Reflecting On Practice For Stem Educators

Reflecting on Practice for STEM Educators is a guidebook to lead a professional learning program for educators working in STEM learning environments. Making research on the science of human learning accessible to educational professionals around the world, this book shows educators how to relate this research to their own practice. Educators’ collective work broadens the scope of an organization’s reach, and through this effort, the organization grows its social capital in its local community and beyond. This book offers opportunities to engage in processes that lead toward organizational learning by attending to the professional growth of the educators. Tran and Halversen show how learning together can shape the language and meanings by which educators do and talk about their work to support visitors’ experiences. The book provides guidance on how teams of educators can build community as they engage in reflective practice. Reflecting on Practice for STEM Educators will be essential reading for leaders of any organization that aims to educate and engage the public in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It will be particularly useful to educators who work in museums, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, youth organizations, after-school programs, and nature, science, and conservation centres.

Professional development of educators is an complex process through which teachers strive continuously for pedagogical improvement. In that sense, professional growth benefits learners and teachers while also promoting the quality of the schools, colleges, and academic departments where it takes place. Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education is an authoritative publication featuring the latest scholarly research on a wide range of professional advancement topics in STEM education with special emphasis on content, process, implementation, and impact, as well as on the implications for teachers, educators, and administrators. Highlighting comprehensive research across a broad scope of relevant issues including, but not limited to, teacher training, development models, and the implementation of leadership practices, this book is a seminal reference source for STEM professionals working in schools, colleges, and various science and mathematics departments at secondary and post-secondary institutions.

The ability to reflect on practice is a fundamental component of effective medical practice. In a sector increasingly focused on professionalism and patient-centred care, Developing Reflective Practice is a timely publication providing practical guidance on how to acquire the reflective skills necessary to become a successful clinician. This new title draws from a wide range of theoretical and practical multidisciplinary perspectives to assist students, practitioners and educators in embedding reflection in everyday activities. It also offers structures and ideas for more purposeful and meaningful formal reflections and professional development. Developing Reflective Practice: Focuses on the developing practitioner and their lifelong learning and the development of professional identity through reflection Provides practical how-to information for students, practitioners and educators, including realistic case examples and practice-based hints and tips Examines and explains the theoretical and conceptual approaches to reflective practice, including its models and frameworks.

This book brings together researchers from Israel and Canada to discuss the challenges today's teachers and teacher‐educators face in their practice. There is a growing expectation that the 21st century STEM teachers re‐examine their teaching philosophies and adjust their practices to reflect the increasing role of digital technologies. This expectation presents a significant challenge to teachers, who are often asked to implement novel technology‐rich pedagogies they did not have a chance to experience as students or become comfortable with. To exacerbate this challenge, the 21st century teachers function not only in a frequently‐changing educational reality manifested by continuous reforms, but are also bombarded by often contradictory and competing demands from the legislators, administrators, parents, and students. How do we break the vicious circle of reforms and support STEM teachers in making a real change in student learning? This book is unique for at least three reasons. First, it showcases research situated in Israel and Canada that examines the challenges today's teachers and teacher‐educators face in their practice. While the governments of both countries emphasize STEM education, their approaches are different and thus provide for interesting comparisons. Second, in addition to including research-based chapters, prominent scholars discuss the contributions in each of the book sections, problematizing the issues from a global perspective. Third, technology has a potential to empower teachers in this era of change, and this book provides the unique insights from each country, while allowing for comparisons, discussing solutions, and asking new questions. This book will be of interest to all involved in STEM teacher education programs or graduate programs in education, as well as to educational administrators interested in implementing technology in their schools.

The Reflective Museum Practitioner explores a range of expansive and creative ways in which the concept of “reflective practice” has been applied in the informal STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) learning environments of museums and zoos. It seeks to demonstrate how such a process can inspire lifelong learning in practitioners, to the benefit of practitioners and visitors alike. Presenting six projects that employed reflective practice, the contributors examine how each project has encouraged and sustained reflection, and the outcomes thereof. The projects cover a wide range of different practitioners—including administrators, scientists, educators, and other front-line and back-room staff—who work at different junctures of their organizations. Collectively, they raise key questions about changing communities of practice in Informal Science Learning institutions. The projects and concept of “reflective practice” are fully defined and contextualized by the editors, who offer in-depth analysis, along with a cultural-historical activity theory framework, for understanding how changes in museum practice unfold in an institutional context. The Reflective Museum Practitioner offers museum professionals insight into “reflective practice,” as practiced by other institutions in their sector, providing practical examples that can be adapted to their needs. It will also be of interest to scholars and students focusing on science museums, or professional practice development in museums.

The STEM Students on the Stage (SOS)TM model was developed by Harmony Public Schools with the goal of teaching rigorous content in an engaging, fun and effective way. In this book, you will learn that the STEM SOS model is not only helping students learn STEM content and develop 21st-century skills, but also helping teachers improve their classroom climate through increased student-teacher communication and a reduction in classroom management issues. There are at least two ways in which this book is innovative. First, you will find student videos and websites associated with QR codes; readers can use their QR readers to watch student videos related to the content in the chapter and see student e-portfolio samples at their Google sites. This provides the opportunity to see that what is discussed in the book actually happened. Second, the book is not about a theory; it is an actual implemented model that has evolved through the years and has been used in more than 25 schools since 2012. Every year, the model continues to be improved to increase its rigor and ease of implementation for both teachers and students. In addition to using the book as a classroom teacher resource and guide, it can also be used as a textbook in advanced graduate level curriculum and instruction, educational leadership, and STEM education programs. Therefore, STEM educators, leaders, pre-service and in-service teachers and graduate students will all benefit from reading this book. Appendices will be one of the favorite aspects of this book for teachers who are constantly looking for ready-to-use student and teacher handouts and activities. Full handouts, including formative and summative assessments materials and grading rubrics, will provide an opportunity for teachers and curriculum directors to understand the ideas and secrets behind the STEM SOS model. Lastly, STEM directors will find this to be one of the best STEM teaching model examples on the market because the model has fully accessible student and teacher handouts, assessment materials, rubrics and hundreds of student products (e-portfolios including video presentations and project brochures) online.

Reflective Practice for Teachers explores a range of key issues that you will need to engage with during your teacher preparation and early career in the classroom in order to deepen your understanding of teaching practice. Case studies and ‘What does this mean for you?’ boxes in every chapter take ideas from research and show how they can apply to the real world of teaching. This second edition has been updated with: a new chapter on assessment extended discussion of metacognition in the classroom critical perspective on what we really know about brain-based learning further coverage models of reflective practice

Reconceptualizing STEM Education explores and maps out research and development ideas and issues around five central practice themes: Systems Thinking; Model-Based Reasoning; Quantitative Reasoning; Equity, Epistemic, and Ethical Outcomes; and STEM Communication and Outreach. These themes are aligned with the comprehensive agenda for the reform of science and engineering education set out by the 2015 PISA Framework, the US Next Generation Science Standards and the US National Research Council’s A Framework for K-12 Science Education. The new practice-focused agenda has implications for the redesign of preK-12 education for alignment of curriculum-instruction-assessment; STEM teacher education and professional development; postsecondary, further, and graduate studies; and out-of-school informal education. In each section, experts set out powerful ideas followed by two eminent discussant responses that both respond to and provoke additional ideas from the lead papers. In the associated website highly distinguished, nationally recognized STEM education scholars and policymakers engage in deep conversations and considerations addressing core practices that guide STEM education.