Understanding Grade 4-8 Teachers’ Instructional Practices and Beliefs as a Function of Transdisciplinary Coaching in STEM-Language Literacy

Abstract

Changes in STEM education in Ontario have resulted in the need for teachers to have professional development and coaching support to introduce a cross-curricular, transdisciplinary instructional approach while honouring teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and instructional methods. This study sought to introduce Grade 48 teachers to transdisciplinary STEM and language literacy through a five-session coaching partnership with the Principal Student Investigator. Participating teachers and students solved real-world problems using a transdisciplinary rather than typical single-subject instructional delivery. The study adopted a generic descriptive qualitative approach (Elliot & Timulak, 2021) to investigate Grade 48 teachers’ practices and beliefs. Four types of data—pre-questionnaires, interviews, researcher reflections, and fieldnotes—were coded to highlight recurring concepts and descriptive words and expressions. Three meaningful themes and sub-themes were identified to respond to the research question. Findings indicated that changes to teacher instructional practices were possible from starting with structured practices, shifting to inquiry-based, student-driven learning, seeing increasing student motivation and problem-solving and identifying the need for more coaching time. Teachers also saw the benefits of learning coding alongside students and how to implement cross-curricular assessment. Teacher beliefs varied with regards to conceptions of teaching language literacy in STEM; their initial apprehensions shifted to realizations, reservations about accountability related to transdisciplinary learning were expressed, and the positive outcomes of transdisciplinary learning impact on students was witnessed. A productive working relationship was established between the coach and teachers. The teachers expressed that the coach was flexible and open, met the teachers where they were at, listened to their needs, and adhered to the gradual release of responsibility to extend the teachers to their next level of instructional acumen. The study identified how teachers’ practices and beliefs might change when provided with coaching support through professional learning (PL) sessions focused on transdisciplinary approaches to STEM-Language Literacy education. Implications for practice include coaching support for teachers to evolve from single-subject teaching to adopting STEM-Language Literacy with the transdisciplinary approach. Implications for theory suggest that scaffolding teachers through the PL experience with STEM-Language Literacy is consistent with the experiential learning theory (Dewey, 1938).