Browsing by Author "Hite, Rebecca (TTU)"
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Item A proposed conceptual framework for K–12 STEM master teacher (STEMMaTe) development(2018) Hite, Rebecca (TTU); Milbourne, JeffRecent reports from federal agencies and legislation call for explicit avenues to incorporate K–12 STEM master teacher voice into the policy space. National initiatives, federal legislation, and teacher recognition programs have sought to identify K–12 STEM master teachers and harness their potential. These efforts warrant a conceptual framework to quantify attributes of K–12 STEM master teachers, to foster pathways for the development of current and future leaders. Using a sample of 10 individuals from two extant programs of K–12 STEM master teachers (Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship and Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching), data from their career trajectories (sourced from Curriculum Vitae) were sequenced to construct and confirm the STEM Master Teacher (STEMMaTe) conceptual framework. This framework may be used to guide programmatic development to increase national capacity for K–12 STEM master teachers. Recommendations are discussed for the creation of pathways to develop STEM master teachers and increase their participation in the broader education system.Item Exploring Advocacy Self-efficacy Among K-12 STEM Teacher Leaders(2022) Velasco, Richard Carlos L.; Hite, Rebecca (TTU); Milbourne, JeffAdvocacy is an emergent dimension of teacher leadership, given its growing importance in shaping policy and facilitating reform efforts in American K-12 education. In 2014, the National Academies called for advancing advocacy-based activities and leadership among K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers, who are presently understudied. The purpose of this embedded single-case case study was to explore STEM teachers’ development of self-efficacy in advocacy for STEM education. Contextualizing the case, participants consisted of 11 STEM teacher leaders who were part of the STEM Teacher Ambassadors (STA) program, a year-long advocacy-focused leadership development fellowship program, jointly sponsored by the National Science Teaching Association and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Employing case study research methodology, primary data were collected using semi-structured interviews, while secondary data were sourced via focus group interview and documents to triangulate interview data. Utterances (i.e., participant statements, groups of statements, or segments of statements) from transcribed data were coded a priori and analyzed via four constructs of self-efficacy theory: enactive master experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and emotional arousal. Results revealed 157 utterances coded to self-efficacy building within STEM education advocacy. Findings suggest that STEM teacher leaders’ participation in professional development programs that specifically focus on development of policy knowledge and advocacy activities help to develop and sustain STEM teacher leaders’ advocacy self-efficacy, given that participating teachers have numerous opportunities to fully engage in mastery experiences in STEM education advocacy. Implications and recommendations for policy and suggestions for further studies are discussed.Item Exploring affective dimensions of authentic geographic education using a qualitative document analysis of students’ youthmappers blogs(2018) Hite, Rebecca (TTU); Solís, Patricia; Wargo, Lindsay (TTU); Larsen, Thomas BarclayResearch suggests numerous cognitive benefits of authentic learning experiences. Beyond cognition, there are additional dimensions for learners who engage in authentic learning experiences. In education, the affective experiences of authentic learning and the role of students’ social interactions remain largely unexplored. This paper examines students’ affective and social experiences derived from blog posts published on the YouthMappers website. YouthMappers is an international network of university students who create open map data for humanitarian and development programming. In an analysis of two years (2016–2017) of 82 blogs from the YouthMappers network, students from the U.S. and abroad report motivating experiences fueled by social events and gatherings. The participants also find value in communicating with, encouraging, educating, and supporting their peers. Geographic region and gender also play a part in their accounts. This paper seeks to advance research in student affect and social interactions during authentic learning experiences. Positive affective and social experiences may be employed to create authentic learning experiences, building impactful social and emotional experiences for globally-diverse students.Item Perceived Barriers to Transfer that Rural Community College Students Experience when Transitioning to a Regional University(2023) Coke, Kelly; Hite, Rebecca (TTU); Harper, IrmaThis exploratory, phenomenological study explored how rural community college students perceived barriers from the transfer process and the support services they had needed for their successful transfers to 4-year universities in rural Texas. Transfer shock and transfer student capital were the two frameworks employed to model sampled students’ transfer experiences and the barriers to transfer. Data sourced from questionnaires and one-on-one interviews with 15 representative transfer students illuminated major barriers in academic advising and financial aid, which mirror the experiences of urban transfer students. Results also indicate that sampled students wanted more remote options and infrastructure (e.g., internet) for learning in rural areas. Most striking among the study’s findings was the nature of personal barriers experienced among the nonwhite students sampled, their unique challenges suggested there may be demographic differences among minoritized sub-groups in rural areas as they held different types of transfer capital and experienced transfer shock differently.Item Supporting undergraduate stemm education: Perspectives from faculty mentors and learning assistants in calculus ii(2021) Hite, Rebecca (TTU); Johnson, Levi (TTU); Velasco, Richard Carlos L.; Williams, G. Brock (TTU); Griffith, Ken (TTU)In higher education, Learning Assistants (LAs)—a relatively recent evolution grounded in peer mentorship models—are gaining popularity in classrooms as universities strive to meet the needs of undergraduate learners. Unlike Teaching Assistants, LAs are undergraduate students who receive continuous training from faculty mentors in content-area coaching and pedagogical skills. As near-peers, they assist assigned groups of undergraduates (students) during class. Research on LAs suggests that they are significant in mitigating high Drop-Fail-Withdrawal rates of large enrollment undergraduate science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medical (STEMM) courses. However, there is a dearth of description regarding the learning between LAs and STEMM faculty mentors. This paper reports on perspectives of faculty mentors and their cooperating LAs in regard to their learning relationships during a Calculus II at a research-oriented university during Spring of 2020. Using an exploratory-descriptive qualitative design, faculty (oral responses) and LAs (written responses) reflected on their relationship. Content analysis (coding) resulted in four salient categories (by faculty and LA percentages, respectively) in: Showing Care and Fostering Relationships (47%, 23%); Honing Pedagogical Skills (27%, 36%); Being Prepared for Class and Students (23%, 28%); and Developing Content Knowledge in Calculus (3%, 13%). Benefits of LAs to faculty and ways to commence LA programs at institutions are also discussed.Item The Intersection of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Engineering Design in Secondary STEM(2022) Manuel, Mariam; Gottlieb, Jessica (TTU); Svarovsky, Gina; Hite, Rebecca (TTU)The instructional practices of the engineering design process and culturally responsive pedagogy have each garnered national attention and multiple decades of research. Findings from the respective literature bases call for educators and policymakers to integrate these two pedagogical approaches into K-12 classroom instruction. Scholars have argued that this integration would improve student engagement and academic achievement. There is a significant amount of research that supports the positive student outcomes associated with each approach, yet there remains a dearth of literature that addresses the integration of these two practices into the science and mathematics content areas. The movement around educational reform is rooted in teachers serving as learners; however, understanding how teachers learn and respond to reform is largely overlooked. The present research sought to examine the way in which teachers perceive and define integrated pedagogical approaches upon implementation. The authors utilized a comparative case study design to represent experiences of five secondary math and science teachers enrolled in graduate-level coursework and professional development on culturally responsive pedagogy and the engineering design process. Findings suggest that teachers’ self-reported pedagogical beliefs acted synergistically between the two pedagogical approaches. Subsequently, participating teachers expressed a strong preference towards the enactment of an integrated pedagogy of a culturally responsive engineering design process. The present research offers valuable recommendations for teacher educators, professional development providers, policymakers, and researchers who wish to integrate culturally responsive pedagogy and the engineering design process in math or science K-12 classrooms. The significance of this research underscores the importance of empowering teachers with professional development, around implementation of novel pedagogical approaches, to both shape and inform their beliefs and practices.Item Useful Teaching Strategies in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic(2021) Church, Frank C.; Cooper, Scott T.; Fortenberry, Yolanda M.; Glasscock, Laura N.; Hite, Rebecca (TTU)The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the world continue. These impacts influence many aspects of life, work, healthcare, and education in the U.S., which are drastically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, a considerable challenge to tertiary-level education has been how to adapt our teaching styles and modalities to keep all stakeholders (students, faculty, teaching assistants, and staff) safe in lectures and labs. This viewpoint presents 15 teaching lessons and tips for undergraduate and graduate STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine) education for face-to-face, hybrid, and distance learning. The goal was to describe teaching strategies that could be adaptable to most STEMM courses, independent of the classroom size, which is valuable for those educational settings capable of migrating from a classroom to either a hybrid or strictly online teaching environment. Although some of these teaching tips were straightforward, we believe collectively that they (1) provide safety and stability to the students and the instructors; (2) help to improve communications between faculty and students that the pandemic had strained; (3) strengthen student attention; (4) facilitate the transition from the classroom to online teaching; (5) enable the use of new technologies; and (6) offer teaching practices we imagined for educational scenarios post-SARS-CoV-2. Finally, we hope these teaching strategies offer valuable insight as we continue to navigate STEMM education during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.