Empowering teachers as instructional designers strengthen the link between theory and good practice. The purpose of the research is to explore two teachers' experiences about a professional development (PD) program. The PD includes a one academic year program with the aim of developing teachers' instructional design knowledge and skills using Understanding by Design model as reference. Teachers' instructional designs improved in terms of UbD design principles, and they reported change in their attitudes and teaching practices after the fourth cycle. Continuous discipline-specific feedback and trust bond based on prolonged communication underlined as major elements of PD that facilitated teacher change.

This research aimed to investigate and compare teachers’ conceptualizations of their students’ and their own outcomes of our earlySTEM program at the K4 level in two distinct roles: practitioners only and practitioners and program developers jointly. The study group included 66 teachers, 26 of whom had actively contributed to the development of the earlySTEM program. Teachers in both roles were supported by teacher guides, student books and workshops throughout the 8-month long academic year. Data was collected at the end of the academic year through an open-ended survey. The program developer teachers identified more student outcomes under more diverse categories while the practitioner teachers mainly concentrated on cognitive outcomes and limited their conceptualizations to the national curriculum. In addition, the program developer teachers valued their involvement in the program development process and expressed more diverse professional outcomes referring to different types of teacher knowledge.

Gender equity is a critical agenda for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education to increase women involvement in the STEM pathway. Our study is about the impact of a project in which all-girl teams participated to an educational robotics program. We used quantitative and qualitative data to determine the impact and understand the girls' program experiences. After the participation of the program, the mean scores have increased in interest in STEM, interest in STEM careers, STEM identity, and understanding of STEM scales. The groups underlined their problem solving and group work experiences, as well as their excitement and motivation related with the STEM activities.

The current research is about the impact of the young STEM researchers and practitioners program implemented within the STEM: Integrated teaching project. The aim of the program is to incorporate STEM integrated teaching knowledge in the teacher preparation period. In this phenomenological study, we explored five pre-school teachers' program experiences and their STEM conceptions. Data were collected with semi-structured interviews, including questions about the impact and elements of the program and participants' STEM conceptions. Content analysis showed that awareness for STEM education, development of integrated teaching knowledge, and program elements were the emergent themes about the program experience. Teacher candidates responded to the models that include realworld problems and engineering as contexts as most desirable when shown STEM education models to understand their STEM conceptions. The young STEM researchers and practitioners program can be evaluated as a developing model to be incorporated into teacher education programs. Further research can explore how pre-service teachers form their STEM conceptions and develop their integrated teaching knowledge.

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