Initial Publication Date: August 16, 2021
Washington State University Vancouver, Tri-Cities, Pullman
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Washington State University will be one of the nation's leading land-grant universities, preeminent in research and discovery, teaching, and engagement. Our mission: To advance knowledge through creative research, innovation, and creativity across a wide range of academic disciplines; To extend knowledge through innovative educational programs in which students and emerging scholars are mentored to realize their highest potential and assume roles of leadership, responsibility, and service to society; To apply knowledge through local and global engagement that will improve quality of life and enhance the economy of the state, nation, and world.
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The NextGen STEM implementation team at WSU works most closely with the following Working Groups: Education for Sustainability (promote the integration of sustainability principles across the coursework taken by preservice teachers); Math in STEM (how to integrate the Math content and experience with other disciplines); Clinical Practice (improving placement, improving communication with mentor teachers); Engineering (how to integrate engineering into pre-service teachers' experiences outside of engineering classes); and, Computer Science (how to integrate computer science into pre-service teachers' experiences); Diversity (recruiting and supporting diverse pre-service teachers, fostering an asset-based approach to students, supporting students' multiple understandings and connections to content); PCK (creating an exemplar curriculum for pre-service teachers).
Metrics of successful implementation of NextGen STEM Teacher Preparation include:
By 2020
- Survey current Ed students to hear about the obstacles they encountered, how they overcame them (if they did), and what institutional barriers we could remove or reduce to help them
- Have targeted conversations about placements, identify potential mentor teachers and share: placement coordinators will use this list to request placements -- consider the Science and Math Fellows through OSPI -- develop a "marketing" plan for the WSU teacher prep program to "sell" our preservice teachers for placement in local districts
- Meet with CWU and EWU to discuss their sustainability pathways to get ideas of what we can do on WSU campuses -- maybe engage CSEJ on Vancouver campus
- Document what's working and what's not in our various WSU programs on each campus
- What do core practices from MIT program look like in a math methods class? Help supervisors and mentor teachers to understand what math ed looks like now (not necessarily "I do, we do, you do")
- Explore an integrated science, math, language arts and social studies methods course, by taking a little time from all four existing methods courses to create the 4th integrated one for the same total credits
- Create a timeline and plan workshops for WSU faculty, staff, with input from pre-service teachers, focused around disseminating best ideas and practices gleaned from NextGen Working Groups' expertise including workshops in
- Math
- Computer Science/computational thinking
- Education for Sustainability
- Clinical Practice
By 2025:
- Continue core practices work and extend among all WSU campuses and programs
- Use the EfS framework to help faculty incorporate sustainability into their courses, across WSU campuses, colleges and programs