Project Activities
Key project activities will include the iterative development of a STEM curriculum, teacher professional development materials, and measures to assess child outcomes, teacher practices, and fidelity of implementation. Researchers will conduct a pilot study to evaluate the promise of the new intervention to improve teacher practices and children's knowledge and understanding of science and engineering.
Structured Abstract
Setting
The project will take place in Head Start programs in urban areas in Massachusetts.
Sample
Initial development will occur with 34 teachers. In the pilot study phase of the project, study participants will include 16 preschool teachers and 270 children. The majority of the child sample will be from low-income families.
Intervention
The Seeds of STEM intervention includes a classroom curriculum and teacher professional development materials. The classroom curriculum will include 8 structured lessons focused on STEM practices that support the development of children's problem solving and inquiry skills. Each lesson plan will build on and expand the preceding lessons. Authentic assessment will be embedded in each lesson to provide evidence for children's mastery of learning outcomes. The teacher support component of the intervention will include a video library and professional development workshops.
Research design and methods
Researchers will develop and test the intervention over a four year period. The curriculum will be developed through an iterative process in a partnership between the research team and lead teachers from a local Head Start program. Researchers will develop each lesson using a 10-week iterative process that is based on an initial assessment of teacher needs and continual feedback from classroom teachers regarding feasibility of implementation. In Year 1, researchers will recruit and select preschool teachers who will help to develop the lessons, finalize teacher assessments, develop student outcome measures, and conduct teacher surveys to assess teachers' baseline knowledge of the engineering design process, teachers' prior experience teaching STEM, and teachers' perceived self-efficacy in teaching engineering. In Year 2, the curriculum development team (researchers and teachers) will develop lesson plans, field test the lessons, examine feasibility of implementation, and pilot test the researcher-developed child outcome measures. In Year 3, researchers will recruit and randomly assign a new group of classrooms and teachers to treatment and control conditions, train teachers in the treatment group to implement the lessons, collect pre- and post-intervention data from teachers and students, and examine fidelity of implementation. In Year 4, researchers will analyze pilot study data and disseminate the study findings.
Control condition
All teachers will receive a one-day professional development (PD) session and a list of STEM learning outcomes. During the pilot study, intervention teachers will receive the curriculum, but control teachers will not.
Key measures
Primary measures include researcher-developed tools and standardized measures. Researcher-developed measures will be used to assess feasibility, usability and fidelity of implementation. The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) will be used to collect data on classroom practices. The Teacher Efficacy and Attitudes Toward STEM Survey and the Personal STEM Teaching Efficacy and Beliefs—Engineering Survey will be used to assess teacher self-efficacy. Researchers will use the Draw An Engineer protocol to assess teachers' perceptions of engineers. Researcher-developed measures will be used to assess teacher content knowledge and knowledge of how to teach the engineering design process, and children's use of engineering design process vocabulary, execution of problem solving design steps, and ability to transfer knowledge and skills.
Data analytic strategy
During the iterative development phase, researchers will conduct descriptive analyses of teacher survey responses and conduct qualitative analyses to code for curriculum quality and usability. In the pilot study phase, the research team will conduct analyses to evaluate the impact of the curriculum teachers' instructional and child outcomes.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
Products: The products of this project include a fully developed STEM curriculum and teacher support materials to improve STEM teaching and learning in preschool programs. Researchers will also produce peer-reviewed publications.
Supplemental information
Co-Principal Investigators: Florencia Anggoro (College of the Holy Cross), and Melissa-Sue John (Worcester Polytechnic Institute)
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
