This essay explores the challenges that novice elementary teachers may face as they attempt to enact the practices of STEAM education. Specifically, I will explore research that suggests that novice elementary teachers lack confidence in their ability to lead lessons rooted in either scientific inquiry or arts-integration. This has, I argue, clear implications for the development of STEAM education. Advocates of STEAM education must ensure that novice elementary teachers are provided with the necessary scaffolds and supports that will empower them to engage in authentic and ambitious STEAM practices. Author/Artist BioAaron Zimmerman is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas Tech University. He is interested in teacher development, specifically in relation to how novice teachers are prepared to navigate and negotiate problems of practice.

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It is critical for teacher educators and scholars of teacher education to think carefully about the conceptual framework that they use to evaluate teacher education programs. Without a strong conceptual framework, it may be difficult for teacher educators to evaluate whether or not they are operating within a strong program. Thus, we frame this article as an opportunity to present one particular pre-existing framework in the research literature that can be used to conceptualize teacher education quality. We then present some evidence that supports and challenges this framework. In other words, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the conceptual framework for teacher education quality proposed by Hsieh, Law, Shy, Wang, Hsieh, and Tang (2011). In our attempt to create a supplementary evaluation of this conceptual framework, we test a statistical model using a different large international database – Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013 (OECD, 2014). Specifically, we examine the effects of preparedness for content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and field-based practice on teachers’ later performance satisfaction using multiple linear regression analysis. Our findings suggest that teachers who are more prepared for PCK and classroom practice (through field/clinical experience) during their teacher education program tend to be more satisfied with their teaching performance. However, our findings also suggest that becoming prepared in one’s CK during teacher preparation does not, according to the respondents, have a significant impact on their satisfaction with their teaching performance. Findings of this study have implications for practice and future research.

Community-engaged research describes an approach towards research and a stance towards scholarship that arose in response to the criticism that institutions of higher education functioned only as ivory towers, disconnected from real-world problems. This chapter is intended to serve as an introduction to the concept of community-engaged research. Topics covered will include the definition of community-engaged research, the criteria for the evaluation of community-engaged research, inherent challenges associated with community-engaged research, and strategies that institutions of higher education can employ as a means of cultivating and sustaining community-engaged research among faculty.

In the field of education, case study is a widely used qualitative research methodology. While there are a broad range of approaches to case study, the resources available to researchers is limited. Therefore, this chapter aims to shed some light on what defines a case study and some of the possible methodological variations. The goal of this chapter is to provide the reader with a foundational understanding of a case study as a methodology and how this methodology aligns within various research contexts in the field of education.