Notre Dame's Center for STEM Education's fellowship program supports and develops high-quality educators nationally. However, creating a nationwide community of practice and maintaining momentum after summer institutes is difficult. This session explores how the Center uses innovative coaching strategies to overcome challenges and provide instructional coaching while tracking data.
Notre Dame's Center for STEM Education works to make a lasting impact in STEM education through its research and the translation of evidence-based findings into programs that have broader impacts on student interest in, identity with, and learning of the STEM disciplines. The Center’s flagship fellowship program supports and develops high-quality STEM educators across a national network through an intensive 2.5 year professional development program. The Fellowship is driven by three Summer Institutes on the University campus. However, creating a community of practice across a nationwide footprint can be difficult. It's hard to maintain focus and momentum from a summer institute -- a common form of professional development -- since they only take place once a year for a short window of time. Therefore, the Center decided to use a blended video-based coaching model to extend learning and drive instructional growth throughout the school year. Using video-based coaching on a specific teaching practice allows for common language to be shared, feedback in classrooms that would be impossible in person due to travel and costs, and a shared record of growth for both teachers and universities. Concurrently, coaching in this manner allows the Center to track data for research purposes, meeting the needs of a research university while providing practical instructional coaching for teachers. This session explores how the Center implemented an innovative coaching strategy to overcome these challenges, drive growth for the national network of fellows, and track valuable data.