On this page:
What is it?
Equipping and empowering teachers means providing them with the right resources (e.g. high-quality professional learning opportunities, up-to-date technology) and skills to teach best practice STEM education. It also means supporting a culture of collaboration, sharing and feedback to encourage teachers.
How does it help?
A dynamic and highly-trained STEM teaching workforce is necessary for improving STEM education for students.
High-quality professional learning in STEM is essential because:
- Teachers have the greatest in-school influence on student achievement and engagement in STEM.
- The requirements of STEM teaching are rapidly changing. It is essential that teachers are equipped to deliver up-to-date content using best practice STEM approaches.
A culture of teacher collaboration is important because:
- It enables teachers to learn from each other’s experiences and successes.
- It enables sharing of STEM approaches and professional learning strategies.
Efforts to improve STEM outcomes and engagement often require multi-disciplinary planning and teaching.
How do you do it?
High-quality professional learning opportunities e.g. workshops / seminars / courses.
- Ensure teachers are equipped with necessary resources (for instance, up-to-date curriculum content, facilities and technology).
- Professional learning teams / communities of practice.
- Expert mentoring / team mentoring.
- Classroom observations / feedback.
- Mentoring relationships.
- Partnerships with businesses / STEM professionals.