Nancy Perry, Senior Assistant Dean of
Arizona State University, began by asking the important question: how do you
tame the “wicked problem” of recruiting, inducting and retaining middle school
STEM teachers? The answer: human-centered design. In researching for the SEED
grant (Supporting Effective Educator Development) for the Mary Lou Fulton
Teacher’s College, Nancy explained, “one of the things we’ve learned is that we
need to start looking at these problems by empathizing with our end-user – the
middle school math or science teacher.”
Arizona State Assistant Clinical Professor,
Pamela Harris and Senior Research Analyst, Carrie Lloyd broke the session into
interactive discussion by asking each table to share ideas on which characteristics
define a great STEM teacher, and how to recruit and retain these individuals. A
popular topic was engagement – the need for teachers to engage in social
emotional development. The team of researchers found that STEM teachers lack
social emotional training and could be better retained by employers who offer
emotional intelligence classes. The group also found that utilizing a “high
touch recruitment strategy,” where employers touch base once a week and offer
to take new teachers to school visits and social gatherings, has proven successful
in retention. While STEM teachers are often thought of as more logical, Perry
explains the importance of catering to their creative intelligence as well.
Perry notes that somewhere along the way, “we may have forgotten about the
human in the
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