Navigating the Transition: Developing Second-Career Science Student Teachers’ Pedagogical Competence Through a Challenge-Based Learning Course

Social entrepreneurship education is promising to foster entrepreneurial intentions and inspire vocational learners to tackle societal challenges by applying sustainable business models. Challenge-based Learning is an innovative approach for social entrepreneurship education as it encourages learning while working on real-world challenges addressing societal issues. Nevertheless, there is limited evidence for Challenge-based Learning in the context of vocational education and training. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the design of Challenge-based Learning courses for social entrepreneurship education in vocational education and evaluate their potential to contribute to changing entrepreneurial intentions. N = 44 vocational students in three Challenge-based Learning-oriented social entrepreneurship courses were surveyed using standardized scales in a longitudinal design. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, a mixed ANOVA, and hierarchical linear regressions. Differences in Challenge-based Learning implementation mainly concern the authenticity and complexity of the challenge as well as external stakeholder involvement. Differences in entrepreneurial intentions between courses were only significant after the course. Only participants in course 3 reported a statistically significant increase in entrepreneurial intentions. Beyond course membership, only previous entrepreneurial intentions explained incremental variance. To sum up, Challenge-based Learning shows potential to foster entrepreneurial intentions, but more research on the design of interventions and specific adaptations for the vocational education context is needed.

Specific metrics for the status of US science education indicate that the country is losing its competitive edge on a global scale; among nations, the US ranks 22nd in density of broadband internet penetration and 72nd in density of mobile phone subscriptions, both of which are critical tools for science literacy and likely contribute to our international rank of 48th in quality of math and science education. Even worse, 69% of US public middle-school math students are taught by teachers without degrees or certificates in mathematics, and 93% of public middle-school teachers in physical sciences lack degrees in their subject (NAS 2010). All of these rankings represent indicators of global science leadership. In short, formal science education systems in the US lag behind those of many other countries, and our ability to train the next generation of scientists is at risk (Brewer and Smith 2010). In addition to shortfalls in public schools, US K–12 youth now watch at least 4 hours of television daily, and the average teenager spends a whopping 7.5 recreational hours daily in front of television and gaming screens (NAS 2010) – time that instead could be devoted to doing homework or experiencing the natural world through outdoor engagement. The formal STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education metrics for US education are not keeping pace with those of other developed countries and are declining over time. Ecology education is experiencing one of the largest deficits: public schools have cut back on field trips and many K–12 students now experience nature virtually, rather than directly (Louv 2008; Lowman and Mourad 2010). Likewise, many undergraduate and graduate programs are eliminating their natural history programs, sometimes referred to as the "extinction of the ologies" (Lowman and Mourad 2010). In contrast, informal science education (ISE) is now providing a larger compensatory component of STEM education to students as well as to citizens and policy makers. Currently, US museums tally approximately 850 million visits annually, which is more than the attendance for all major league sporting events and theme parks combined (483 million in 2011; www.aam-us.org). Along with these visits, museums are also recording a burgeoning virtual visitorship, with an additional 524 million online visitors in 2006 alone, which has escalated during the past 5 years. In the US, there are over 17 000 museums, whose visitors range from several hundred for a rural museum with a local mission to >8 million annually for larger or national museums (www.aam-us.org); many of these ISE experiences bolster shortfalls in formal STEM education. Natural history museums, with their biodiversity collections and interpretive dioramas, serve as focal points to provide ISE about ecological concepts, including biodiversity, ecosystem services, climate change, and landscapes. In many cases, K–12 students become inspired by seeing, touching, and working with collections; and increasingly, virtual technologies and social media are becoming important drivers of science education concepts for youth outside of the formal classroom setting. Both undergraduate and graduate students can gain valuable training in science communication and outreach using the public floor of museums and other ISE platforms (Trautmann and Krasny 2006; Lowman and Mourad 2010). Given the declining competitiveness of US science education on a global scale, ISE has become an important pipeline for engaging the next generation of scientists and for contributing to otherwise declining ecological literacy. Of US adults surveyed nationally, <20% possess an "acceptable" level of scientific literacy and a majority have little knowledge of natural science, the process of research, or the results of contemporary scientific investigations, despite the importance of science to both human and ecological health (Field and Powell 2001; Miller 2004). Many ISE institutions are embracing the urgency of providing visitors with hands-on experiences to understand science and especially ecology; such efforts may translate to a healthy community through an understanding of fresh water, pollinators, clean air, agriculture, carbon sequestration, forest products, and myriad other ecosystem services. Educators often suggest "the best way to help the public understand the research process is to involve them directly through hands-on research" (Ucko 2004). Public Engagement with Science (PES) is a term used in ISE circles that emphasizes the growing importance of providing citizens with a better understanding of science as a driver of economics and health; ecology is often a conduit for science understanding, whereby museums foster a sense of wonder that leads to greater science literacy by getting kids "hooked" on science. But more analyses of PES in museum settings – including theoretically based assessments of activities – are sorely needed (Bonney et al. 2009). In my former home state of North Carolina, 39% of 8th graders report they "never or hardly ever" designed a science experiment, and another 29% report doing hands-on science activities only once or twice a month. Teaching methods that were traditional several decades ago – lectures, textbooks, recipes in laboratory sessions –continue to be the norm in science education despite national outcries calling for radical change (eg Brewer and Smith 2010). Soon, science teachers may face additional pressure to incorporate hands-on experiences into their courses. Like those of many other states, North Carolina's revised science standards call for inquiry-based learning experiences emphasizing the Next Generation Science standards. Historically restricted to museums as an outreach activity, ISE may infiltrate the public school classroom, so that "citizen-science" activities originating in museums can be virtually transmitted to classrooms for dynamic new science activities (eg Project GLOBE, Project BudBurst, and iNaturalist.org; see Trautmann et al. 2012; Zoellick et al. 2012; www.yourwildlife.org). Programs such as the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) have national mandates from Congress to implement citizen science (or some major and transformational capacity of ISE) to reach diverse stakeholders with data streams about North American ecosystems (Lowman et al. 2009). In addition, for states like North Carolina, with large numbers of practicing scientists, the mentoring of K–12 teachers by scientists has the potential to become another pathway for ISE (Lowman and Randle 2009). To keep North Carolina competitive in science (especially given the strength of Research Triangle Park, a huge driver of technology and jobs in the state), public–private partnerships funded a new wing of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences that opened in April 2012. Called the Nature Research Center, it proposed to expand citizen science (ie PES) to diverse stakeholders using four innovative platforms of ISE (Dickinson and Bonney 2012). Drawing upon ecology and especially biodiversity as major drivers (since the museum houses a collection of over three million specimens of organisms endemic to the southeastern US), several ecology-based citizen-science programs were launched with marked success. These programs serve as a case study for integrating real nature and virtual technologies, thereby raising the ecological literacy of museum visitors. Researchers from the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University initiated visitor evaluations to track the success of the different platforms of informal learning that include: (1) citizen-science programs in partnership with local scientists (eg the Belly-Button Biodiversity program [Hulcr et al. 2012] or the "wild life of our homes" project [www.yourwildlife.org]); (2) virtual theater to connect K–12 students directly to environmental scientists working both in laboratories and in the field; (3) public education labs (called iLabs) that illustrate natural science techniques of "how we know what we know" about ecology and natural sciences; and (4) glass-walled laboratories where scientists work in the public eye and answer questions from onlookers about the scientific process. Will ISE platforms succeed in bolstering STEM education for students and visitors? With its myriad educational programs for diverse audiences, the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) is proving the success of ISE. Located in San Francisco, CAS's ecoliteracy programs are rooted in science learning, but take the next step to reconnect learners to the natural world and equip them with tools to foster healthy communities through environmental action (eg http://spotlight.macfound.org/featured-stories/entry/elizabeth-babcock). For example, the Academy's Teacher Institute on Science and Sustainability engages 3rd- to 5th-grade teachers in a cohort-based, 2-year training program to incorporate sustainability action in their science teaching. Using simple metaphors that make the science accessible, CAS's ocean action programs (hosted near a 200 000-gallon live coral-reef exhibit on the museum floor) acquaint visitors with the causes and mechanisms of ocean acidification, and its impact on coral reefs. Conservation-oriented stories, as well as action steps designed for individuals and families to reduce carbon emissions, are directly woven into the program's message. In addition, CAS has one of the museum world's first glass-walled laboratories, where visitors can "meet a scientist" and children can interact with diverse scientists as role models (Figure 1). Such innovative attempts to strengthen ISE may ultimately inspire the next generation of ecologists. Moreover, expansion of "virtual-plus-real" natural history educational platforms into other ISE institutions – botanical gardens, zoos, parks, and even school playgrounds (eg www.schoolofants.org) – will foster exciting opportunities to improve ecoliteracy, not just for students but also for their parents, for regional policy makers, and for a diverse public who enjoy destinations that offer ecology education in an informal setting. An informal science education (ISE) laboratory at the California Academy of Sciences encourages students and the general public to pose questions to practicing scientists. This interaction also allows visitors to learn how natural history hypotheses are tested by the scientific method. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.

BackgroundTeacher emotions are sometimes underplayed in the research field of teaching and teacher education. Also, teachers often undergo transformations in their professional identities during education reforms. However, very few studies explore the connections between teacher emotions and their professional identities against the background of education reforms, especially in Asian contexts. There is an increasing emphasis on STEM as an education reform in China and the world, and a deep understanding of STEM teacher emotions and professional identities is necessary in the fast development of STEM education. This study examined how a STEM teacher emotionally constructed her professional identities under the STEM education reform.MethodsThis is a 3-year longitudinal case study employing a narrative inquiry approach with one STEM teacher in China. Data collection included one in-depth, semi-structured interview, three conversations, personal emotional diaries, and correspondence records. A four-step data analysis was conducted.ResultsThree major themes reflecting the participant’s emotional professional identities emerged, including “an interested but confused learner”, “an enthusiastic but nervous explorer”, and “an excited but unsatisfied mentor”. In the participant’s experiences as a learner, explorer, and mentor, positive and negative emotions were always intertwined. These helped construct and shape her professional identities and encouraged her to be the best STEM teacher that she could be.ConclusionThis study provides a series of vivid and dynamic pictures of a STEM teacher’s emotions and professional identities against the background of STEM education reform in China from a 3-year longitudinal perspective. It also indicates the personal, social, cultural, and contextual factors that could have strong effects on teachers’ emotional experiences and the construction of professional identities. Furthermore, this study reveals that three processes (i.e., the process of education changes, the process of creating new or multiple professional identities, and the generation process of teacher emotions) could be intertwined and developed together.

Teaching practice is a vital phase in the professional development of preservice teachers, helping them bridge the gap between theory and classroom application. However, many struggle with this connection due to the compartmentalized nature of teacher education and the absence of standardized frameworks. As a result, preservice teachers often graduate feeling underprepared, highlighting the need for improved teacher education models. Reflective practice has emerged as a valuable tool for enhancing preservice teachers’ professional growth by deepening their understanding of teaching roles and improving the integration of theory and practice. This study examines the impact of structured reflective practice on preservice teachers’ professional identity and pedagogical competencies during teaching practice, employing a narrative inquiry approach. A qualitative case study design was used, involving all 396 preservice teachers from St. Paul’s University who participated in teaching practice in 2024. Data were collected through structured reflective diaries and analyzed thematically to identify patterns in their evolving professional identities and competencies. Findings revealed varied outcomes: while many narratives demonstrated growth and identity development, others reflected limited reflective skills and weak connections to the teaching profession early on. The reflections also highlighted gaps in teaching knowledge and skills, underscoring the critical role of reflective practice, mentorship, and a supportive school environment in professional development. The study recommends integrating structured reflection into teacher training, along with planned mentorship and quality feedback, to better link teacher education theory with real-world classroom practice. This calls for a review of current teaching practice models.

The study explores teachers’ professional identity during their induction year, focusing on aspirations, perceived difficulties, and persistence in teaching. Based on 272 teachers and kindergarten teachers at Tel Hai College in Irael, this quantitative research examines differences by training stage and role, as well as links between professional identity and difficulties. Interns reported more classroom challenges than novice teachers, while kindergarten teachers showed higher professional identity and fewer difficulties. A negative correlation emerged between professional identity and perceived difficulties, suggesting that stronger identity reduces challenges. Supporting teachers in their first year may strengthen professional identity and enhance job satisfaction.

Novice teachers, who are in the initial stages of their career as educators, may exhibit a propensity for uncertainty regarding the execution of their professional responsibility. This is particularly dependent on their motivation and experiences accrued throughout their teaching journey. Consequently, novice teachers must engage in reflective practices concerning their professional experiences which involve their beliefs, motivations, and significant incidents that shape their professional identity development. This study involved three EFL novice teachers in elementary schools who are in their first year of teaching. This is a qualitative study that employed the Critical Incident Technique to gather and analyze the data following the five steps proposed by Hughes, William Son, &amp; Lloyd (2007). The data were obtained using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews which were conducted online. Findings reveal that female novice teachers are more intrinsically motivated, driven by their interest in English and teaching, whereas male novice teacher is primarily motivated by his educational background and the prestige of the profession. Although all participants encountered similar critical incidents related to student behavior, teaching ability, classroom management, and teacher-teacher relationships, their responses varied. One participant viewed these challenges as opportunities for growth, while others felt demotivated, particularly when teaching elementary school students. The future career trajectories of novice teachers in education may be influenced by their reflections on these experiences.

There is a genuine crisis in midwifery from which attention may be deflected by economic and political world events. Midwifery students are still taught that a midwife has four main professional senses or qualities in her professional work: hearing, sight, smell and most importantly, empathy. Can midwives still really use these senses however? We have international, state and local healthcare facility guidelines and a never-ending workload increase due to almost annual new ‘optimisation actions’ resulting from financial issues. In guidelines and protocols, we do see changes. Since 2014, the criteria for the international guidelines for the professional activity of midwives have also changed significantly: the position of respectful care and the woman's choice as the determining factor in the healthcare process have increased in importance and been put at the centre of perinatal healthcare. There have been many changes in healthcare philosophy in recent decades. The emphasis has shifted not only to thinking about safe healthcare, but also to respectful cooperation with the person cared for and to satisfaction with the healthcare services received. To date, despite these many changes, no research has been done into how Latvian midwives themselves see their professional identity and what basic values, norms and beliefs the concept of midwife’s professional identity includes. The aim of the Thesis is to gain an understanding of a midwife’s perceived professional identity from Gadamer’s hermeneutic perspective. The objectives of the Thesis include exploring the concept of a practicing midwife’s perceived professional identity and describing the core elements the concept of professional identity currently includes for practicing midwives. The question of the Thesis is: how do practicing midwives perceive their professional identity? Overall, in this research four main themes of midwives perceived professional identity with subthemes/intertwining elements were conceptualised: 1. The core elements of a midwife’s professional identity: love for humanity and belief in God / higher power and a woman’s own ability and a midwife’s ability ‘to go with the flow’; variation in the ability ‘to go with the flow’; courage and persistence; professional education and experience; practice of reflection and self-examination; changes in perspective after their own childbirth; ability to draw boundaries and attain professional/private life balance; look back at the Covid period and reflect on that period’s values. As core hindrance, but regrettably constant element of midwife’s professional identity nowadays, midwives noted overwork and struggles with finances. The following three themes were conceptualised as elements which intertwine with the core elements of a practicing midwife’s professional identity: Working alongside changing attitudes towards childbirth; Communication; Legislation and practice. Conclusions. Considering all the narratives gained from these conversations with the midwives, the main message that emerges is the core elements of professional identity perceived by the midwives in connection with love for humanity, faith in God or a higher power and a sense of mission in this profession, which suggests that it is also a possible reason why, despite every hardship, midwives continue to work. It is also possible that some midwives avoid self-reflection to protect themselves from emotional distress and avoid acknowledging how difficult it really is. Thus they work, perceiving their work as a mission and a way of life and do not leave it in spite of the possibility of better pay and working conditions in another profession. This, in turn, does not allow them to insist loudly enough on their demands for midwives’ rights to fully realise their professional potential and receive a decent salary. However, we must also take into account the fact that midwives are constantly overworked and struggle daily to earn a living, so they may no longer have the will or strength to fight for their rights. Recommendations. One could simply start by reflecting on one’s own professional performance and seeing what comes up. What could I start doing to promote the implementation of core elements of midwifery's professional identity in practice? There is need for open and creative attitude. Above all, it requires a willingness to take action and the ability to mutually agree and act proactively to improve the professional situation of midwives, rather than expecting someone else to miraculously resolve all the aforementioned issues. The Doctoral Thesis was developed at Rīga Stradiņš University, Department of Doctoral Studies, Latvia. Defence of the Doctoral Thesis will take place at the public session of the Promotion Council of Health and Sports Sciences on 12 January 2026 at 15.00 in the 3rd Auditorium, 16 Dzirciema Street, Rīga Stradiņš University. 3.3. Health Sciences; Sub-Sector – Health Care Sciences and Services. Keywords: Midwife; professional identity; values; beliefs; norms.

This study explores the professional identities of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) private tutors teaching international high school students in China. Drawing upon semi‐structured interviews and qualitative thematic analysis, the research investigates the factors contributing to tutors' sense of self as educators in the STEM fields. Through in‐depth interviews with nine experienced STEM tutors, the study reveals four primary identities: exam experts, mentors, psychological counsellors, and potential reputation creators. As exam experts, tutors impart knowledge and exam strategies. They evolve into mentors, guiding students academically, career‐wise, and personally. Their close relationships with students position them as psychological counsellors, offering emotional support. Finally, tutors establish themselves as potential reputation creators, attracting students through their teaching excellence and multifaceted support. This research fills a gap in the literature on the tutors' professional identities, providing insights into the role of private tutoring in complementing and enhancing formal STEM education in Chinese international schools.

The 1st South East Asia Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (SEA-STEM) 2020 R Oktavia1 E Yusibani1 Mailizar1 Suhartono1 Rahmi1 Elizar1 Irwandi1 E Etkina2 G Planinsic3 N Mansour4 N Idris5 C O’Donnell6 K Kagawa7 R Sheffield8 V M Mistades9 O Kaosaiyaporn10 Editorial Team of the 1st SEA-STEM’s Publication 1 Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia 2 Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University, USA 3 The University of Ljubljana, Slovenia 4 The University of Exeter, UK 5 The National STEM Movement, Malaysia 6 Smithsonian Science Education Center, USA 7 Fukui University, Japan 8 Curtin University, Australia 9 De La Salle University, Philippines 10 Prince of Sonkla University, Thailand Email: rini_oktavia@unsyiah.ac.id The 1st South East Asia Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics International Conference (SEA-STEM) 2020 is held by the STEM Research Center Universitas Syiah Kuala located in Banda Aceh, Aceh, Indonesia on October 20-22, 2020. With the theme “Empowering Science and Transforming Communities through STEM Education,” SEA-STEM 2020 aims to be a scientific meeting among researchers and educators in STEM fields. In conjunction with the Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand Growth Triangle University Network (IMT-GT UNINET) STEM meeting, SEA-STEM 2020 is also intended to initiate a STEM movement in South East Asia region. The conference was planned to be a part of a one week STEM carnivals where we expected all participants to meet in Universitas Syiah Kuala’s campus. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we should replace the physical conference with the virtual one. The three-day conference has been successfully concluded with 9 keynote speakers and 36 parallel sessions involving 234 presentations. The first keynote session was held on the first day of the conference (October 20, 2021) with three keynote speakers including Prof. Dato’ Noraini Idris (Chair of National STEM Movement Malaysia), Prof. Tom Lowrie (Director of Early Learning STEM Australia), and Assoc. Prof. Rachel Sheffield (Curtin University, Australia) delivered their keynote talks for 40 minutes. On the second day, 50-minute keynote speeches were delivered by Dr. Carol O’Donnell (Director of Smithsonian Science Education Center, USA), Prof. Kiichiro Kagawa (Fukui University, Japan), Dr. Indrawati, M.Pd (Director of SEAMEO Qitep in Science, Indonesia) and Prof. Nasser Mansour (Exeter University, UK and Egypt). On the last day, our USG Partner of the USAID PEER Project Dist. Prof. Eugenia Etkina (the ISLE Inventor-Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University, USA) and her research partner Prof. Gorazd Planinsic (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), in one-hour talks, shared their long-time efforts in developing the Investigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) approach for instructions and assessments in teaching physics. For keynote sessions we provided a 500-person virtual meeting room and based on the attendance records, about 250-350 participants attended the keynote sessions. On the other hand, for each parallel session, we organized six 100-person virtual meeting rooms that were assigned for parallel talks based on the topics of presentations. In each parallel session meeting room, 4-8 speakers delivered their presentation including the Q&amp;A session in 15 minutes per presenter. Presenters of the conferences are researchers and educators in STEM fields who came from several countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippine, Thailand, China, Japan, Hungary, Nigeria, Macedonia, Germany, UK, Egypt, Australia, Slovenia, and the USA. The virtual conference majorly depended on the reliability of the internet connection and the video conferencing and webinars platform. We hired a third party technical team that has successfully handled the technical aspects of the keynote and parallel sessions. We experienced some technical glitches during the opening ceremony and keynote talks on the first day, such as the voice of the keynote speakers and the national anthem cannot be heard, but the technical team learn from this experience and the keynote and parallel sessions on the next days were successfully held without glitches. We received 257 paper submissions and after a careful review process, 165 of the manuscripts are published in this proceedings. The published papers are divided into 7 tracks including Physics &amp; Physics Education, Mathematics, Mathematics Education, Biology &amp; Biology Education, Chemistry &amp; Chemistry Education, Technology and Engineering, and STEM Education. We hope that the papers will provide new thoughts, ideas, and inspiration for us to improve STEM education in Indonesia as well as in South East Asia. We learned from this experience that even though the virtual conference was a success, a physical conference would provide more interactive engagements among the presenters and participants. However, we realize that the virtual conference enable us to invite that many experts from all around the world to discuss about STEM and STEM education. This might not be possible if we hold a physical conference. Feedback from participants was mostly positive and a community of scholars and educators who work in STEM research and education consisting of former participants of the conference has been established. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the NAS and USAID and Institute of Research and Community Service (LPPM) Universitas Syiah Kuala, which provided the financial support for SEA-STEM 2020. We also would like to extend our gratitude to all reviewers for their benevolent assistance in reviewing the manuscripts and to all keynote speakers, participants, and presenters of SEA-STEM 2020 for their great contributions to the conference. We hope the development of STEM and STEM education in the South East Asia region will thrive that will benefit not only the countries in the region, but also the world in general. International STEM Committee, Steering Committee, Organizing Committee, Scientific Committee &amp; Reviewers, Schedule of The 1st South East Asia Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics International Conference (SEA-STEM) 2020, and these titles are available in this pdf

Rethinking the Ph.D. dissertation in botany: Widening the circle.

Academic research institutes have a responsibility to train the next generation of scientists in safe, inclusive environments. However, recent data has shown an increasingly worrying trend of early career researchers (ECRs), particularly underrepresented minorities (URMs), struggling to gain academic independence in STEM fields. While hypercompetition, lack of research funds, and scarce independent research opportunities are systemic sources of this problem, research shows that inadequate mentoring and toxic cultures are major contributors to attrition rates. To address the state of mentoring in STEM, and to discuss further actions to take to improve STEM mentoring, early-career researchers organized a meeting at UMD-College Park on academic mentoring. The talks and workshops, which included students, postdocs, and experts in both STEM and mentoring fields, focused on culturally aware mentoring, hypercompetition, mental health, ethical behavior, and advocacy. Here, we provide an overview of the mentoring landscape experienced by ECRs and describe available resources and further actions for the academic community to join with to improve mentoring practices.

The next generation of scientists will be expected to find innovative solutions to problems that are greater in scale and magnitude than we have ever faced before. Since these challenges will be faced early in an academic career, young scientists will not have the opportunity to develop the necessary skills over a lifetime before they are called upon to lead. To address this gap a partnership has been formed between the leadership studies program and the STEM faculty at Austin College to develop a curriculum of integrated skills in order to prepare our graduates to work on these new scientific frontiers. The STEM Teaching and Research (STAR) Leadership Program at Austin College combines transferrable skill sets from leadership studies with STEM education to produce future leaders of the scientific community. This unique pedagogy pioneered at Austin College embraces the liberal arts tradition by teaching and practicing leadership behaviors through seamless integration into STEM disciplines through multiple courses across the entire curriculum, rather than as a separate course of study. We strive to engage all science students in the study and practice of leadership in their personal and professional lives, and to promote personal, team, and organizational effectiveness in both the classroom and through research. This curriculum is rich in intentional instruction of awareness, ability, and commitment through a complete integration into the existing scientific learning environment. Instruction is layered into courses and laboratory components at every level of the curriculum to give the students multiple opportunities to develop their skills from freshman through senior year. The work presented will give specific examples of how the STAR curriculum enhances the awareness of acting responsibly through the recognition of ethical issues in an undergraduate biochemistry course. Preliminary assessment data from the STAR program demonstrate significant increases in all student learning outcomes through their undergraduate experience. Additionally, no gaps in attainment of leadership behaviors by students have been observed from factors that may typically associate with achievement gaps in STEM (i.e. first generation status, race/ethnicity, or gender).Support or Funding InformationFinancial support for this project was provided in part by a grant from the W. M. Keck FoundationThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Interest in supporting the development of teachers’ professional identity in preservice and in-service teacher education programs has increased in recent decades considerably, given that teachers’ sense of their professional identity manifests itself in job satisfaction, occupational commitment, self-efficacy, and changes in their levels of motivation (i.e., Day, 2002). In this chapter, we present different pedagogies that have been enacted in the Estonian context to support the development of preservice and novice teachers’ professional identity. The pedagogies have been divided into three groups: pedagogies that facilitate the professional aspect of teacher identity, pedagogies that address the personal aspect of teacher identity, and pedagogies that support the interaction of the professional and personal aspects of teacher identity.

The study employs Structural Equation Modeling–Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) to analyze measurement validity, reliability, and structural relationships among variables within a theoretically grounded framework. An integrated structural model is proposed to examine three core instructional dimensions lesson planning, teaching methods, and assessment instruments using SEM. This approach addresses a methodological gap in microteaching research, which has predominantly relied on descriptive or quasi-experimental designs and has rarely examined latent variables or indirect effects. A quantitative explanatory design was implemented through a cross-sectional survey involving 169 microteaching students selected using proportional random sampling. Data were collected using validated Likert-scale questionnaires and analyzed with SEM-PLS. The results indicate that teaching methods have the strongest positive effect on pedagogical competence, followed by assessment instruments. Conversely, lesson planning demonstrates a significant but negative direct effect, suggesting that its influence on pedagogical competence may function indirectly through teaching methods and assessment practices. Furthermore, lesson planning and assessment instruments significantly affect teaching methods, highlighting the interdependence among instructional components. The study concludes that pedagogical competence develops through an interconnected system involving planning quality, instructional implementation, and assessment literacy. These findings emphasize the importance of integrative instructional design, authentic assessment training, and reflective teaching practices in microteaching. Overall, improving pedagogical competence requires the simultaneous development of planning, teaching, and assessment as mutually reinforcing elements of effective instruction.

&lt;p&gt;Teacher education programmes have focused on training student teachers with knowledge of teaching methodologies and good teaching performance. What is going on inside student teachers’ minds in their processes of learning to teach is more difficult to observe and sometimes overshadowed by this primary focus. This study sets out to gain a deeper understanding of student teachers’ developing cognition while learning to teach. The existing literature on teachers’ critical thinking, reflection, and cognition provides various frameworks each of which presents different levels or stages of teachers’ development in the respective domains. Each level or stage is characterised by certain concerns, beliefs, skills, discourse, or teaching behaviours. However, underlying processes of change – i.e. how teachers move from lower levels to higher levels of such development, what triggers such movement – and how such movement enhances their teaching effectiveness are under-researched. In addition, those existing frameworks describe major stages of teachers’ development during the whole of their professional journeys. Little research zooms in novice teachers’ thinking development. This research takes an exploratory approach, without relying on any existing frameworks, to investigating and theorising the unseen thinking development processes of novice teachers during the important transition from teaching practicum to early career teaching. The research included three stages of inquiry in which one stage was developed from the previous stage and its results were constantly compared to those of the previous one. The first stage involved in-depth individual interviews with nine early career teachers. The second stage involved working closely with a cohort of five student teachers during four months of their teaching practicum in the same teacher training program. The third stage involved my following one of the cohort members into the first two years of his teaching through online communication about their experiences and thinking about language teaching in real-life contexts. The close interaction with the novice teachers incrementally constructed a clearer picture of the complexity and dynamics of their thinking. The stories of the three groups revealed and confirmed a hierarchy of attention to core aspects of effective teaching. However, the movement across the hierarchy was not linear but fluctuating and causing dissonance between their cognition and practice. Moreover, the novice teachers’ thinking development also involved the development of generic thinking skills – from “either-or” thinking to “both-and” thinking, from single-perspective to multi-perspective thinking, and from a focus on the detail to 'big picture' thinking. Thinking development was found to go hand in hand with the development of teaching effectiveness, understanding of teaching methodologies, and awareness of professional identity. This research proposes a tentative framework of novice teachers’ thinking development from teaching practicum to early career teaching. The framework presents both content and processes of their thinking changes, both internal and external factors influencing their thinking changes, and both teaching-domain-specific and general thinking skills. This framework suggests reconsidering the over-emphasis on surface teaching methodology and teaching performance in teacher education programs and calls for more attention to the thinking, emotions, and self-awareness which strongly influence novice teachers’ teaching performance and professional identity.&lt;/p&gt;