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K-12 teacher professional development in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) is often utilized to enhance teachers' abilities to use STEAM pedagogical methods in the classroom. One such program is GoSTEAM, a five-year initiative centered on K-12 teacher professional development in STEAM. Teachers participating in GoSTEAM collaborate on the implementation of STEAM lessons and activities with an Innovator-in-Residence, who is an individual with experience in a STEAM field, often from a local community organization or university. This study analyzes focus group findings from teachers and school administrators to assess how the partnership with the Innovator-in-Residence impacts teachers' professional development in STEAM. The findings suggest teachers and administrators perceived there to be several impacts on teachers' professional development as a result of the partnership, such as the development of STEAM skills and making connections between STEAM, district standards, and real-world concepts. As such, the results of this study indicate that a teacher's professional development in STEAM can be impacted by an ongoing partnership and collaboration with community partners and those experienced in STEAM fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

K-12 teacher professional development in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) is often utilized to enhance teachers’ abilities to use STEAM pedagogical methods in the classroom. One such program is GoSTEAM, a five-year initiative centered on K-12 teacher professional development in STEAM. Teachers participating in GoSTEAM collaborate on the implementation of STEAM lessons and activities with an Innovator-in-Residence, who is an individual with experience in a STEAM field, often from a local community organization or university. This study analyzes focus group findings from teachers and school administrators to assess how the partnership with the Innovator-in-Residence impacts teachers’ professional development in STEAM. The findings suggest teachers and administrators perceived there to be several impacts on teachers’ professional development as a result of the partnership, such as the development of STEAM skills and making connections between STEAM, district standards, and real-world concepts. As such, the results of this study indicate that a teacher’s professional development in STEAM can be impacted by an ongoing partnership and collaboration with community partners and those experienced in STEAM fields.

There has been increased interest in utilizing making activities in classroom-based educational environments and research suggests these activities may promote desirable student dispositions such as increased confidence and agency. To realize these benefits, teachers must experience maker-centered learning in order to design and integrate these types of activities into their curriculum. This qualitative study examined K-12 teachers' perceptions of an eight-week professional development experience designed to expose participants to making activities and the culture inherent in a commercial makerspace. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 15 teachers who participated in the experience during Summer 2017. An analysis of the interview data describes participants' learning experiences within three modes of teacher learning: formal, informal and independent. This paper describes how and what teachers learned during the professional development experience, as well as their perceptions of learning in a commercial makerspace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]