Rossier faculty applies to panel at SXSW

Professors from the Rossier School of Education submitted a panel proposal to the South by Southwest Edu 2016 Conference and Festival. Community voting closed this week for the panel, which is entitled “Teaching Integrated STEM in Teacher Education.” The chosen panels will be announced by SXSWedu on Oct. 21.

If chosen, the panel will feature Professors Corinne Hyde, Fred Freking, Anthony Maddox and John Pascarella of the Rossier School. The event is organized by Michelle Manno, the communications manager for the Rossier School of Education’s online teaching degree.

“We’re doing a lot of innovative things at Rossier School of Education, and we just want to share the work that we’re doing,” Freking said. “Forums like this are a good opportunity to share our ideas with our colleagues.”

The panel, as proposed, will discuss changes in teacher education due to Next Generation Science Standards, a multi-state effort to establish new standards for science education. The speakers will share their ideas on how to create a science, technology, engineering and math curriculum that will equip teachers with the necessary skills for the classroom.

“What was typically taught was hands-on activities and doing things and doing science, and the new emphasis is really thinking on things and a more metacognitive approach to teaching science,” Manno said. “More and more professions are looking for the skills that are taught in STEM education.”

The panel will inform attendees of the differences between synchronous and asynchronous online learning, as well as what students are expected to do in an integrated STEM curriculum. The panel will also examine the value of online STEM teacher education programs.

The panelists cited educators’ resistance to change and students’ disconnect with science as the most pressing obstacles to implementing an integrated STEM curriculum.

“I hope … the discussion will bring up ideas and perspectives and definitions, and will allow people who attend to grab onto new ideas, […] to find out ways in which they can … explore on their own,” Maddox said.

SXSWedu, which will run from March 7-10 next year, is an annual conference in Austin, Texas, that features content from a diverse array of speakers with backgrounds in education.

“I attended last year, and after all the panels that I first began watching and the workshops that I did, I was like, ‘this is such a great opportunity for us here to … connect with teachers and STEM professionals on another level outside of people that are in our school,’” Manno said.

SXSW allows anyone to submit a panel proposal and then encourages people to vote for their favorite panel ideas. Community votes and approval by the SXSW staff each constitute 30 percent of the final decision while the opinions of the SXSW Programming Committee make up the remaining 40 percent.