Don’t stop learning! That’s a message that has been going out to everyone for the last three decades and research is demonstrating just how important it is in specific ways. For example, a new study from Rice University shows the importance of further professional development for STEM teachers.
The team at Rice followed mathematics teachers for six years after they took a continuing education program for inquiry-based teaching. The STEM education researchers then looked at their students’ academic paths. Students whose teachers participated in the program were more likely to choose to major in a STEM subject than students in other teachers’ classes. Among Black female students, those whose teachers took the inquiry-based teaching program were twice more likely to choose a STEM major than the students in the control group.
“It’s [inquiry-based teaching] about exploring science and math through real phenomena and asking a lot of questions,” said Carolyn Nichol, an associate research professor of chemistry and director of Rice University’s Office of STEM Engagement. “An important part is ensuring teachers don’t go into the classroom and just start talking about things in a language that seems foreign to students.”
Press release: https://www.newswise.com/articles/black-girls-benefit-most-when-stem-teachers-train-up
The International Committee of the Red Cross/Crescent (ICRC) formed a Virtual Reality Innovation unit in 2014. Over the past nine years the unit has partnered with outside agencies to innovate and develop VR environments to teach soldiers about International Humanitarian Law.
More information: https://www.icrc.org/en/what-we-do/virtual-reality
Looking for a new teaching job? The Media Arts and Sciences program at MIT is hiring. The institute is inviting applications for a tenure-track faculty member in Transformative Design.
MIT is seeking applicants who have research, teaching, and creative practice experience in the merging of design, computation, storytelling and societal impact. The successful candidate will have a vision for how design helps to solve societal and environmental problems.
Press release: https://www.media.mit.edu/posts/assistant-professor-associate-without-tenure-tenure-track-faculty-search-transformative-design/
K16 solutions has partnered with Edward Tian, the Toronto-born Princeton student who created GPTZero, Inc., the first AI detector in response to the use of ChatGPT to complete academic assignments. The partners claim the combination of Tian’s tool with K16’s data migration and management system will enable institutions to receive analytical reports about thousands of student online submissions – from essays to forum contributions to tests — for the potential for AI-generated content.
“We understand the broader implications this type of AI technology will have on higher education,” said Ben Murray, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota whose institution is testing the new combination of technologies. “While the future of how this will be applied in higher ed is still unknown, we are pleased to be at the forefront of collaborating with some of the most renowned leading-edge education technology companies to test their solutions to this problem.”
Disclosure notice: The EdTech News is compiled and distributed by the Edusity family of companies that includes Edusity, The Babb Group, Professor Services and Cudoo. Compiled from recent press releases, the weekly feature seeks to cover the latest news in EdTech, teaching and learning, instructional design and curriculum development.