Rochester Institute of Technology, the third largest private technical institute of higher education in the United States, Nazareth College, a liberal arts college with a highly regarded school of education, and Rush-Henrietta School District, a large local school district, are all engaged in a new collaborative project. The MSP-Start project is working toward developing a pipeline of highly qualified middle and high school teachers that are both content and pedagogical experts in the fields of mathematics and science.
At the heart of this project are three boundary-crossing teams of faculty, students, and teachers. These teams are crossing boundaries between STEM disciplines, grade levels, types of institutions, pedagogy and science, and student education and careers. In order to accomplish the project goals, the teams are conducting needs assessments, cataloging the challenges of working across boundaries, and carrying out a pilot project to deliver enhanced STEM education in the classroom as made possible by the established partnering relationships. Thus, they are seeking the development of an evidence-based approach to the production and support of high performing science and mathematics teachers through partnerships of technical universities, education schools, and school districts.
The project's first goal is the development of sustainable strategies that assist school systems in overcoming the difficulty of recruiting and retaining STEM-savvy teachers. Secondly, the partnership works toward an effective mechanism for local middle and high school science and math teachers to stay current with rapidly evolving research discoveries and career directions that are increasingly available to the students they teach.
The primary goal of the project, through the work and interactions of three teams, was to gain greater understandings into the boundaries that exist in STEM education. Each boundary crossing team was set in a science domain crossing theme (Biology/Chemistry; Mathematics/Physics; and Earth Science/Astronomy respectively). Each team consisted of a STEM faculty member, an Education Faculty Member, two K12 Teachers, two STEM undergraduates, and two STEM education undergraduates. The goal was for the teams to understand and explore ways of combating boundaries between subject areas, between grade levels, and between pedagogic and content knowledge. By understanding and evaluating how the teams work together an additional goal was to better understand how such teams can provide an environment that supports the enhancement of STEM education in K12 classrooms. Major understandings gained during this project included an appreciation for the need to monitor closely teams of this nature while clearly defining roles for team members who may have overlaping expertise and skill sets, which at time could cause tension in such broad team settings (more than in typical teacher-scientist partnerships). The involvement of students was determined to be highly desirable but also requiring detailed planning and training of each 'type' of participant individually, and together, to ensure overall cooperation and success. Other boundary-crossing issues relating to the percieved values and responsibilities of participants were found, highlighting roles within the working groups and removing the perception that the project had 'preconceived items' for the teams to be completing, which distracted some of the teams focus from working together on their mutual ideas by trying to uncover 'behind-their-back' motivations of others (which did not exist). The nature of the project has allowed for the professional development of all parties involved in terms of forming effective partnerships across boundaries. Undergraduate students have developed skills in working in teams, and also in developing educational materials. Faculty and Teachers have learned from each others' areas of expertise. The project included quarterly all team meetings at which such professional development could occur, along with other meetings organized by each team in the intervening periods. The professional development also included additional capacity building in undergraduate students both in their abilities to participate in K12 educational activities, and to gather, understand and interpret evaluation data.
