Author(s):
The Next Generation Science Standards highly emphasize language demands in science practices, which increases challenges to both teachers and students including multilingual learners (MLs). However, most STEM teachers in the US have received only limited training to support MLs. While the number of MLs continues to grow, they have persistently underperformed in K-12 schools and are underrepresented─particularly in STEM fields─in both college and the workforce. Developing more culturally and linguistically capable STEM teachers will improve the STEM achievement and occupational aspiration of not only MLs but also English monolingual students, which will lead to more equitable STEM education for all. This IUSE project, “Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining STEM Pedagogies Using Mixed-reality Simulations,” aims to prepare pre-service teachers to enact culturally and linguistically sustaining STEM pedagogies to better support MLs through a practice-based teacher learning model embedding mixed-reality simulation. Our project has two research questions; 1) how are pre-service teachers’ culturally and linguistically sustaining STEM teaching practices improved impacted by online practice-based learning opportunities? and 2) what aspects of the online practice-based learning model assist pre-service teachers to acquire culturally and linguistically sustaining STEM teaching practices?Based on two theoretical frameworks─Language-based Approach to Content Instruction (LACI) and practice-based teacher education, our project designed a 6-week practice-based learning unit presenting a series of core ML teaching practices and providing distributed teaching opportunities to enact those practices through mixed-reality simulation. As a result of their engagement in this unit, pre-service teachers self-reported improvements in all six areas of LACI─ “connection”, “culture”, “code-breaking”, “challenge”, “community and collaboration”, and “classroom interactions”. During the focus group interviews, participants reported that dividing the learning opportunities into two separate lessons with different focuses helped their learning as did having the opportunity to teach and refine the same lesson four times. The survey showed that our online learning modules with a series of purposefully distributed simulations helped pre-service teachers effectively develop culturally and linguistically sustaining STEM pedagogies through building key concepts, deepening and extending a repertoire of instructional strategies, and receiving focused feedback. The results show that our project can have implications to multiple scholarship. First, regarding ML education, developing pre-service teachers’ culturally and linguistically sustaining STEM pedagogies will enhance MLs’ STEM achievement, which will, in turn, raise MLs’ access to STEM careers and their higher economic potentials. Second, with respect to instructional designs for STEM teacher education, our practice-based learning model distributes multiple mixed-reality simulation opportunities in places with a series of scaffolding lessons, and thus leads pre-service teachers to make the most use of this simulation opportunity. Third, for online learning, a blended online space integrating synchronous and asynchronous components will advance the effectiveness of online learning platforms. In all, our practiced-based learning model developing culturally and linguistically sustaining STEM pedagogies is widely applicable in STEM teacher education for MLs. Our project will contribute to multiple STEM education communities that strive for enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts.
Coauthors
JiHye Shin, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL; Minkyoung Kim, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL; John Pecore, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL; Melissa K. Demetrikopoulos, Institute for Biomedical Philosophy, Hudson, FL
