This pilot project will demonstrate the effectiveness of an Extension Services model called The Peer Alliance for Gender Equity (PAGE). PAGE will promote awareness and support implementation of effective, research-based, gender-sensitive pedagogical strategies into the community of education reform leaders conducting K?12 professional development in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) will lead this effort in collaboration with nationally known educators. Aimed toward directors of established professional development programs, this PAGE pilot will implement a modified program of change focused on gender equity in STEM education that integrates theory, research, practice, and action research. The full Extension Service will ultimately contribute to increasing the number of women in the STEM workforce by positively changing the climate in K?12 formal education with respect to gender equity.
Extension Service Model: This pilot will be organized around a one year activity to test different delivery methods of the PAGE model. Nine professional development directors will participate in a three part program including: 1) an intensive PAGE Institute at SMM, 2) Peer Cluster meetings, and 3) a culminating symposium to share findings. The PAGE Institute will provide foundational training in multiple approaches that translate research into practice including the Triad Framework for Gender Equitable Science Teaching, Complex Instruction, and Engagement, Capacity, and Continuity Trilogy. The nine project directors participating in each PAGE Institute will be grouped into three Peer Clusters, each with three members. Peer Clusters will engage in action research either through travel to various sites, through virtual meetings, or through a hybrid of travel and virtual site visits. The PAGE Symposium will bring all of the Peer Clusters back together to share findings and products, report successes and challenges, and make recommendations. Products and evaluation outcomes will be shared in various national professional meetings and journals.
Intellectual Merit: PAGE will create a new model of extension services tightly focused on gender equity that addresses the needs of a leadership group rarely offered intensive professional development specifically designed for their positions. The use of peer clusters in combination with action research is a cost-effective approach, which will target gender equity leaders, each of whom will then bring this training to a minimum of 100 classroom K?12 STEM educators. Evaluation, will document the efficacy of this approach.
Broader Impact: Over this one year pilot project, PAGE will involve the efforts of 9 professional development directors each of whom will provide professional development to at least 100 STEM educators. At the end of the year, the cumulative reach of the directors will be approximately 900 teachers. The pilot will introduce the infusion of gender equity pedagogy into K?12 professional development and subsequent STEM teaching.
