With funding from the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, the Building Capacity for Miami University Robert Noyce Scholars project will use capacity building funds to design an MU-Noyce Scholars Program in order to increase the number of highly qualified high school teachers in science and mathematics to serve in high-need schools and economically disadvantaged communities. The project team will develop two scholarship opportunities and stipend options for talented STEM undergraduates and STEM career professionals to pursue secondary teacher certification (Grades 7-12) in either science or mathematics at Miami. The first option will provide two years of scholarship for high achieving STEM undergraduates during their junior and senior years while they complete a dual baccalaureate degree in STEM content and earn grade 7-12 certification to teach science or mathematics. The second option will provide a one-year scholarship for outstanding STEM career professionals or recent STEM graduates to complete the master's degree at MU leading to secondary teacher certification. The capacity building funds will also be used to develop a robust mentoring and professional development program for future MU-Noyce scholars to support their transition into full-time teaching and to assist them during the difficult early-induction period, during which research suggests the highest rate of teacher attrition occurs.
The MU-Noyce Scholars Program has the potential to transform STEM teacher education at Miami and provide a model for STEM teacher education programs in other institutions via culturally responsive teacher preparation. New STEM teachers will be prepared to: (1) understand cultural characteristics and contributions of different ethnic groups; (2) incorporate ethnic and racial diversity content, resources, and materials in the curriculum; (3) believe in the intellectual potential of ethnically and culturally diverse students and accept their responsibility to facilitate its realization without ignoring, demeaning, or neglecting their ethnic and cultural identities; (4) understand how the communication styles of different ethnic groups reflect cultural values and shape their learning behaviors, and modify classroom interactions to better accommodate them; and (5) use a wide variety of instructional strategies that are connected to different learning characteristics. Evaluation of the project and dissemination of results will further the literature on the role and promise of a community-based and culturally responsive approach to STEM teachers' pre-service preparation, beginning teaching induction, and retention by specifically addressing the role of this approach in the recruitment of talented STEM majors into the science and math teaching profession.
