New Perspectives in Science Education

STEM researchers had committed to focus on grand challenges such as energy sustainability and nanoscience; however, most high school courses don’t address these global issues. Research Goes to School (RGS) is a five-year project funded by U.S. National Science Foundation that focuses on closing this gap and developing an education and research integration professional development model for high school teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

As part of the project, STEM teachers attended a two-week problem-based learning (PBL) summer workshop in which they developed their own units on sustainable energy or nanoscience to use in their teaching. This study examined teachers’ knowledge and confidence for implementing a problem-based learning (PBL) unit in their 9-12 grade science and math classrooms. A pre-post survey measuring confidence and knowledge for implementing PBL were administered to five cohorts of teachers (39 in-service and 41 pre-service). Teacher’s daily reflections and focus group interviews provided additional data regarding teachers’ changing confidence and knowledge related to PBL methods. Also, approximately seven months after the end of the workshop (after the teachers have implementing the PBL unit in their classroom), the teachers were asked to complete an online survey about their educational backgrounds, teaching experiences, classroom experiences with PBL, and the perceived impact of the two week workshop.

Results showed the workshop statistically significantly enhanced participants’ PBL confidence and knowledge. Both pre-service and in-service teachers improved at the same rate in their PBL confidence and knowledge, even though pre-service teachers came in with lower pre-knowledge of PBL fundamentals, and in-service teachers ended up with higher understanding of PBL implementation in classrooms. Teachers’ daily reflections and focus group interview data suggested that the workshop enhanced participants’ teaching skills and provided them with practical opportunities to develop PBL lesson units — a skill that is necessary to successful teaching careers. Key elements of the integrated approach will be described.