Workshop for coordinating South Carolina`s pre-college systemic initiatives

The goal of the South Carolina Statewide Systemic Initiative (SC SSI) is to provide quality and effective learning experiences in science and mathematics to all people of South Carolina by affecting systemic change. To accomplish this goal, South Carolina must: (1) coordinate actions among many partners for science and mathematics change; (2) place the instruments of change into the hands of the effectors of change - teachers and schools; and (3) galvanize the support of policy makers, parents, and local communities for change. The SC SSI proposes to establish a network of 13 regional mathematics and science HUBs. The central idea of this plan is the accumulation of Teacher Leaders at each HUB who are prepared in special Curriculum Leadership Institutes to assist other teachers and schools. The HUB becomes a regional nexus for delivering services to schools who request assistance by matching schools with Teacher Leaders. Other initiatives such as the use of new student performance assessments, the integration of instructional technologies into the curriculum, a pilot preservice program, and Family Math and Family Science will be bundled together through the Teacher Leaders in the HUBs. Concurrent policy changes at the state level in teacher and administrator certification and recertification requirements, school regulations and accountability, and the student performance assessment system will enable teachers and schools to support instructional practices that model South Carolina`s new state Curriculum Frameworks in Mathematics and Science

Characteristics of the Pre-College Students at Parkland College

Parkland College is a community college of approximately 8,000 students located in Champaign, Illinois. The faculty and administrative staff is concerned with student retention, particularly the retention of those students in the pre-college or underprepared category who take courses that are below the college level. This retention study identified characteristics of underprepared students, interventions that had been successful at model community colleges, and recommended program implications for the future. The study provided base-line data regarding characteristics of the 1346 underprepared students at Parkland College who were taking remedial coursework in the fall of 1988. Data was also gathered for the 612 first-time developmental students with regard to full-time and part-time status, ethnicity, sex, age, program selection, high school rank, and ACT scores. This was compared with the data from the fall of 1989 to determine which students had returned to Parkland for another term and which students had dropped out. A Chi-square statistical analysis was performed at the University of Illinois using the Statistical Analysis System to discover which categories were significant at the .05 level. A profile was then drawn of the pre-college student at Parkland College. This profile indicated that members of the underprepared group were younger, predominantly fulltime, and more likely to be male and Black than the student population as a whole. Parkland was attracting a higher percentage of first-time students in the pre-college program than in its regular program. The first-time developmental students who were in the lower high school quartile, male, Black, part-time, or who had low ACT scores were the ones more likely to drop out. These students should be Parkland\u27s target population for curricular, advising, and budgetary intervention

First National Space Grant Conference report

The main business of the conference centered around a series of 15 workshops in which 15 program directors of their designates discussed various components of the Space Grant Program. On the basis of the workshops and conference discussion, the workshop facilitators redrafted and edited the reports, and these reports are presented. The topics covered include: an evaluation of the NASA Space Grant Consortia Programs; pre-college and college education; the use of continuing adult education; publicity and public relations; underrepresented groups; outreach and public service; state and local governments; university-industry interaction; program management; and use of fellowships

Paper Session III-C - Improving Public Education Beyond 2001

The following paper is an investigation into deficiencies in the current education system, the assumptions upon which it is founded, and possible corrective actions. Suggested actions for remediation include: training, selection, and designation of Master Teachers, and extending their classroom availability through video and computer access; modifying the over-extended practice of tenure, along with an improved evaluation process to remove poor teachers and reward outstanding ones; the nation-wide establishment, and enforcement, of high performance standards; increased opportunities for above-average students, as well as segregation of problem students into an environment appropriate to them; elimination of large amounts of the administrative bureaucracy; and greatly expanded access to higher education and/or wider professional vocational training based on ability and effort, regardless of financial limitations

ACER Research Conference Proceedings (2016)

The focus of ACER’s Research Conference 2016 will be on what we are learning from research about ways of improving levels of STEM learning. Australia faces significant challenges in promoting improved science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning in our schools. Research Conference 2016 will showcase research into what it will take to address these challenges, which include: the decline in Australian students’ mathematical and scientific ‘literacy’; the decline in STEM study in senior school; a shortage of highly qualified STEM subject teachers, and curriculum challenges. You will hear from researchers who work with teachers to engage students in studying STEM-related subjects, such as engineering in primary school, and science and maths at all levels. You will learn how to engage both girls and boys in STEM learning, through targeted teaching, activities like gaming, and applying learning from neuroscience

A CASE STUDY OF NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICS (STEM) EDUCATION IN LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Background and Purpose: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in the formal school curriculum can be described as a STEM-related individual subject; as a learning package offering learning pathway for STEM elective subjects and as an integrated STEM learning approach. This study focuses on the needs assessment of STEM education as a learning approach among lower secondary school teachers in a local district in Malaysia. The current and desired situations were analysed as well as the causal factors which guide the choice of any intervention programs to address the actual needs.   Methodology: Three schools were selected through heterogenous purposive sampling. The teachers from each school were selected through criterion sampling based on predetermined criteria.   31 teachers from the lower secondary level who teach STEM related subjects as well as the head of panel and departments of the STEM subjects, were selected as the participants. Focus group and one-to-one interviews were conducted with the participants after receiving their consent.   Findings: There is a gap between the desired situation and the current situation in the implementation of integrated STEM education. The implementation of STEM education at the lower secondary level can be facilitated through various means such as a comprehensive STEM education professional development or training for teachers, collaborations between STEM subjects teachers through lesson studies or professional learning community, and working together with local STEM expertise or community of practice.   Contributions: The findings provide relevant information and guidance on the selection of intervention for the integrated STEM education in addressing the needs. It also initiates the planning of the integrated STEM education programs which focuses on the gaps as the means to achieve the desired results.   Keywords: STEM education, needs assessment, case study, gap, interventions   Cite as: Loh, S. L., Pang, V., & Lajium, D. (2021). A case study of needs assessment of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in lower secondary schools. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 6(1), 242-264. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol6iss1pp242-26

Culturally responsive engineering education: A case study of a pre-college introductory engineering course at Tibetan Children\u27s Village School of Selakui

Culturally responsive teaching has been argued to be effective in the education of Indigenous youth. This approach emphasizes the legitimacy of a group\u27s cultural heritage, helps to associate abstract academic knowledge with the group\u27s sociocultural context, seeks to incorporate a variety of strategies to engage students who have different learning styles, and strives to integrate multicultural information in the educational contents, among other considerations. ^ In this work, I explore the outcomes of a culturally responsive introductory engineering short course that I developed and taught to Tibetan students at Tibetan Children\u27s Village of Selakui (in Uttarakhand, India). Based on my ethnographic research in Tibetan communities in northern India, I examine two research questions: (a) What are the processes to develop and implement a pre-college culturally responsive introductory engineering course? and (b) How do Tibetan culture and Buddhism influence the engineering design and teamwork of the pre-college Tibetan students who took the course? ^ I designed then taught the course that featured elementary lectures on sustainability, introductory engineering design, energy alternatives, and manufacturing engineering. The course also included a pre-college engineering design project through which Tibetan high school students investigated a problem at the school and designed a possible solution to it. ^ Drawing from postcolonial studies, engineering studies, engineering and social justice, Buddhist studies, and Tibetan studies, I provide an analysis of my findings. Based on my findings, I conclude that my culturally responsive approach of teaching was an effective method to help students feel that their cultural background was respected and included in a pre-college engineering course; however, some students felt resistance toward the teaching approach. In addition, the culturally relevant content that connected with their ways of living in their school, Tibetan communities, and surroundings helped the students to relate to abstract concepts in familiar settings. Lastly, they appreciated that I brought to the course relevant information about technology and society in India (their host country), engineers\u27 work in industry, technologies used in other contexts as well, and projects that show how engineers can help to alleviate poverty. ^ The findings of my research can inform (a) educators who are interested in integrating culturally responsive activities in their teaching methods, (b) researchers or teachers in ethnic minority schools abroad, (c) educators interested in developing engineering activities or courses for underrepresented ethnic minorities, ethnic diasporas or refugee youth in the United States, and (d) facilitators at multicultural engineering summer camps in the United States

The Underrepresentation of Minority Faculty in Higher Education: Panel Discussion

[Excerpt] The 3 July 2002 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education described the matter we are discussing today in these words: Taken together. African-Americans and persons of Hispanic origin represent only 8 percent of full-time faculty nation-wide, and while 5 percent are African-American, half of them work at historically black institutions. The proportion of black faculty members at white institutions is 2.3 percent, virtually the same as it was 20 years ago. We are privileged to have the opportunity to explore this issue from two different perspectives. The first contends that unless major changes occur, the number of minority students interested in and prepared for faculty positions will remain dreadfully insufficient and that, furthermore, affirmative action has been a culprit in this process and leads many of these students into higher educational environments in which they do not perform well enough to even seriously consider or be considered for careers in academe. The other position says that, although the supply of minority faculty candidates is admittedly small, the relatively low level of commitment from higher educational institutions to recruit, hire, and promote minority candidates and the salary disparity between academe and industry lead to a problem of demand that must be appreciated and addressed. Furthermore, it argues, affirmative action has been beneficial in increasing minority faculty presence

Toward Developing a Valid and Reliable Assessment of Learners’ Nature of Engineering Views

Nature of Engineering (NOE) refers to the epistemological beliefs pertaining to engineering (Antink-Meyer & Brown, 2019; Deniz et al., 2019; Hartman & Bell, 2018; Kaya et al., 2017; Pleasants & Olson, 2019). Given that a person’s engineering values and beliefs can affect how that individual perceives not only certain tasks, but also his/her ability to accomplish them, it is important to support pre-college teachers and students in improving their NOE understanding. This continues to be one of the main goals of pre-college Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, and has become particularly relevant since the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in 2013. NGSS elevated the engineering design process to the level of scientific inquiry and focused on the aspects of NOE implicitly. Just as researchers have been calling for a greater emphasis on the understanding the Nature of Science (NOS) during the last fifty years, including the need for K-12 students to develop adequate NOS views, students today need to be better informed on the key NOE aspects in order to appreciate and understand engineering. Recently, some researchers have attempted to explore relevant NOE aspects for K-12 students with the aim of generating more sophisticated views of NOE among students. However, at present, assessment of NOE understanding, which is a fundamental part of NOE research, is a challenge, due to the absence of a reliable instrument. It is therefore imperative to develop a NOE instrument that can be adopted in pre-college engineering instruction, as the findings yielded can help close the gap between learners’ NOE conceptions and the actual engineering practice. Most importantly, pre-college engineering education can be modified by using a spectrum of instructional methods geared toward enhancing learners’ NOE understanding. This was the aim of the proposed study, and it was achieved by accomplishing the following two goals: (a) describing the NOE aspects relevant to K-12 education based on the NGSS and the National Research Councils’ Framework for K-12 Science Education; (b) developing a new empirical, reliable, and valid open-ended Nature of Engineering Instrument – Version B (VNOE-B), in part derived from a Views of the Nature of Engineering (VNOE) questionnaire designed to assess learners’ NOE perceptions. This research mainly focused on the development and validation of the VNOE-B questionnaire while also discussing the implications of the use of the new VNOE-B questionnaire in educational practice. It is envisaged that the findings yielded by this investigation will guide the science and engineering education community in devising the most appropriate ways to help students and teachers develop fully-informed NOE views