Browsing by Author "Feldhaus, Charlie"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Creating the STEM Education Research Institute: SERI
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2013-04-05) Feldhaus, Charlie; Gavrin, Andy; Mutegi, Jomo
    SERI, The STEM Education Research Institute, is a new initiative of the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, based on collaboration among the Schools of Science, Education, and Engineering and Technology. This presentation will provide an overview of the mission, vision, and goals of SERI. It will also detail the organizational structure and leadership of SERI, and describe some of the initial projects SERI has undertaken. SERI offers a range of support to all IUPUI faculty interested in STEM Education research, including project development, evaluation, and dissemination. We are particularly interested in meeting researchers who wish to create educational components associated with new or ongoing research projects.
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    Evaluating K-12 STEM Education Programs in Indiana: The SERI/I-STEM Partnership
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2013-04-05) Sorge, Brandon; Walker, Bill; Feldhaus, Charlie
    The Indiana Science Initiative (ISI) is a K-8 systemic science and literacy program managed by the I-STEM Resource Network involving 2,000+ teachers and 53,000+ students in grades K-8 using research-developed curricular modules. The poster will present data and preliminary analysis on three key program evaluation areas. First, initial data will be presented on student performance at ten schools where all teachers at all grade levels implemented the ISI during both the pilot and first year. Secondly, the poster will present the preliminary analysis of data from the Lilly Science Coaches, which is a program that places Lilly staff and scientists with ISI teachers to support science program implementation through regular or semi-regular classroom visits. Finally, results of change in teachers’ self-efficacy as measured via the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI) will be reported. The early indications of these data are positive towards the success of the programs. This evaluation represents a partnership between the STEM Education Research Institute at IUPUI (SERI) and the I-STEM Resource Network. A summary of implications for this type of partnership are also presented.
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    Learning at the Nano-level: Exploring the unseen and accounting for complexity in how (and why) secondary STEM teachers learn
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Fore, Grant; Sorge, Brandon; Feldhaus, Charlie; Agarwal, Mangilal; Varahramyan, Kody
    This study utilizes IUPUI’s Nanotechnology Discovery Academy (INDA) for secondary Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) teachers (n=13) as its starting point for exploring issues related to teacher learning and professional development (PD). Pilot data was collected as part of an evaluation of INDA during the summer of 2013. Teacher professional learning is often represented as the measurable change (e.g. content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, self-efficacy, etc.) that occurs via PD “best practices.” However, following constructivism, the processes of knowledge construction are complex, and what is learned — and, more importantly, how and why it is learned — is itself an assemblage of experiences oftentimes particular to the individual learner. Our preliminary findings suggest that while teacher perceptions of their pedagogical development and confidence may increase, their learning outcomes and subsequent practice take shape in relation to each individual’s teaching/learning history and the political and socioeconomic reality of their school. With teacher PD remaining an important focus of U.S. educational policy, it is important to correctly characterize the emergent outcomes of PD interventions to better understand how teachers learn, what constrains their learning and practice, and how teacher professional learning can, in turn, be mobilized to empower both teachers and their students.
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    Project Lead the Way: Analysis of Statewide Student Outcomes
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Robbins, Kirsten; Sorge, Brandon; Helfenbein, Robert J.; Feldhaus, Charlie
    Project Lead the Way (PLTW) is a STEM education programming provider implementing hands-on, project-based engineering or biomedical science curricula in U.S. secondary schools. The goal of PLTW is to increase student interest and knowledge in these and other STEM majors/careers. A large, longitudinal dataset of students who graduated from an Indiana high school in 2010 was created. Preliminary analysis of the dataset found that students who took PLTW engineering courses were significantly more likely to select a STEM major, select an engineering major in college, and persist from the first to the second year of college. Additionally, taking three or more PLTW classes increased the likelihood of selecting a STEM major, selecting an engineering major in college, and persisting from the first to the second year of college. We also examined factors of PLTW students that made them more likely to major in a STEM field, enroll in a 4-year institution, and persist from their first to their second year of college. We found that being male, having a higher math ISTEP+ score, and receiving an honors diploma increased a PLTW students’ likelihood of majoring in STEM. PLTW students who were not eligible for free and reduced lunch, who were part of an underrepresented minority, who received an honors diploma, and who had higher ELA ISTEP+ scores were more likely to attend a 4-year institution. PLTW students who received an honors diploma and were not eligible for free and reduced lunch are more likely to persist from freshman to sophomore year. These findings elucidate interesting and important patterns in the data, highlighting a need for “scale-up research” to further determine the potential factors influencing student access and success. As such, the broad objective of our future research is to produce a multi-scalar representation of PLTW outcomes in Indiana, which can then be used as a modality for understanding the outcomes, impacts, and factors influencing PLTW success nationwide. More specifically, the project will identify PLTW outcomes in rural, suburban, and urban schools and their effects on the everyday experience of students in STEM programs at IUPUI. This multi-scalar approach will explore the broader sociocultural configuration of Indiana high schools, the extent to which those schools evidence PLTW implementation fidelity, and the longitudinal impact of PLTW curriculum on current STEM majors at IUPUI.
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    Supporting Teaching Excellence and Scholarship
    (Office of Academic Affairs, IUPUI, 2017-11-14) Feldhaus, Charlie
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    Teacher Evaluation in the State of Indiana: Alignment Efforts in University Based Teacher Instruction
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Buckwalter, John; Feldhaus, Charlie; Jackson, Rose; Daily, Caris
    As teacher evaluation in the state of Indiana continues to evolve it has become increasingly difficult to prepare, expose and train pre-service teachers to the evaluation process utilized in K-12 education. While the State adopted The Rise Evaluation instrument to create a common standard of measurement, many school corporations modified, interpreted and scored each domain differently. During the evaluation process many shared themes were discovered in over 20 different school corporation evaluation instruments. In an effort to find the basis for a common assessment, a new instrument was created that incorporates these common themes. The new evaluation form has been constructed into a reusable digital template. This new instrument not only helps with teacher training but also aids in comparing University induction evaluation to each individual school corporation. This data is critical in supporting Woodrow Wilson teachers as they enter and work through Induction years. This effort will also serve as University based data collection for Teacher Education program evaluation, while also allowing for a more delicate transition into the fast paced competitive K-12 workforce.