Reinventing TPACK, STEM Teaching and Leadership in an Urban Context

Transcription

1 Reinventing TPACK, STEM Teaching and Leadership in an Urban Context Punya Mishra Leigh Graves-Wolf Sonya Gunnings-Moton Christopher Seals Rohit Mehta Inese Berzina Swati Mehta Akesha Horton Kyle Shack Candace Marcotte Missy Cosby Michigan State University United States Dakota Pawlicki Chicago Public Schools United States This symposium discusses the pedagogical make up and impact of the MSU-Wipro UrbanSTEM & Leadership Fellowship program on teacher practices, efficacy, and competence. We will describe our instructional approach, which uses the educative experience (Dewey, 1938) involving real world, hands-on engagement with technological devices, pedagogies, and teachers relationships to STEM content. Our fellowship program is driven by the TPACK (Technology Pedagogical Content Knowledge) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) framework. We will discuss curriculum and practices highlighting several teachers from program. Specifically, we will focus on their teaching experiences showcasing how they creatively integrate technology into their pedagogical practices, with an emphasis on creativity and aesthetics. Among the presenters in this symposium are the leaders of the project, members of the instructional and research teams from the university, and participants from Chicago Public schools

2 Reinventing TPACK, STEM Teaching and Leadership in an Urban Context Organization of Symposium First Hour: Introduction to overall project and partners (5 minutes): 3 Contributions (two-10min, one-20minute) Q&A audience (10 minutes) Second Hour: Introduction to project (1 min) 4 Contributions (four-10 min each) Discussant (10 min) Q&A (5 minutes) Introduction to Symposium: In this symposium we describe a unique example of a private-public-public partnership that seeks to develop the STEM and leadership skills of 125 teachers in the Chicago Public Schools by guiding them through a year long, 9-graduate credit, blended learning experience. This symposium is a second year report on work in progress, focusing primarily on the data emerging from the first year participants of a three-year project, while discussing changes and challenges that impact our 2nd year cohort as well. Presenters include: (a) the project leadership team from the university; (b) administrative representatives of the public school system; (c) the instructional team involved in the facilitation of the project; (d) teachers (fellows) participating in the project and (e) the research and evaluation team reporting on the research that is currently being conducted on the project. Within the broader context of the project, we will use case studies and the authentic representation of fellows to focus on instructional strategies they used in their classrooms that show change in their STEM education and leadership abilities. We will also explore the use of digital and networked media in their daily pedagogy. Integrating technology into the academic environment requires skills and creativity from the teachers technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). This UrbanSTEM Fellowship program specifically guides the fellows to repurpose technologies (physical and digital) in classroom and academic settings. Additionally, the MSU-Wipro STEM & Leadership program uses the power of experience (Dewey, 1938) to develop the capacity of classroom teachers to design transformative and innovative, multimodal instructional experiences and active learning communities of practice all as means of enhancing the quality of instruction in the STEM disciplines, which is reflected in the case studies presented. This symposium addresses the overall iterative design of the program: reviewing the framework that this program is built upon, discussing the curriculum used to guide the fellows (75 teachers), exploring the experiences of the teacher-fellows by including their presence and voice, and investigating the teaching practices, leadership qualities, technology use, and TPACK of the fellows. PRESENTATIONS 1. Chicago Public School Partnership and Perspective Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is the third largest school district in the nation with 664 schools serving 394,000 students. To support the district s 22,500 teachers, Chicago Public Schools engages partners with proven success records to provide professional development aimed at increasing the student achievement for all learners. An exemplary model of such collaboration is the Michigan State University (MSU) Urban STEM program in which CPS and MSU work together to identify, recruit, and support STEM teachers in this one-year graduate certificate program grounded in the context of a large urban district. Chicago Public Schools is presented with numerous challenges in the pursuit to offer all students with highquality opportunities to engage in learning. Some of these challenges exist outside the classroom such as poverty, transience, and socio-political forces. Other challenges exist within the four walls of a school including punitive behavior management, poor teacher preparation, and underfunded teacher training and induction. Ultimately, these factors combine into a heavy weight bearing down on our most under

3 represented student s shoulders, preventing them from learning, opportunity, and success beyond K-12 education. This is especially true when engaging students in STEM related instruction where cultural, racial, economic, and gender divides are ever present. The MSU Urban STEM Fellowship responds to these challenges by working with CPS to identify successful teachers working in underserved schools to improve their instruction thus breaking down barriers, especially with minority girls, and allowing students equal opportunity to explore STEM content in a safe, hands on, learning environment. This presentation will provide insight into some of the unique challenges and strategies required to meet these challenges for the development of a genuine collaborative program. 2. Instruction & Curriculum For the past 15 years our Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) program has been offering a hybrid summer graduate school experience specifically targeted towards K-12 practitioners. This structure for the 9-credit summer program consists of two weeks of intense face-to-face instruction followed by 3 weeks of online instruction. This innovative (Terry et al., 2013) and award winning (Mishra et al., 2012) model gave us the basis for creating a structure for the MSU-Wipro STEM fellowship program. During the eleven-day face-to-face summer session the teaching team lays the crucial foundation for building a sustainable learning community. Our key goals are to provide a transformative shift in the fellows; to provide new ways to interpret ideas, technology, pedagogy, and new ways of thinking. In the fall and spring semesters, fellows participate via a hybrid format; an online portal allows students to connect with resources and assignments. Additionally, two full day workshops are offered each semester that allow participants to engage in hands-on projects and connect with the full fellow community. Throughout the fall semester, the fellows continue to explore the key program themes, but also begin to focus on application oriented activities. The fall semester focuses on practical application through the the ImagineIT Project. While implementing this project in their own classrooms, fellows meet virtually in groups of 3-6 to further their research of new technology and pedagogy with their Deep Play Groups. During the Spring Semester, fellows focus on leadership in their academic context as well as what it means to be a leader in STEM education. In order to explore topics in STEM Leadership, each fellow creates a Personal STEM Leadership Manifesto. Based in the spirit of The Personal MBA (Kauffman, 2010) the manifesto allows students to create an annotated bibliography of books, websites, and other resources to use as a foundation for addressing a problem or exploring a question in STEM academic leadership in their personal context. They also focus on developing their professional digital presence by developing a portfolio, social media presence, and developing a strategy for making their teaching and pedagogical thought a public practice. 3. Fellows Share their Experience in UrbanSTEM (two fellows) Reports and presentations on educational interventions of this nature often lack the voices of the individuals who are most important to the process the teachers (participants) themselves. In this part of the symposium we will hear from two of our MSUrbanSTEM fellows who are practicing teachers in the Chicago Public Schools. They will speak to both their experience in the MSUrbanSTEM project as well as how participating in this initiative has transformed what they do in their classrooms. Through this we hope to present to the audience the real lived-experience of teachers in our program, develop a better understanding of the context they work within, the kinds of challenges they face and the successes (and failures) that they have had, as they seek to transform STEM instruction in their schools. 4. Maker Ed Case Study During the summer face-to-face session, fellows are exposed formally and informally to ideas, mindsets, and technologies that pertain to the Maker Movement. Through digital and physical fabrication, fellows are challenged to play with content in new ways through the maker lens and a constructivist approach. We will examine cases in which fellows have implemented making in their classrooms or across their greater learning community and will discuss the observable trends. Such trends include the shift in learning environment as described by Halverson and Sheridan (2014), Makers...contend that the process of imagining, creating, refining, and sharing a custom artifact offers a unique form of both collaborative and self-directed learning for youth and adults alike (p. 492). We will discuss the role of authentic problem

4 based learning, student ownership, and innovative thinking in these classrooms. In addition to trends, we will also share final outcomes from the case studies that can provide insight into the potential impact that maker education can have on STEM education. 5. Science Ed Case Study MSUrbanSTEM fellows includes a significant number of science teachers from Chicago Public Schools. In this year-long graduate certificate course, they work on long-term and short-term projects, in addition to several in-class activities, that promote using traditional and digital technology in new ways to support and rethink pedagogical approaches that kindle a sense of wonder and curiosity in science classrooms. During this program, these science educators seek to implement some big ideas in their classrooms, and design and deliver aesthetically appealing multimodal content, to engage their students. In this segment of this study, we will explore the works of three of these science teachers to look for pedagogical approaches that they take to make science more engaging and exciting for their students. We seek to explore the ways in which our fellows creatively compose and frame scientific content in their classrooms. We will study the projects and artifacts that these teachers made to explore how, and in what ways, they transfer some of the pedagogical approaches that were introduced to them in the MSUrbanSTEM program. 6. Math Ed Case Study This case study explores the pedagogical and technological practices of three exemplary mathematics teachers who were selected to participate in the year-long MSU-Wipro STEM fellowship program. Through the use of student and collegial focus groups, content knowledge expertise, focused pedagogical strategies, and strategic use of digital learning tools, this project asked teachers to develop and implement a plan of action for addressing some problem of practice situated in the teaching of STEM subjects. Through the analysis of journals written by teachers during the implementation of their projects as well as artifacts produced as a result of this year long project, we examine the extent to which the MSU Urban STEM fellowship experiences for mathematics teachers have helped them to 1) enhance their mathematical pedagogical practices in their classroom and 2) empower students in a math classroom through the use of technology. Through examples we will highlight how teachers transferred several of the pedagogical approaches introduced to them during their MSU Urban STEM fellowship to their own classrooms. 7. What the research says? This presentation provides report on the role the the MSU-Wipro STEM & Leadership program plays on the first year cohorts (25 teachers ) ability to develop a classroom experience that enhances the quality of learning using four separate instruments. Teachers understanding of TPACK allows them to rethink their academic environment and more effectively use technological resources to their advantage (Koehler et al., 2011). Built from the idea of designing an educative experience (Dewey, 1938) the fellows were asked to take all four assessments at four different times throughout the year to measure any changes in their selfperceptions as educators. The assessments were used to examine if teachers : leadership qualities, teaching efficacy, knowledge and use of TPACK, and use of technology may have changed as a result of being participants in this program. The results indicate that participants gained a deeper understanding of TCK and PCK, participants became more active leaders in their teaching communities, and they developed as over all educators. Further discussion and implication of findings will be discussed, as well as preliminary findings concerning the 2nd year cohort (50 teachers). Closing & Reflection The reflection portion will be lead by the lead instructor and principal researcher of the UrbanSTEM project. He will effectively tie the theoretical learning approach of John Dewey to the TPACK framework, but most importantly he will highlight how these two elements were evident throughout the experiences of the educators and all of the case studies presented. This year s UrbanSTEM symposium allows for our SITE audience to not just get a glimpse of what this project is doing with and to our teachers (fellows), but it allows the audience to get a clear picture of what exactly the fellows are doing in their classrooms and how they are creatively integrating technology and the freedom for students to deep think and explore, into their daily classroom practices. These common themes will be highlighted and presented as we reflect and conclude our session

5 This will be followed by a brief presentation by the discussant, who will speak to the broader context and impact of this project, as well as key takeaways for other such initiatives. References Dewey, J. (1938). Education and Experience. New York: Kappa Delta Pi. Halverson, E. R., & Sheridan, K. (2014). The maker movement in education. Harvard Educational Review, 84(4), Halverson, E. R., & Sheridan, K. (2014). The maker movement in education: Designing, creating, and learning across contexts. Harvard Educational Review, 84(4), Koehler, M.J., & Mishra, P. (2008). Introducing TPACK. In AACTE Committee on Innovation & Technology (Eds.), Handbook of technological pedagogical content knowledge for educators (pp. 3-29). New York: Routledge. Koehler, M. J., Mishra, P., Bouck, E., DeSchryver, M., Kereluik, K., Shin, T. S., Wolf, L. G. (2011). Deepplay: Developing TPACK for 21st century teachers. International Journal of Learning Technology, 6(2), Mishra, P., & Koehler, M.J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A new framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record 108 (6),