Collaborative Research: Design & Development of a K-12 STEM Observation Protocol

Dr. Elizabeth Ring-Whalen was awarded $139,049 by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to research and focus on the teaching strand through the design and development of a K-12 classroom observation protocol for integrated STEM instruction (STEM-OP). While the importance of integrated STEM education is established through national policy documents, there remains disagreement on models and effective approaches for integrated STEM instruction. This issue is confounded by the lack of observation protocols sensitive to integrated STEM teaching and learning to inform research to the effectiveness of new models and strategies.In order to facilitate the implementation of integrated STEM in K-12 classrooms and the development of the nascent integrated STEM education literature, the work proposed here intends to design and develop a new integrated STEM observation protocol for use in K-12 science and engineering classrooms. Specifically, this project proposes to use over 500 integrated STEM classroom videos to design an observation protocol. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the STEMOP will be a valid and reliable instrument for use in a variety of educational contexts. The STEM-OP and associated training materials will be available for use by other education stakeholders, such as K-12 teachers and district administrators, through a publicly available online platform