Educator Perceptions Between December 2022 and February 2023, 44 educators, representing 8 different Putnam County Schools completed the CIS-E survey. The primary role held by these educators was overwhelmingly Elementary (K-6) Classroom Teacher (68%), followed by not listed (14%), 6 th Grade STEM Teacher (9%), K-5 STEM Resource Teacher (5%), and Secondary (7-12) Classroom Teacher (2%). The gender distribution of these educators skewed toward women (77%), with men comprising 20% of the sample. The largest race/ethnicity categories represented among these educators were White, Caucasian (83%) followed by Latino or Hispanic (7%) and prefer not to answer (7%). Two-thirds of educators (66%) held b achelor’s degrees and over a quarter held m aster’s degrees (27%). The largest percentage of educators (36%) had between 1 and 4 years of experience leading in-school STEM activities followed by no experience (16%) and 5 to 9 years (16%). Lastly, 68% of educators had either no experience or less than 1 year of experience leading out-of-school STEM activities. When asked about their training and professional development, 68% of educators reported having no professional development within the last year. Of the 30% who reported receiving professional development within the last year, 46% said that they are “very comfortable” and 31% said they are “somewhat comfortable” instructing in the content area in which they received professional development. The remaining 23% reported feeling “very uncomfortable” instructing in the professional development content area. When asked “What kind of STEM training/support would you like to receive?” educators suggested “More Woz Ed trainings,” “teaching biomimicry, more training with micro bits and data science,” “new innovation workshops” and “cyber security.” Additionally, multiple educators expressed a general interest in more professional development opportunities focused on expanding STEM k nowledge or “Anything pertaining to K - 5.” In addition to collecting data about educator characteristics, the CIS-E asks educators about their own STEM identities. On a scale of 1 to 4, educators’ average STEM identity was 2.75. Educators whose primary role was STEM-specific (i.e., 6 th grade STEM teachers and K-5 STEM resource teachers) reported significantly higher ( p ’s < 0.05) average STEM identity scores than educators whose primary role was not STEM-specific (i.e., Elementary (K- 6) Classroom Teacher and Secondary (7-12) Classroom Teacher). Additionally, educators who received professional development within the last year reported significantly higher ( p ’s < 0.05) average STEM identity scores than educators who did not receive professional development within the last year. Attitudes toward teaching STEM over time were also assessed with the CIS-E. Overall, educators reported significant positive change ( p ’s < 0.05) in their attitudes towards leading STEM (i.e., feeling more comfortable, confident, interested in, and capable of teaching STEM at the time of the survey compared to a year prior). Between educators who received professional development within the last year and those who did not, there were no significant differences in feeling comfortable, confident, interested in, and capable of teaching STEM at the time of the survey compared to a year ago. However, while not statistically significant, educators who received professional development do seem to report more positive change than those who did not receive professional development ( p ’s > 0.05) ( Figure 7 ). Between educators whose role was STEM-specific and those whose role was not STEM specific, there were significant differences ( p ’s < 0.05) in feelings of comfort teaching STEM such that STEM- specific teachers reported greater increases in comfort than non-STEM-specific teachers.
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