Chapter 6 Professional Development for Educators

6.0.0.0.1 Community college faculty have diverse responsibilities. They design and deliver courses and are often charged with responsibilities related to student retention or institutional administration. Incoming faculty are typically subject matter experts with minimal training in pedagogy (Strickland-Davis et al., 2019). Furthermore, instructors in advanced technological fields must keep pace with rapidly changing technology and workforce needs. Increasingly, secondary school teachers are being called up to play a part in building students’ STEM knowledge and skills and instilling interest in STEM careers.

6.0.0.0.2 The ATE program provides support for projects to develop and deliver professional development for educators, with a focus on enhancing their “disciplinary capabilities, teaching skills, understanding of current technologies and practices, and employability skills” (National Science Foundation (NSF), 2021, p. 5). ATE PIs were asked to report on the focus, number, and length of professional development activities provided by their projects, as well as the number and type of participants and number of students subsequently impacted by those participants.

6.1 Professional Development for Educators

6.1.0.1 Forty percent of ATE projects provided training or professional development to current or future educators.

One hundred forty-four ATE projects provided 960 training or professional development activities for educators in 2021. Over half of these activities were a day or less in length (52%), including webinars and one-day workshops. Twenty-three percent lasted from one to several weeks, including courses and summer institutes. Eighteen percent lasted more than one day but less than one week, including workshops and online modules. The remaining 7% were long-term and periodic and included internships and peer coaching.

6.1.0.1.1 ATE projects offered 960 professional development activities for educators in 2021.

Figure 6.1: Number of professional development activities for educators by length of time (n=144)

Professional development activities focused on a range of skills and topic areas. Eighty-one percent focused on discipline- or industry-specific knowledge or skills, 40% on pedagogy, and 49% on training on specific equipment. Additional professional development topics reported by ATE projects included recruitment or retention of students (22%), addressing issues of equity, diversity, or inclusion (17%), and other professional skills, such as leadership (24%).

Due to a technical error in the data collection process, we are unable to report data on educators from 2021. At least 21,680 students were taught by educators who participated in ATE- sponsored professional development (most likely many more, due to underreporting and projects’ inability to collect this data).

References

National Science Foundation (NSF). (2021). Advanced technological education program solicitation (NSF21-598). Washington, DC: Author. https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/ate-advanced-technological-education/nsf21-598/solicitation

Strickland-Davis, S., Kosloski, M., & Reed, P. A. (2019). The impact of professional development grounded in social learning on community college faculty efficacy. Community College Journal of Research and Practice.