The performance of students from the US on international assessments of math and science continues to be well below those from industrialized nations. Various challenges for this lackluster performance have been empirically identified. Of these challenges, motivation and engagement are the most cited in literature. Active learning has been shown to positively impact student engagement with content. In this article, an innovative approach and its impact incorporating technology in the classroom, a research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), will be presented. The intervention consisted of a one-week long summer professional development for middle school teachers who were from groups underrepresented in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). These teachers were from two rural school districts with limited resources for a technology-supported active learning environment. The participants learned how to use teaching modules for selected math and physics concepts using flight simulation software. The research design was a within-subject repeated measures pre-post design. Positive impact of the professional development on the participants' attitudes and self-efficacy were observed based on the post-workshop survey.
Technology-Supported Learning Environment and Self-Efficacy of Teachers
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