School of Education

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Browsing School of Education by Author "Altimus, Jewel"

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    Impacts of a Research Experiences for Teachers Program on Rural STEM Educators
    Bowen, Bradley D.; Shume, Teresa; Kallmeyer, Alan; Altimus, Jewel (2021-12-13)
    This study investigates the impacts of a Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program on rural STEM educators and reports teachers’ perspectives on how these experiences influence classroom practices. The program of focus occurred at a mid-sized university in the upper Midwest from 2016-2019. Over this period, eleven rural secondary STEM teachers participated in the 6-week long summer program and various workshops and professional development activities. The teachers in the program were “solitary” STEM teachers, meaning they were the only teacher of their subject in the school building. In this qualitative research study, a thematic analysis approach was used to code and analyze transcripts of teacher-participant interviews. Results from this study demonstrate that the “solitary” rural teachers who participated in an engineering-focused RET showed an increased understanding of design-based learning, workforce skills (i.e., 21st century skills), and the engineering design process. Other findings include participants developing a deeper appreciation of teaching a growth mindset, valuing professional networks and supports, and flattening the power structure in the classroom to empower students to have more freedom, responsibility, and control over their design choices.
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    Rural secondary STEM teachers’ understanding of the engineering design process: Impacts of participation in a Research Experiences for Teachers program
    Shume, Teresa; Bowen, Bradley D.; Altimus, Jewel; Kallmeyer, Alan (2022-11-04)
    Though STEM teacher professional development is known to be beneficial, it is not available equally to educators in all geographic regions. Rural educators face unique challenges not often experienced by their urban and suburban counterparts. This study investigates the impacts of a Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program on rural math, science, and technology education teachers’ perspectives on how these experiences changed their understanding of the engineering design process (EDP). From 2016 to 2019, eleven rural secondary STEM teachers engaged in a six-week professional development experience focused on research and implementing the EDP. These teachers were rural “solitary” STEM teachers, which meant they were the only teacher of their subject in their school building. This qualitative study used a thematic analysis approach to code and analyze individual and focus group interview transcripts. The results were analyzed to determine how the RET experiences impacted the teachers’ perception of how the EDP is used in problem-solving activities and how it could be integrated into their classroom practices. Results from this study show that the teachers developed a more authentic conceptual understanding of the EDP, which led to increased insightfulness on how to engage students in authentic engineering design activities that strengthen future workforce skills. This study demonstrated that an authentic engineering-based RET program can increase rural teachers’ commitment and readiness to incorporate the EDP into regular classroom practices. Further, this program resulted in teachers gaining a much more nuanced understanding of how the EDP’s non-linear steps and iterative nature contribute to creating authentic problem-solving challenges for students. In particular, the teachers realized the necessity of creating less prescribed challenges that require students to draw upon the constellation of skills necessary to design optimal solutions, resulting in higher-caliber opportunities to develop future workforce skills. These findings emphasize the critical need to design professional development experiences that target the unique needs of rural STEM teachers. Additional research is needed to tease out the extent to which teachers’ increased commitment to using the EPD and a more nuanced understanding of the EDP translate into sustained changes to classroom practice.