STEM Teaching Fellows
STEM Teaching Fellows Program
The Notre Dame STEM Teaching Fellowship forms STEM teacher leaders who catalyze rigorous, ambitious, and sustainable STEM learning cultures for their students and school communities.
It is a multi-year, school-team-based program for middle-grade (4th–8th) STEM teachers designed to elevate participants' knowledge, skills, and dispositions and to empower them to make STEM education a force for good.
A Model Engineered for Systemic Change
The program uniquely focuses on developing both the individual teacher’s instructional practice and the strength of a school-based team. Fellows participate in teams of three to five members, creating a critical mass within their buildings to establish effective STEM learning opportunities for all students. The program specifically targets the middle grades, because this developmental stage is vital for fostering STEM interest and engagement, particularly among underrepresented populations.
In addition to their coursework, Fellows and their students participate in ongoing research throughout the program. This research focuses on teacher leadership, STEM instructional practices, and the relationship between STEM learning environments and student interest, achievement, and identity.
Program Elements
The two-and-a-half-year Fellowship is anchored by three Summer Institutes held on-campus at the University of Notre Dame. These institutes consist of various courses focused on STEM instructional practice and teacher leadership. During the academic year, Fellows apply their summer learning by participating in instructional coaching groups. These groups meet regularly to provide a collaborative environment for continued professional development and growth.
Additionally, two mid-year summits extend the work of the Summer Institutes, allowing teachers to reconnect and gather in person at various locations across the country. Together, these experiences provide 250 hours of professional development throughout the duration of the program.
Elevating STEM Teacher Leadership
STEM Teacher Leaders approach their work with particular dispositions–qualities of mind and character, knowledge–ideas and concepts; and practices–ways of implementing the work of teaching. The development of these capacities enables STEM Teacher Leaders to transform not only their own classrooms, but also their interactions with members of their school community, their school’s institutional policies and practices, and even more broadly into systems embedded within society.
The STEM Teacher Leadership Framework [PDF, 8MB] specifies eight focal dispositions and four domains of knowledge and practice that are essential to being a transformational STEM Teacher Leader.