GIFT uses teaching to promote professional identity formation among STEM graduate students.
In GIFT, graduate students in STEM disciplines serve as content experts. They teach undergraduate education majors (i.e. teacher candidates) STEM content. Then, teacher candidates transform the STEM content into mini-lessons for elementary school students.
“Pedagogy does not only apply to teaching; instead I think of it as a way to communicate information in a way that people will learn. In that way, I am interested in learning skills that will help me communicate my research and its importance. I think I can use some of the techniques I’ve learned to help people to understand what I’m talking about.”
“I actually knew a quite a bit more than I originally thought…I am more confident in what I’ve learned.”
“I’ve been ‘lucky’ enough to live with the idea of impostor syndrome for a few years now… [But] the majority of this partnership has been me being the ‘expert.'”
“Knowing how to give a presentation is one thing, but it does not really teach you how to have a conversation. The back and forth of [teaching] … [is] making your mind more agile by doing backflips on the spot, [and] coming up with questions.”
“I feel that now I have a solid foundation for my teaching, and if a class or other teaching responsibility were thrown at me, I would have the starting ideas and resources to rise to the responsibility.”
“Working with the teachers was great, because I enjoyed explaining to them how science works. When they started to understand what I was saying they started asking more questions and they eventually felt so comfortable with the subject…I now appreciate the gap we have in school when it comes to science education. We do not have enough teachers who are comfortable explaining basic concepts, and people like us need to step in and fill that void.”
“I now truly have a greater respect for elementary teachers, and I can say with confidence now that they must be paid more money!”
Based on our pilot data, we have seen the benefits to graduate students to include increased confidence in their content knowledge, an increased feeling of expertise and/or a step toward battling imposter syndrome, and an understanding of how they might use their expertise to give back to the community.
If you currently advise a graduate student at Boise State in a STEM field and would like your graduate student to participate in GIFT, please contact Julianne Wenner at juliannewenner@boisestate.edu. From there, we can figure out the best way to include your student.
In addition to being a graduate student currently taking coursework in your field, we also ask graduate students to enroll in GCOLL 516: Exploration of Pedagogy, which is a one-credit course that will support you in teaching the teacher candidates in an engaging and appropriate manner. If you are part of GIFT, nearly all GCOLL 516 coursework will be tied to your GIFT activities. There are a few brief meetings with teacher candidates outside of course meeting time, and you will be required to visit the elementary school on the day that the teacher candidates teach their lesson to the elementary students.
Learn more about GIFT:
Learn more about the program by visiting the NSF award summary, or reading more about the program in Boise State Update.
GIFT is a collaborative effort between Boise State’s College of Education, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering, and the Institute for Inclusive & Transformative Scholarship. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation.Â