Research Experience for Teachers: Teachers as Learners and Facilitators

Abstract

A National Science Foundation Research Experience for Teachers site has hosted authentic research in machine learning for 20 middle and secondary school STEM teachers who are either members of underrepresented groups in computer science and engineering or who teach students from underrepresented groups. These teachers are evaluated by their districts, in part, by using the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Educator Standards. The seven ISTE Standards for Educators were used to evaluate the learning of teachers in the RET program after a six-week research experience in partnership with graduate research groups at a metropolitan research university in the south-central U.S. From participation in focus groups and program products such as seminar presentations, we found that teachers expressed value in being able to feel like a student again (ISTE Standard #1; Teacher as Learner). Additionally, teachers expressed that thinking critically and using problem solving skills in an area with which they were not familiar offered necessary insight towards how their own students might feel at times. RET participants described having to engage problem solving skills and figure things out on their own, which in turn led to them wanting to provide that same experience for their own students (ISTE Standard #6: Teacher as Facilitator). Some participants spoke of incorporating more real-life data to challenge their students to apply their learning to real life problems and challenges. Other individual participants reported feeling more qualified to meet their schools' teaching standards and that the RET experience influenced the overall curriculum and approach to how their school teaches physics and engineering.