Collaborative global learning within an integrated STEM professional development using children's literature

• Published in: School science and mathematics
• Main Authors: Asim, Sumreen, Haines, Sarah, Wieselmann, Jeanna, Menon, Deepika
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 29.01.2025
• ISSN: 0036-6803; 1949-8594
• DOI: 10.1111/ssm.18328

Elementary‐level teachers often express the need for assistance and support in teaching integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) lessons. Many lack content knowledge in these disciplines, and many also report a lack of adequate opportunities to teach these subjects during their preservice programs or their in‐service careers. We addressed this need by offering online professional development (PD) opportunities in integrated STEM, using model lessons that are anchored in the BSCS 5E instructional model, also known as the learning cycle. Our broader goal is to establish a professional learning community for both preservice and in‐service elementary teachers focused on integrated STEM education. We based our design and implementation of an engineering‐focused PD sequence on research literature, integrating STEM content areas and emphasizing key factors for maximizing impact, such as active learning, content focus, coherence, duration, and participant engagement. In this article, we outline the structure and describe the activities we conducted over the summer, which included elements of collaboration, interaction, and reflection. Our team also chose to incorporate picture books featuring international STEM role models, like Zaha Hadid, in the book titled The World is not a Rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid by Jeannette Winter. The insights gained from this iteration of the PD will inform the planning of future online PD offerings for elementary teachers.