Concerns and perceptions of experienced STEM educators before and after continuing professional education on global collaborative STEM education

Educator continuing professional education (CPE) is an important tool for changing practices in schools. One current area of need for CPE is global education. This study looked at concerns and perceptions of experienced educators before and after a semester-long global education CPE activity. The participants in this study were 18 doctoral students in their first semester of coursework. This study used a convergent mixed methods methodology to investigate educator change. The data collected included Stages of Concern Questionnaires, open-ended statements of concern, and 250-word essays describing participants’ perceptions of Global Collaborative STEM Education (GCSE). Results of this study showed that the participants did experience change in their knowledge about GCSE as well as in their affective stance toward GCSE after completing the GCSE CPE activity. Implications for CPE for experienced STEM educators were generated based on the concerns and perceptions of the participants and how those changed during the study.