Browsing by Author "Shume, Teresa"
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- Developing Workforce Skills in K-12 Classrooms: How Teacher Externships Increase Awareness of the Critical Role of Effective Communication Bradley BowenBowen, Bradley D.; Shume, Teresa (Springer Open, 2020)This study investigates how participating in a teacher externship program increases the awareness of how effective communication plays a critical role in an industrybased environment. It also studies the teacher participants’ commitment to changing their classroom practices as a result of acquiring this awareness. The program of focus, the Educators in Industry: K-12 Externship Program, is a 4-week summer work experience for K-12 educators in an engineering, design, or process-driven work environment, coupled with collaborative reflective practice. Participants also take three credits of coursework split over the summer and fall which requires them to design and implement classroom activities based on their externship experience. In this qualitative study, various forms of data were transcribed and analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. The results provide empirical evidence that teachers who participated in the teacher externship program developed a deep awareness of the importance of using effective communication in the workplace as well as a commitment to redesigning their classroom practices in order to engage their K-12 students in communicationfocused learning activities.
- Educators in Industry: An Exploratory Study to Determine how Teacher Externships Influence K-12 Classroom PracticesBowen, Bradley D.; Shume, Teresa (2018)This exploratory study investigates the impacts of industry- based externships for K-12 teachers, and reports teachers’ perspectives on how these experiences influenced K-12 classroom practices. The program of focus in this research study is the Educators in Industry: K-12 Externship Program. For four weeks in the summer, teacher-participants are placed at a company whose primary focus is engineering, continuous improvement, manufacturing, or other design or process-oriented activities. Participation in the program also involves completing an accompanying 2-credit university course in the summer, and a 1-credit follow-up course in the fall. In this qualitative research study, transcripts from individual interviews with teacher-participants were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Results from this study provide empirical evidence that teachers who participated in an industry-based externship program demonstrated an increased understanding of the fundamental importance of skills for problem solving, collaboration, and communication in today’s workplace environments, and expressed commitment to creating classroom opportunities for students to develop these skills through active learning in relationship to authentic, “real world” contexts.
- Educators in Industry: How Teacher Externships Influence K-12 Classroom PracticesBowen, Bradley D.; Shume, Teresa (2021-11-18)This research project investigates the impacts of industry-based externships for K-12 teachers and reports teachers’ behaviors and perspectives on how these experiences influenced K-12 classroom practices. The program of focus in this research is the Educators in Industry: K-12 Externship Program. For four weeks in the summer, teacher-participants work at a company whose primary focus is engineering and design-focused activities. In addition, teachers also participate in weekly reflections, group discussions, develop lesson plans and earn professional development credits through a university course. Quantitative data was collected using surveys to convey teachers’ actual and intended classroom practices by comparing past and future participants. Qualitative data was collected through individual interviews, and transcripts were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Results from this study provide empirical evidence that teachers who participated in an industry-based externship program demonstrated an increased understanding of the fundamental importance of engaging students in future workforce skills, such as problem-solving, collaboration, and communication. They also expressed commitment to creating classroom opportunities for students to develop these skills through active learning in relationship to authentic, “real world” contexts.
- Impacts of a Research Experiences for Teachers Program on Rural STEM EducatorsBowen, 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.
- Rural secondary STEM teachers’ understanding of the engineering design process: Impacts of participation in a Research Experiences for Teachers programShume, 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.