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Teachers with greater content knowledge in a given subject and those with more teaching experience were more likely to ask higher level, cognitively based questions.National Research Council 2000. Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology: New Practices for the New Millennium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/9832
The need to close the gap between STEM education and required workplace skills have been identified in industry, academia, and government.
Langston University, the only HBCU (Historically Black College and University) in Oklahoma, was awarded a 5-year National Science Foundation’s Noyce STEM Teacher Scholarship grant in 2014.
The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Track provides scholarships, internships, and programs for undergraduate STEM majors and stipends for STEM professionals seeking to become K-12 teachers. Langston University was awarded one of these grants in 2014. Originally a 5-year program, it has been extended through 2021 on a no-cost basis. During this program there have been 25 participants, all of whom are STEM majors. Seven are currently teaching science at the secondary education level, some have completed their Academic course curriculum and are in the process of obtaining teacher certification, and the remainder are still pursuing a B.S. degree at LU.
LU’s primary strategies were intentional recruitment and development of impeccable STEM content knowledge. Barriers were as anticipated: students who successfully navigated STEM study seek higher paying careers than that afforded teachers, and full scholarships are available to, and much desired by, students who excel in STEM courses.
There is no silver bullet that can correct decades of inadequate preparation for STEM college courses across the entire nation. However, at LU we devised a process that has shown promise at fast-forwarding students’ capability to understand and apply STEM content concepts. It also has the capacity to help students overcome a systemic lack of problem solving skills. The teaching and learning process is CPR-L.
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Contact John K. Coleman, Ph.D. Email: jkcoleman@langston.edu. Content curation: My Metamorphosis