews were conducted. The findings reveal that the majority of teachers believe that STEM education involves integrating STEM subject areas. STEM activities consisted of student-led research and reading activities on STEM topics. Two teachers described STEM as involving “hands-on” science activities. Teachers at each STEM academy school conceptualized and implemented STEM differently. How STEM was implemented at each school was based on how teachers interpreted STEM and the resources they had access to. The STEM coaches played a central role in...
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With a central focus on the research question: “What must be done to encourage people to become more E+STEM educated?” this research is based on a Systematic review on ecological knowledge, which is linked to teachers' career growth as well as Environmental Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (E+STEM) pedagogy. The aim is to identify what instructors must do to improve their experience and credentials as E+STEM-educated people in light of expert views. To disclose expert views, a "mixed method" research approach is utilized in this study, which includes both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The technique employed is exploratory study sequencing, which is a kind of mixed-method study. The Delphi study's initial stage is to gather qualitative data on teachers' professional growth. The quantitative methodology is featured for the phase two of the Delphi research once the data has been analyzed in the first step. Lastly, the ultimate quantitat...