(D-127) Professional Development in Bioengineering for Urban Science Teachers

Introduction:: The Colleges of Engineering and Education at a large, urban university collaborates to provide a summer research experience in biomedical engineering to [X] Public High School science teachers. This experience is enhanced by creating a community of practice and curricular mentoring to support the development of NGSS standard-aligned curricula based on their bioengineering lab research.

Materials and Methods::
The Bioengineering Experience for Science Teachers (BEST) was developed using Desimone’s Core Conceptual Framework (2009), emphasizing five features that are critical components of effective professional development: content focus, active learning, coherence, duration, and collective participation. Each applicant ranks preferred research labs based on their own classroom connection, background and interest. Applicants are selected based on diversity of schools (selective enrollment, magnet, and neighborhood), demographics of students served, and geographical diversity.









Each year during the six-week summer program, 8 teachers spend 4 days a week in their assigned research lab and Fridays developing an NGSS-aligned unit curriculum. Upon completion of the program, all curricula developed in BEST are publicly available on the program website for all to use.









A total of 39 teachers have participated in the program. At the conclusion of each week, teacher fellows complete a Qualtrics survey to provide feedback on their weekly experience. Open ended questions included, “ What aspects of your lab experience promoted your understanding of bioengineering this week?” and “What aspects of the curriculum workshop hindered your learning this week? ” Desimone’s five features of professional development collectively precipitate changes in teacher knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs, resulting in bidirectional changes in teacher instruction. At the end of each summer, data was compiled and reviewed to construct categories aligned with Desimone’s Core Conceptual Framework (2009). These categories were then coded to highlight factors that were either promoting or hindering teachers’ development of pedagogical content knowledge.




Results, Conclusions, and Discussions::
Teachers had an overall high perception of their experience in the BEST program, but also highlighted some aspects that hindered their ability to develop content knowledge and pedagogical skills. Three key themes emerged in the data: the importance of collaboration, background research, and ongoing feedback. When asked about aspects of the program that hindered their ability to develop content knowledge and pedagogical skills, three key themes emerged in the data: a lack of background knowledge in software, complexity of bioengineering concepts, and adapting to the research environment. Collaboration within research labs and education workshops was a key theme for all participants. The holistic collaboration of the program across both the colleges of engineering and education was seen as an important aspect that promoted teachers’ learning in the program.









A meaningful summer research experience can enhance teachers’ knowledge, making it possible to more effectively convey the nature of the scientific process to students. Further, having teachers participate in research programs has been shown to improve student performance in science. This summer research experience offers teacher participants the opportunity to be immersed in both content and pedagogy. The cross-department collaboration is central to teacher participants’ development and learning in this summer research experience, as they will benefit from both the expertise of bioengineering researcher faculty and educational design experts in an innovative approach that stresses the importance of content and pedagogy in teaching practice. With a focus on urban science teachers we seek to address the disparities between science offerings in urban vs. non-urban schools in an effort to combat the formidable challenge of teaching within the context of racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity, high concentrations of poverty, high rates of student mobility, and lack of resources. We aim to achieve progress toward social, economic and political equity; recognizing that justice in STEM fields begins with a cultural transformation in the classroom.




Acknowledgements (Optional): :
Research presented here is supported by National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) of the National Institutes of Health under award number R25-EB021733. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

References (Optional): :
Desimone, Laura M. "Improving impact studies of teachers’ professional development: Toward better conceptualizations and measures." Educational researcher 38.3 (2009): 181-199.