Teacher learning and the role of school level infrastructuring in integrated STEM education innovation

Abstract

STEM practices equip students with the capacity to navigate unpredictable challenges in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. Creating learning opportunities of STEM practices necessitates teacher learning to integrate innovative approaches within their school contexts. Existing literature reveals efforts on teacher professional development but rarely examines teacher learning in terms of their practice changes within the context of school level constraints. There is published research on design-based implementation research (DBIR) that applied the MultiLevel MultiScale (MLMS) model to the design and evaluation of architectures for learning (AfL) to facilitate situated learning at different levels of the education system for scalable curriculum innovation. However, little research has focused on the role of a school’s AfL and its infrastructuring efforts on teacher learning conditions and the ensuing innovation outcomes. This thesis adopted the MLMS model to investigate how a school’s AfL and its infrastructuring efforts affect its teachers’ learning at both the collective and individual levels during the innovation process, and the relationship between achieved teacher learning and scalability of observed innovative practices. This research comprises four connected studies with mixed methods conducted within the context of a DBIR Network with university-school partnership to advance STEM education. Study 1 addressed the need for an assessment instrument to measure teachers’ learning outcomes, defined as the extent to which teachers can provide learning opportunities of STEM practices for their students. Analysis of the DBIR project data using the STEM-SDL Practice Opportunities instrument developed in this study showed that teachers could provide STEM practice opportunities to their students through the learning designs they developed. However, it also revealed notable imbalances in STEM practice opportunities, indicating the value of this assessment instrument in monitoring the nature and quality of the teachers’ learning outcomes. Study 2 investigated whether and how STEM learning opportunities were affected by the nature and intensity of engagement of school leaders and co-design team teachers in innovation-related AfL. The findings showed that leadership level engagement was critical in driving the infrastructuring process to advance changes in teachers’ STEM teaching practices. Study 3 delved into examining differences in professional growth among teachers within the same co-design teams at different schools. It was found that in addition to teachers’ personal characteristics, their specific roles within a school’s AfL configuration affected their learning foci, opportunities and resulting professional growth. The present research spanned the period before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2017-21). Study 4 examined the conditions influencing the extent to which the schools could sustain and scale their STEM education innovation during the pandemic’s severe social stress. It was found that a crucial factor influencing the sustainability and scalability of STEM education innovation was whether the teachers were given opportunities to make agile adaptations through infrastructuring efforts at the school level. These studies’ findings collectively show that assessing teachers' learning outcomes through STEM learning opportunities offered to students are viable and valuable assessments of teachers’ learning outcomes in achieving a school’s intended innovation goals. These outcomes are significantly influenced by schools’ infrastructuring efforts and contexts.