Kindergarten Teacher Responses to a Contextualized Professional Development Workshop on STEAM Teaching

Abstract

This study examined the supports and barriers encountered by kindergarten teachers when participating in a STEAM professional development (PD) workshop that took place in their own classrooms. This study draws on Practice-Based Professional Development framework and adult learning theories to guide the design of the workshop and analysis of results. A teacher focus group with five participants was conducted and analyzed through emergent coding. Teachers identified several supports and challenges when implementing strategies learned during the workshop, providing important insights on improving PD experiences in this innovative approach to education. This paper will present a reconceptualized approach to short-term PD interventions in STEAM that capitalizes on important best practices from recent coaching literature, yet maintains the low cost and time investments of traditional PD approaches. We describe participating kindergarten teachers’ responses to this PD intervention, as well as identify lessons learned to inform PD experiences in the future.