Advancing Innovation in STEM Teacher Preparation: The STEM Core Practices Framework

This project aims to serve the national interest by strengthening undergraduate STEM teacher preparation through the development and study of the STEM Core Practices Framework, a program-level, practice-based model designed to support future mathematics and science teachers in enacting high-quality, rigorous, and responsive instruction. The United States depends on well-prepared STEM teachers who can engage students in meaningful scientific and mathematical practices and respond thoughtfully to how students think and learn. The significance of this work lies in a persistent gap in teacher preparation: while evidence-based, practice-focused approaches to teacher education have grown nationally, most efforts remain situated within individual courses rather than woven across entire preparation programs, limiting the coherence and cumulative power of teacher learning. This project plans to advance understanding of how a shared, program-level instructional framework can strengthen the preparation of future mathematics and science teachers by providing integrated opportunities across coursework and clinical experiences to develop the knowledge, skills, and instructional judgment needed to support meaningful student learning. Consistent with NSF's mission to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare through science and education, this Level 1 Engaged Student Learning project plans to develop program-level instructional tools and resources, including implementation guides, rehearsal protocols, assessment tools, and supports for faculty and mentor teachers, that embed a shared vision of teaching practice across a secondary STEM teacher preparation program. Innovative aspects of the project include its program-wide focus on coherence, its integration of mathematics and science teacher preparation within a unified framework, and its emphasis on equipping both university faculty and school-based mentor teachers to enact a shared instructional vision. Anticipated outcomes include improved program coherence, strengthened faculty implementation of practice-based approaches, and highly prepared future STEM teachers ready to serve students in rural and high-need communities. The goals of this project are to develop, implement, and study instructional tools and resources that support enactment of the STEM Core Practices Framework across the NAUTeach program at Northern Arizona University, a STEM teacher education program preparing approximately 40 secondary mathematics and science teachers annually. The scope of the project encompasses six instructional methods and clinical courses spanning three and a half years of teacher preparation across mathematics and science disciplines. The project follows a three-year Design-Based Research (DBR) plan organized into iterative cycles of co-design, enactment, analysis, and revision. In Year 1, the team plans to co-design and pilot instructional tools and resources for one anchor instructional activity, building shared structures and design principles. Year 2 plans to expand development and pilot testing to the remaining five instructional activities across additional methods courses. Year 3 plans to integrate the full suite of tools and resources across all required courses and conduct a program-wide evaluation. Three research questions guide the study, investigating how instructional tools and resources support preservice teacher (PST) engagement with framework components, how faculty and mentor teachers use and adapt those resources across disciplinary contexts, and how program-level coherence in implementation supports cumulative PST learning over time. Data sources will include PST planning artifacts, rehearsal rubrics, reflection prompts, classroom observations, faculty interviews, PST surveys, and mentor teacher feedback, analyzed through qualitative coding, thematic analysis, and cross-case comparison. The project plans to produce a validated suite of open-access instructional tools and resources, empirically grounded design principles for program-level practice-based STEM teacher preparation, and peer-reviewed scholarship that advances the field's understanding of how coherence can be developed, enacted, and sustained across courses and clinical experiences to support preservice teacher development over time. This project is co-funded through the NSF IUSE and Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This project is also supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports the training and development of undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.